~ankind, not vice versa. Government officials are only human, and make mistakes. We will never permit them to become dictators. Polish trade unions will not become part of the State apparatus." He insisted that no worker is forced to become a trade union member against his will. I quoted this later to an independent Socialist. He lauglied and said that if he had not joined the union he would have been discharged and discriminated against as only a State that owns the means of production can do. He said that the independence of the unions is a myth in Poland as it is in Soviet Russia, except that in his country the revolution is only beginning and has not yet reached the stage that Stalinism has reached over three decades. "If you wish to risk losing your job and being jailed you can assert your formal right to refuse to join the union or one of the official parties," he declared. Rusinek returned to Poland from a Nazi concentration camp in May, 1945. He was elected general secretary of the Polish trade unions at their Congress in November, 1945. The president of the unions is Communist and the vice-president is a Socialist. Since then, he said, numerous local congresses of regional trade unions have been held, and 38 headquarters established throughout Poland, one for each industry. 90 per cent. of the present claimed membership of 2,200,000 are in the larger industries and most workers who are not unionists are in the private sector of the economy. This trade union leader and government Socialist is an impressive, short, heavy-set man in his forties. He loves to act in somewhat the manner of John L. Lewis. He is an actor all the time, and plays his part well, in a triple role of trade union leader, PPS leader, and government official. I have no doubt that as Poland " progresses " toward a more completely Soviet political-economy, he will continue to be a commissar and not at all a Yogi. Like the Mensheviks who had to chose between capitulation and flight, Rusinek will be eventually forced to chose Bolshevism. Whatever independence he or his unions .may enjoy now will wither away. The Polish Trade Union Federation is, of course, affiliated with the World Federation of Trade Unions, and always supports 34 BibliotecaGino Bianco
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