"Take your seats comrades." "Curriculum Vitae" "Not there, comrades." "That's where the delinquent sits." " Wait in the hallway, please." " There?" "There's a chair in the hallway." "Comrade Secretary, you are familiar with the case." "Before we call in the party concerned we'd like to get some information from you." "I've got a question, Comrade Secretary." "Do the documents state clearly whether Gralak's brigade organized and took part in the city anniversary celebrations?" "Not the whole brigade." "Gralak stated clearly" ""We don't want to take part in the celebrations." "Work is more important."" "But the real problem occurred at the meetings." "He wouldn't speak out until the actual meetings." "Hence the misconduct charges." "Under no circumstances should he have supported the strike." " Did he go on strike himself?" " He stopped working and ran out of the Division too." " The whole brigade did..." "We were not absolutely clear about Gralak's case when we took the decision, and we still aren't." "If I were examining this case" "at an executive meeting of the Party Plant Committee," "I can speak only for myself, but my position would be the same." "Comrade Joanna, let him in, please." "Come in, comrade Gralak." "Take a seat, please." "The Adjudging Commission of the Party District Control Committee of the Lodz Mechanical Plant is considering your appeal against your expulsion from the Party," "which was passed by the Plant Committee." "Please, state your position, comrade Gralak." "Where shall I begin?" "I'll start from the beginning of my political activity." "It began during my army service when I joined the Polish Youth Union." "After about a year I was elected president." "Sorry to interrupt, what year was that exactly?" "That was in 1950." "After a year I became president, which I was until the end of my service." "At that time the youth organization appealed to people to seek employment in the main national industrial and economic sectors." "So, I signed up for work at the coal mines, and went to Walbrzych with a group of army men." "I worked only 6 months at the mine as I had overestimated my abilities." "The conditions at the mine were very hard." "The drifts were practically one metre high." "I suffered from chronic exhaustion, headaches and general health problems, so I applied for dismissal." " I have a question, Comrade Chairman." " Go ahead." "No doubt, the comrade's recruitment in the mine was a political act." "But his withdrawal, despite the physical discomfort at the beginning, could have been seen by the other young activists as an act of retreat and evasion of hard work." "If I may add..." "There was a solution to those low drifts." "The comrade could have transferred to Upper Silesia where some of the drifts are rather comfortable." "Is anyone else participating in this case?" "Go ahead." "So, when I returned I started working at the plant and, in 1953," "I joined the Polish United Workers' Party." "I got married in 1954..." " I'd like to ask a question here." " Please, do." "According to your file, your family situation was not ideal." "Your wife belonged to an alien social class." "To me, comrade, she was a young woman, not a kulak's daughter." "I didn't see why I shouldn't marry her." "Did you marry in church or the registry office?" " In church." " Did you christen your child?" " Yes, we did." "I personally think that two people can be together..." "Alright, comrade, forgive me, but though admittedly two people can be together, your wife is a Catholic and you are an atheist." "And who's got their way?" "At the church wedding, whose beliefs were respected, yours or hers?" "When your children were christened whose beliefs were respected, yours or hers?" "Where's the compromise here?" "That's taking defined positions." "But neither did the church wedding change me nor did the christening turn my son into a staunch Catholic," "because he is an atheist despite having been christened." "Alright, we see your point." "Continue." "So, in 1960 I became a brigadier and I was elected secretary of a party division organisation." "I held that position until 1964 when I was dismissed." " What for?" " You mean from the party post." "From the party post..." "The situation was rather unpleasant because there had been a two-day strike in my division." "The strike was against the new norms in 1964." "In my opinion, since I was also a worker in that division, the management sidestepped all the standard procedures, and introduced the norms completely from above." "But you were the secretary of the party division organization in that division..." "Yes, but the whole party organization was there, the Plant Committee and the company management." "If there's anyone to blame it's not me because I didn't create the situation." "But the wild strike broke out only in your division." "There was no strike in other divisions." "But, comrade, I went straight to the director and the secretary..." "The strike wouldn't have happened if somebody went and talked to the people." "Nobody wanted to talk to them." "They wouldn't listen to me because I had no authority." "Because to them I was just a regular worker." "Well, you should have proceeded to the Plant Committee first." "Comrade, I'd like to stress that both the director and the Plant Committee secretary were present at the director's office." "Wouldn't you get angry if you asked them both to go and talk to the people, and the director calmly picks up the phone and calls the District Committee and the police?" "Is this how a director should act?" "Alright, in that case I've got a question for you." " May I, Comrade Chairman?" " Go right ahead." "How come you are trying to convince us as to the correctness of your conduct at that time" "when your party organisation have already voted in favour of giving you a reprimand and a warning and dismissing you from your post?" "You've lost rapport with your people..." "Those comrades and colleagues still think I was right." "Did they express that view at the meeting?" "You know, comrade, things are different at meetings." "Why didn't you immediately appeal against the unfair treatment to a higher authotity if the truth was on your side and they partly agreed with you by changing the norms, supplies, transport etc." "You appeal only if you stand a chance of being heard out." "And not if you are convinced that you're right?" "You can be certain of it but when you know the attitude of the people who will be looking into it, you know you're in a lost position." "Comrades, let's proceed." "When I was dismissed from my post I realized that my social work was over." "I felt crushed." "I didn't know what to do with myself." "This is why I decided to do a university course, to fill my time and not to think about it." "Why did you drop out?" "For personal reasons." "Are you aware of this letter?" ""With reference to citizen Gralak who, for a few months now, has been secretly seeing my daughter and leading her astray." "I've always wished to bring my daughter up to be a decent and upright girl, and I managed up until the moment he appeared..."" "Has anyone mentioned this matter to you?" "Yes, the comrades did." "Not quite on such official terms." "More on a personal level." "Was such conduct worthy of a party member?" "I'm only human." "That's the way it goes in life." "Sometimes you fall in love." "At such moments you lose grip on yourself." "No doubt but didn't your personal matters..." "How did they impact your family life, your wife and young child?" "My marriage wasn't perfect, but unfortunately..." "This is not easy for us, you see." "You asked the party organization to reduce or relieve you of your party responsbilities because of your course." "And then you drop out..." "I don't know." "During that time..." "I became quite indifferent to everything." "And didn't the comrades from the District Party Organization assign tasks to you when you stopped attending university?" "When I stopped attending they practically stopped giving me anything to do." "I didn't have the best reputation, so maybe..." "Why didn't you do anything to improve your reputation?" "Proceed, comrade." "Then there was that other thing, around the time of the December incidents." "That was when big changes took place in the party control, the comrade became our secretary and we could get involved because the atmosphere relaxed and allowed for an open debate." "I was chosen as a party group leader." "I was generally pleased with my work and I felt that the comrades were happy with me." "But there was an unpleasant incident which involved comrade Sawicki." "Actually, he was a friend, a good man, a very friendly fellow." "Lately, he'd taken to drink and there was that incident when 20 litres of methanol went missing." "He was responsible for that." "I didn't want to report it to the police because I thought I'd deal with it internally, not to blow it up into a court prosecution thing." "Hang on, but the version we've got here is that you walked into the storage room while they were drinking..." " Yes, I was just about..." " while they were drinking that very spirit..." "I was just about to get to that." "I went in and saw the spirit in a milk bottle." "We got into an argument about that." "In the end I tried to make them realize what they were doing, I took the spirit and poured it back into the can." "The whole thing turned into a row and in the end I was so furious that I said to them that if they wanted to drink, then 'here' and I pulled out 200 zlotys." "But I said not to drink that spirit because that's poison." "May I?" "Why did you give them 200 zlotys when in fact later you were drinking normal vodka with them?" "Just one shot..." "There are shots, and there are shots." " Well, a labourer's shot..." " You mean 300 grams..." " Oh, never mind the amount, comrades..." " Well, I was on my own." "I just had to take that spirit away from them, literally, one way or another." "And I got Sawicki to bring the spirit to the factory gates that evening." "In the meantime I called the police." "I watched him transport the can." "Then the police arrived and took the spirit." "One thing I didn't foresee was that they would fill up two bottles and hide them behind a cabinet beforehand." "The consequences were fatal." "Sawicki's friend died of poisoning and Sawicki himself lost his eyesight." "Comrade Chairman, we'd like to get to the issue of expulsion." "Go ahead." "You used to have a reputation of a good and diligent worker." "Can you specify the precise reason for your expulsion from the party?" "That was to do with the issue of city benefit actions which I raised at a meeting." "That was not greatly appreciated by the management." "Well, in my opinion work for public benefit is a commendable act and we all should do it but outside our working hours, not at their cost." "Someone could approach the workers, say that this and that needs doing and who wants to stay after hours, rather than drop everything and do that instead." "Are we to understand that it'd all been done just for show?" "I would like you to state your position with regards to your claim that the management of the Plant Committee are a clique." "Well, some examples of that clique ness or any connections, if you have any, please state them." "Well, it's the issue of doing all that work for the city during the plant's working hours, which is not the plant's duty." "There are craftsmen's cooperatives and other..." " Private manufacturers..." " Private manufacturers." "Who would probably want three times more for this kind of work..." "To say that someone belongs to a clique - the director, City Council or other city authorities, the secretary... you've got to have arguments." "You, on the other hand, are very liberal with words you can't back up." "Is it due to some impulse or do you actually have documents which confirm that a clique has taken over the plant, a clique has been ill-treating the good people and that's why you threw it in the Committee's face." "A clique rules the city, a clique wants to build a nursery where they will take care of children, our workers' children, too, and so on and so forth." "I'd say that it deepens the bond between the plant and the city, my city." "I contribute, give the product of my work in the interest of other labourers, other factories..." "Sorry to interrupt, but it's not my contribution if I do it for money during my working hours." "If I did that after hours that would be my contribution to this city." "But you didn't want that..." "Something somewhere went wrong with that fiery human approach on the one hand, and on the other you start thinking of the bonus and other things, and what the people might say." "While the people themselves don't protest, or protest..." "but very vaguely." "There are people, comrade, who don't protest at meetings, but who talk amongst themselves." "Not all people are forward." " Not all labourers are forward." " They talked then..." "They all talked amongst themselves." "But not everyone can or wants to speak up at meetings." "Everyone says that they've got a wife and three kids and they don't want to risk their job, or get on the wrong side of the director." "What for?" "Forgive me comrade but this isn't the way a party member should speak." "We've explained that to you on numerous occassions." "Are we to conclude that the whole party organization has found itself in a situation where people don't actually say what they think at meetings?" "That's what it all comes to." "Comrades, the allegation is very serious, and that's why I'd rather hear what Comrade Secreary has to say about it." "This is the key problem as far as the comrade's perception of the situation..." "Comrades, I'd like to ask comrade Gralak a question on this forum." "Comrade Gralak, you have said that in Deccember 1970 the situation in our plant changed." "Here you cited some percentages but never mind." "I also work in this factory and I too have noticed that change." "It is harder for me to talk about it because perhaps not everything is visible in the Plant Committee." "Although I think that we talk often and honestly enough to the people." "Where have those changes taken place if you are saying that people are scared to speak out and that there is no dialogue?" "I don't know." "Either we're missing something or this simply isn't a reflection of reality." "I would say that there is too much cooperation beetween the plant committee and the management and too little with the workers." "Comrade Gralak, haven't we spoken about this lots of times?" "We've said that there are no separate interests for the management and the workers." "This cannot be the case." "You either have to change the management or talk to the workers, because either the former or the latter are right." "If the interests don't meet all should be done so that they do." "Such a situation cannot occur in a socialist company." "Sometimes it does but we cannot say that this is the case here." "Because by passing such a judgement you judge also yourself." "After all you used to be a member of this party organization, and much depended on you." "We've said that so many times now, comrade Gralak." "How come you couldn't find your way to the Plant Committee before the meetings?" "Why couldn't you use your experience and authority to come up with a positive solution instead of raising vague issues?" " Please, tell me, comrade, if I may..." " Certainly." "How do you see the situation today?" "I believe that I have always been honest." "I've been a good worker and a good workmate to my colleagues." "If I was at fault, although I don't see that" "I've done anything wrong here." "But if I deserve any penalty." "I don't think it should be my expulsion from the party." "Does it mean you'd like to return to the plant now?" " No, I wouldn't." " No, you wouldn't." "Do any of you, comrades, have anything to add?" "The case is not simple, as we know." "Our exchange of views confirms that." "Please, bear with us while we retire for consultation." "We'll let you know of our position shortly." "Meanwhile, thank you all."