Polish Communist Party Prepares for What May Be Its Last Congress
Poland’s Communist leaders met Saturday to prepare for what will probably be the last congress of their discouraged party, a meeting at which members will vote on a name change and create a new party from the remnants of the old one.
The Communists are hoping to regain some credibility and hold on to what power and members they still have by shedding their past. A draft platform rejects long-held Communist slogans and says Stalinism was imposed from abroad.
“We are entering the final phase of preparations for the 11th Congress, which I presume will end the activity of the (Communist Party),” party leader Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski told the Central Committee plenum.
The extraordinary party congress scheduled for Jan. 27 is intended to be the founding congress of a new Polish leftist movement, Rakowski said.
Party members will be polled before the congress on choices for a new party name, Politburo member Leszek Miller told the Central Committee.
The names being considered are the Socialist Party of Poland, Socialist Party of Working People, Social Democratic Party of Poland, Polish Party of Working People, Polish Party of the Socialist Left and Polish Labor Party.
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