Polish Communist Party to Dissolve, Take New Form

Communist Party leader Mieczyslaw Rakowski said today his party will formally dissolve itself Saturday after 42 years of existence and re-form as a new Western-style left-wing party.

The scheduled disbanding of the Polish United Workers (Communist) Party (PZPR), following the similar recent disappearance of the Hungarian and Romanian parties, is the latest indication of the waning popularity of communism in Eastern Europe.

“The PZPR is becoming a closed chapter of history,” Rakowski said at a news conference on the eve of the 11th and final Communist Party Congress that opens Saturday in the Soviet-built Palace of Culture in the center of Warsaw.

Wall posters have appeared in the capital accusing the PZPR of being a servant to Moscow since its formation in 1948.

They also called on the people to take part in an anti-party rally near the palace Saturday.

Historians estimate that on the order of the PZPR, about 60,000 Poles who were considered “opponents of socialism” were killed, but Rakowski said the party was not to blame.

He described the imposition of the Moscow-backed Communist government in Poland after World War II as a revolution and said, “There is no revolution without bloodshed.”

Leszek Miller, another Communist official, said the disbanding of the party will be announced Saturday and formation of the new one will take place during the next two days of the meeting.

He predicted a clash between reformers and hard-liners, saying: “There will not be a funeral calm nor funeral unanimity at the congress.”

Party sources said Tadeusz Fiszbach, a Communist liberal who was one of the signers of the 1980 agreement in Gdansk along with Solidarity leader Lech Walesa on the formation of the East Bloc’s first free trade union, is the top candidate for the job of the party leader.