Razem czy osobno? Władze PPS i KPRP–KPP wobec obchodów święta 1 maja w latach 1919–1928

Abstract

Together or Apart? PPS and KPRP–KPP Authorities and May Day Celebrations in 1919–1928

Interwar Poland witnessed numerous political confrontations, one of them being the battle waged by the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) and the Communist Workers’ Party of Poland/ Communist Party of Poland (KPRP–KPP). The prime and most frequently deployed weapon was political propaganda, although outright physical clashes also took place and even resulted in fatalities. The original encounters took place within councils of workers’ delegates. Soon, however, rivalry encompassed other socio–political undertakings of leftist milieus, i.a. Labour Day celebrations. From 1919 both organisations vied for domination or outright appropriation of May Day demonstrations, which turned into a sui generis determinant and yardstick of the actual power of particular political subjects. Both the PPS and the communist parties envisaged May Day as a significant element of the propaganda impact exerted upon their socio–political hinterland. Losing or gaining control over the celebrations significantly affected the determination of the hierarchic rank of a given organisation amidst the working–class community.

The presented text attempts to recreate the attitudes of the PPS and KPRP–KPP authorities regarding joint May Day demonstrations and hence to depict the foundations and forms of the anti– communist activity of the socialists as well as the anti–PPS policy pursued by the Communist Party to 1928, i.e. the moment when the Socialist and Communist International decreed that their rival was their greatest political foe.