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Message of Solidarity of the Polish Section for the 80th Anniversary of the Polish Workers' Party
80 years ago, on January 5, 1942, in fascist-occupied Warsaw, in the apartment of Juliusz Rydygier on Krasińskiego Street 18, representatives of: Union of Liberation Struggle, Fighting People's Organization, Association of Friends of the Soviet Union, Revolutionary Workers' and Peasants' Councils, Radio Bulletin Group, Spartacus, Banner of Freedom, Academic Group and ,,Proletarian", as well as Paweł Finder - before the war a outstanding activist of the Communist Party of Poland, now a member of the Initiative Group sent from the USSR. Its aim was, using the experience of the CPSU(b), to found a party that would lead the Polish proletariat in the struggle against the hitlerist occupiers, the agents of Anglo-American imperialism and the domestic revisionists, for the restoration of independence, for an end to the exploitation of man by man, for the dignity, freedom and happiness of working people.
First Group composed of: Marceli Nowotko (pseudonym "Marian"), Józef Wieczorek, Roman Śliwa, Paweł Finder, Czesław Skoniecki, Anastazy Kowalczyk, Feliks Papliński, Bolesław Mołojec, Jakub Aleksandrowicz, Jan Turlejski, Lucjan Partyński, Augustyn Micał and Pinkus Kartin crashed shortly after take-off on 26 September 1941 near Wiaźma. Turlejski was killed and Śliwa, Skoniecki and Aleksandrowicz were wounded. The group returned to Moscow. On the night of December 27-28, Nowotko, Finder, Mołojec, Skoniecki, Kartin, and Maria Rutkiewicz were parachuted into the vicinity of Wiązówna near Warsaw. Despite Nowotka breaking his leg and losing the radio station, Mołojec, Skoniecki and Kartin made it to the capital, while the rest of the group took shelter in Radość (after some time they also arrived in Warsaw).
On 5 January 1942, on behalf of the Initiative Group, Paweł Finder met with representatives of the existing communist groups and together they decided to unite and establish the Polish Workers' Party. Marceli Nowotko, who had the most revolutionary experience, became the First Secretary of the Central Committee. The Party established its armed arm, the People's Guard (since January 1, 1944 called the People's Army). In its first proclamation to the proletariat, the party wrote:
"The Polish working class must above all put an end to the split in its own ranks. This unification of the working class can only be achieved by a militant workers' party which will take from the experience of the Polish workers' movement and the tradition of the liberation struggles of the Polish people all that is pure, all that is healthy, all that is valuable, and will reject all that is rotten and has not stood the test of life."
During the night from 5 to 6 January 1942, the remaining members of the first group (except Partyński, who was sent for military training) were parachuted out. During the night from 19 to 20 May 1942, the Second Initiative Group was dropped, composed of: Małgorzata Fornalska, Jadwiga Ludwińska, Aleksander Kowalski (after the war his revisionism and rightist-nationalist deviation became apparent), Mieczysław Hejman, Piotr Drążkiewicz, Jan Gruszczyński, Jan Krasicki and Wacław Stec.
