Common Organization of the Society

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Common Organization of the Society (POS) (Polish: Powszechna Organizacja Społeczeństwa) was the unfinished project of social and political organization proposed by colonel Walery Sławek – a close associate of Józef Piłsudski and a key contributor to the April Constitution. The organization was to unite economic and professional self-governments and social organizations into a nationwide structure; it was to replace political parties in mediating between society and the state, and, according to some scholars, even have legal exclusivity to have a seat in the Sejm.^[1] The project was quashed by both Marshal Śmigły-Rydz and President Ignacy Mościcki, and Sławek himself eventually retired from political life.

After the dissolution of the BBWR if the constitution and the electoral law regulated the principles of the new political system, it was now time to more closely define the desired principles of social life. This issue had been troubling Sławek since the late 1920s. In his public speeches, he repeatedly stressed that the state was unable to encompass all areas of public life, hence some would be left to society alone. Thus, the need arises to reflect on the relationship between the state and society, as well as to identify the most appropriate rules for the activities of citizens. In the understanding of Sławek and related representatives of the Piłsudskiite elite (Wacław Makowski, Adam Skwarczyński and others), society was not to be subordinated to the state institution, it was rather a matter of maximally harmonizing the activities of both factors. As Makowski wrote after the adoption of the April Constitution, the drafters of the new constitution created the premises for transforming the state, conceived as an instrument of group selfishness, into a socialized state, i.e., one in which there is full cooperation and, at the same time, a clear boundary between “what is the state and what is society.” The state should unite “all citizens in an effort for the collective good,” but the individual must not be “lost in the mass.” For it is only “an organizational form within whose framework the content of social life must develop freely”.^[2]

The formula for a dynamically conceived structure of the state-social whole was to be the socialization of the state. This term (adopted by Colonel Walery Sławek) was based on the distribution of responsibility for the fate of the state to the entire society. This was to be done primarily through social organizations: educational, cultural and professional, bringing citizens together in teams for concrete, creative and free work. A special role - including in professional syndicates - should fall to the intelligentsia, a stratum - as Skwarczyński, confident in the moral strength of the Polish intelligentsia tradition, emphasizes - that is above class and inherently “state-forming.” For, unlike both the world of wage labor and the world of capital, the intelligentsia is bound to its profession not so much by material interest as by vocation, professional refinement and passion. Thanks to the educative influence of the intelligentsia, the worker can become, according to Skwarczyński (who stands here, let us note, on the antipodes of the views of the integral syndicalist Georges Sorel, known for his view that workers should liberate themselves from the influence of intellectuals, harmful to their cause), “not a mercenary for pay, but a creator perfecting his craft, loving his product and feeling his organic and moral connection to it.”^[3]

In the weeks following the dissolution of the BBWR, Slawek attempted to concretize the principles of functioning that he wished to instill in the Sanacja camp, whose leader he still felt himself to be. These attempts resulted in the concept of the so-called Common Organization of the Society.^[2] It is difficult to determine the date of the POS concept. Some - Janusz Jedrzejewicz and Józef Winiewicz - try to give a specific date for the project. Others, like Jan Hoppe, claim that the POS concept was the result of many years of thought and was never fully pronounced. The text, which forms the basis for discussing Sławek's views, dates from the turn of 1935/36 and was sent to many people, including Edward Śmigły-Rydz, who referred to it strongly negatively. The text has not been published. ^[4]

The general principles of the POS were a continuation of the idea of socialization of the state developed by a group of Piłsudskiites under the direction of Adam Skwarczyński. The POS aims to continue the reforms for which the April Constitution was to be the starting point, and to create a system of public representation that eliminates the intermediation of political parties: “The public's attention must be directed to ensuring that attempts to form parties are not successful. And the measures for this must be found”^[4]

Instead of top-down creation of a unified mass organization, Sławek proposed controlled stimulation of society's self-organization. Starting from the assumption that “the state of today [...] is more and more compelled to enter into the life of society in order to coordinate, harmonize, order it,” Sławek postulated that “part of this work can be undertaken by society itself.” To this end, it was necessary to bring about the coordination of the activities of “all those major social organizations that express their readiness to join and are accepted.” According to the paternalistic principle of “pulling up the masses” by conscious individuals, the Organization was to be based on local social activists who “are at the forefront of working for the collective good.” Sławek stressed the supra-partisan nature of the POS - all organizations were to be admitted to its ranks regardless of their “political background” (albeit excluding opposition political parties). The organization of society was to proceed from the bottom up (at first in the districts, only later on a provincial and national scale), but with the help of the state administration and with the participation of deputies representing individual districts. This would create a pyramid of municipal, district and provincial councils, topped by the Sejm as a POS executives. The political leadership of the Organization was to be formed by the “Colonels” and “Jutro Pracy” group.^[5]

At the local level, it was to include: local government, business, public utility associations including cooperatives, agricultural associations, fire departments, etc., as well as trade unions combined into a single chamber of labor. This lowest level, well-developed, was to provide a solid foundation for the entire organizational pyramid consisting of district, provincial, and finally national structures. Along with other issues, the problem of social organizations created by national minorities immediately imposed itself. Sławek and the ideologists of the socialized state believed that they should find their places in the POS on an equal basis. However, it was questionable whether such cooperation could be realized at the time. The goal of the POS was to cultivate and develop such qualities as selflessness, honesty, work for the benefit of the local community, manifested in the construction of roads, bridges, schools the establishment of fire departments, agricultural associations, etc. Activists, people of concrete deed, who in place of party programs, usually demagogic and unrealistic, created material, socially useful things should power local governments, while the best should be in parliament. Sławek thought that in this way there would be an increase in social activity, an interest in leveling upwards, to the models of the best. The importance of political parties will decline, and a new system far from liberal democracy and also far from totalitarian systems will emerge.^[6]

At the turn of 1935–1936, Sławek sent out the text of the POS draft to various people for their opinions.This text was given by Sławek to Śmigly-Rydz, receiving in response a harsh letter that the General Inspector “does not see the purpose of such an organization.” This reaction, combined with Sławek's declining importance in the new political configuration of the Sanation's camp, caused him to abandon his attempts to put his concept into reality. He did not, however, cease further deliberations on the matter. His correspondence shows that in the summer of 1936 he began work on a text formulating, on the background of the history of the BBWR, remarks and conclusions “on the system of organization of the State.”^[2]

The POS concept is difficult to evaluate, as one would have to take into account the effects of implementation, and these sometimes differed from the intentions. This was vividly demonstrated by the fate of the electoral law developed by Sławek, which, while formally preserving democracy, in fact introduced, through the kitchen door so to speak, authoritarianism. Sławek believed that the ordinance would socialize the state, but in reality it placed elections under the control of the administration. In the words of Jan Hoppe:

“Practice has shown that an equation mark should be placed between [...] the voice of social organizations and the will of the governor.“

— Jan Hoppe

Sławek realized his mistake after the 1938 elections, when power passed into the hands of the OZN, and in the fall of that year, in an interview with "Słowo", he called for a change in the electoral law by deleting district assemblies.^[5]

• Walery Sławek
• Adam Skwarczyński
• Piłsudski's colonels
• Syndicalism
• Corporatism