Some Aspects of the Development of Polish and Czech Workers’ Movement

The cooperation of Polish and Czech communists on the Sudeten Borderland has been going on for many years, it has had various stages and intensities. The most diverse and massive one was in the period of the Polish People’s Republic and socialist Czechoslovakia, when it included not only individual and family contacts. The mass cooperation included workplaces, schools, universities and other colleges, local government bodies, and numerous social organisations. It contributed to overcoming numerous, often negative, stereotypes among Poles and Czechs. Later, after the introduction of martial law in Poland, it collapsed. Political changes came and the borders were opened again, but today, it is no longer massive and organised. Individual and sometimes family contacts dominate, cross-border trade is flourishing, e.g., Czechs willingly come to the markets in Kudowa, Kłodzko, etc. On the other hand, Poles are willing to take up jobs nearby and more distant Czech workplaces. An interesting phenomenon of this cooperation are various meetings and party-political events undertaken on the Czech border by Polish and Czech communists, as well as representatives of other left-wing social organisations. This manifests itself in regular visits (usually twice a year), participation in mutual events, e.g., on the occasion of May 1, Liberation on May 8–9, as well as in active participation in socio-political, historical, and other conferences. There is also systematic mutual information on the Internet, exchange of magazines, posters, even participation in international events in the Giant Mountains, Trutnov, Hradec Králové, and even Prague. Czech comrades pay visits to the Polish side of the border. They are interested in the further development of events in our country. Recently, Polish comrades have taken the stand for the Czech candidate of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic who was persecuted by the regime and who, along with two other comrades, was put in the dock of a court in Prague and convicted of the alleged “Katyn lie”. Other issues of the article concern the analysis of the historical background of Polish-Czech relations in the distant and recent past.