Polish Critics Research Articles

Antagonistic and Non-Antagonistic Conflicts: A Contribution to the Theory of the Temporal Dimension of Conflict

Some years ago Polish reviewers of my study, A Polish Factory, pointed out that I had failed to differentiate between antagonistic and nonantagonistic conflicts. In this paper a short reference will be made to the concept of antagonistic and non-antagonistic conflicts in the light of my observations not only of Polish but also of Yugoslav factories.1 However, central to this paper will be an analysis of the phenomenon of conflict in temporal categories. In reviewing my Polish book, Szczepanski stressed that in Polish factories there are organizational, personal and even economic conflicts; according to Sarapata conflicts remain in socialistic factories, with the exception of the class conflict that has presumably disappeared. Morawski, whose review is most relevant to the development of this paper, felt that while antagonism pervades all categories of relations between management and labour in western factories, one should not necessarily propose the opposite, that in socialistic enterprises all categories of social relations should be non-antagonistic. The above quotations indicate that the essential difference is in the basic assumption of my Polish critics. This is an assumption made by Marxist theory in general that there is a certain hierarchy of conflicts of which the economic conflict, that is, the contradictory economic interests between owner-manager on one hand and worker-employee on the other, is the most decisive. Essentially, speaking in game theory terms, Marxists assume that the class conflict is a zero-sum game, that is, that any gain on one side automatically results in a corresponding loss

Socialist Realism in Polish Literature and Criticism

Socialist Realism in Polish Literature and Criticism

Adam Mickiewicz in the Light of Postwar Polish Criticism: A Bibliographical Survey

Adam Mickiewicz in the Light of Postwar Polish Criticism: A Bibliographical Survey