25 years since dissolution of Poland's communist party

The so-called Polish United Workers Party had ruled the country from 1948 to 1989.

Shaken by debts and the popularity of the independent Solidarity trade union, the party had invited opposition activists to take part in the so-called Round Table talks of February to April 1989.

The talks paved the way for Poland's first free elections in decades, ultimately bringing Solidarity representatives to power.

During the Communist party's congress of January 1990, the grouping wrote its own epitaph in the final resolution.

"Born in post-war conditions of limited sovereignty and the dominance of the Stalinist socio-economic system, [the party] was unable to meet the needs of society, and it did not manage to realise the values that it was supposed to.

''This did not happen because there was neither freedom nor justice.''

The majority of those present at the last congress voted in favour of creating a new party, the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland.

It's leaders included Aleksander Kwasniewski and Leszek Miller, who would later serve as president (1995-2005) and prime minister (2001-2004) of Poland. Their party was transformed into the Democratic Left Alliance, currently the fourth largest party in Poland's lower house of parliament, in 1999. (nh)

Source: PAP