Western Galician socialists and their attitude towards the peasant movement and its leaders in the years 1892-1897

The Social-Democratic Party of Galicia (since 1899 – the Polish Social-Democratic Party) began its animated activity on the Galician political arena in January 1892. Initially, the Socialists devoted their entire energy to the creation of worker organizations in towns. Yet, they realized that the predominant part of the population of Galicia was made up of peasants. It was with a view of this part of the population that in the years 1894-1895, the party began to create its agrarian program; the latter was to make it possible to conduct agitation activity in villages. Yet, these attempts had failed. In 1896, the Austrian Parliament voted in a reform of the election law. A fifth electoral group was created whereby for the first time in Austria’s history, workers obtained the right to vote. The specific character of class elections (vast election numbers in the fifth electoral group, the right of the privileged classes to vote in the fifth electoral group) and a relatively small number of workers n Galician towns, forced the Socialists to look for potential allies among the leaders of peasant parties. An agreement was signed with Rev. Stanisław Stojałowski who having been persecuted by both the state and church authorities, was forced many a time to take advantage of the assistance offered by the Social-Democratic Party of Galicia. A decisively hostile attitude had been adopted by the Socialists towards the People’s Party which did not agree to “cede” the fifth electoral group to the workers. The alliance signed between the Social-Democratic Party of Galicia and Rev. Stojałowski survived until November 1897 when the supporters of Rev. Stojałowski decided to support the government of Kazimierz Badeni. From that moment onwards, a change had occurred in the mutual relations between the two sides and Rev. Stanisław Stojałowski became one of the most hated political opponents to the Socialists.