Center Left

(Centrolew), a bloc consisting of the members of six leftist and centrist political parties in the bourgeois-landowner Polish Sejm in 1929 and 1930. The six parties were the Polish Socialist Party, the Peasant Party (Stronnictwo Chlopskie), Piast, Liberation (Wyzwolenie), Christian Democracy, and the National Workers’ Party.

The Center Left sought to consolidate opposition to the dictatorial sanacja regime of J. Pilsudski. The bloc commanded 183 of the Sejm’s 444 votes. On June 29, 1930, it convened in Kraków the Congress for the Defense of the Rights and Freedoms of the People. The congress called for the abolition of the Pilsudski dictatorship and the formation of a constitutional government with a popular mandate.

The Center Left planned demonstrations to take place in 21 Polish cities and towns on Sept. 14, 1930. On the night of September 9, however, 12 of its prominent figures, including W. Witos, S. Dubois, and K. Popiel, were arrested; they were tried and convicted between October 1931 and January 1932. Pilsudski dissolved the Sejm on Aug. 29, 1930; after the elections of November 16, which were held in an atmosphere of intimidation by the government, the Center Left collapsed.