The communicative dimensions of the labor crisis in Poland are examined in this paper in terms of Jurgen Habermas's theory of legitimation crisis and Niklas Luhmann's theory of power as a communication medium. Specifically, the paper analyzes three communication strategies that have marked the development and decline of the Soviet Union's control in Poland: (1) the Soviet Union's use of instrumental political symbolism to obtain the loyalty of the Polish public in order to maintain control; (2) the creation of a countervailing power force--the union Solidarity--through the control of system alternatives in order to shift public loyalty from the government to the worker's organization; and (3) the Soviet Union's responses to this movement, which involved scapegoating tactics, continuing political symbolism, and monitoring political communication. (FL)