Solidarnosc!

[Socialistpenguin]

Whilst reading "The Socialist", I came upon an interesting article on "Solidarnosc" or Solardarity in Polish. For those of you who may not know of it, it is where Polish workers, starting with those working in the Lenin shipyards, leading to worker's all around the country, who were able to virtually bring their governing Communist Party to it's knees. Info on it can be found here: www.socialistparty.org.uk/2005/406/index.html?id=mp6.htm (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2005/406/index.html?id=mp6.htm)

And for those who distrust the Socialist Party, or any other Trotskyite organisation, here is Solidarnosc's view itself: http://www.solidarnosc.org.pl/english/about/eng_about_02.htm (http://http://www.solidarnosc.org.pl/english/about/eng_about_02.htm)

So, how do people view it? Valiant workers taking control back from the Stalinist bureaucracy, or meddling right-wing revisionists who got in the way of socialism? Maybe somewhere in between?

[Red Powers]

I was alive and politically aware when Solidarnosc arose. at that time I regarded the USSR as state-capitalist and earlier protests by Polish workers had seen them destroying Party HQs while singing the International.

So when Solidarity came into existence I thought it would be a real proletarian organization and might actually bring real socialism to Poland. But it was not to be. As a trade union Solidarnosc became a very large proletarian organization but almost from the beginning it included academics and other non-worker types and many of these gravitated to leadership positions. Plus the Pope had tremendous influence and eventually, I'm certain the US began to influence the trade union which was more like a political party.

When martial law was declared I thought it was over as in Hungary or Czechoslovakia, but seven years later it arose again but by this time it was different, it had lost some of its mass worker rebellion character and was more like a (not so)tame opposition party. Still, they were able to bring down the government.

I think sometimes that it is useful to look at the Polish experience as an example of a proletarian revolutionary movement in a more or less fully capitalist society. The problem with this viewpoint is that the goal became bourgeois democracy and free market capitalism rather than socialism. But when I think about revolution here in the US I imagine it will have some features of the Polish movement.

[refuse_resist]

Weren't they funded by the CIA?

[Red Powers]

In 1980 I don't think so, but later probably. But it still was a mass movement that brought down the government. I find the movement interesting at the least even though I was disappointed by the outcome.

[YKTMX]

A genuine proletarian revolutionary movement, in the best history of such things.

Their politics were unfortunate, but I think it's important to remember why they took the form they did.

They were an oppositional movement to the Stalinst bureaucracy, who, as we know, used the most disgusting pervertion of socialism in their propaganda. It made sense, in this context, for an emancipatory political project to have liberal goals and phraseology.

Others have alluded to it but I think we should remember their was a "other socialism" camp within the movement. Ultimately they were defeated by the Lech Walesa "Capitalism it is" group.

What they destroyed in Poland was state Capitalism i.e Capitalism were the State is the only capitalist.