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The solidarity movement in 1980 in poland
Workers and labor movements
Workers and labor movements
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To what extent did Solidarity contribute to undermining Communism in Poland?
Communism in Poland was self-consciously the workers-state, largely responsible for creating the modern Polish working class through industrialization and raising expectations of equality and of higher living standards. It is widely believed that Solidarity undermined Communism in Poland, partly by disrupting the Communist program of production through strikes, but more by transferring the trust and loyalty of the Polish people from Communism to itself. The supposed "adversaries" of Polish workers - the church, the officer class, the national leadership - were in fact combined by Solidarity as allies of the workers to "break the resistance" of Communism to reform. What the state never appreciated in Poland was that it was seen as Russian, oppressive, and corrupt, having created the working class they then, in line with Marx's prediction, demonstrated their control of the means of production (strikes) and undermined Communism in Poland. However, one cannot ignore the pull of the capitalist west in displacing communism in the eyes of the people. In this essay I plan to show the extent to which Solidarity was responsible for undermining communism and also to question how far other factors, such as the Poles hatred of Russians, their strong allegiance to the Catholic church, and the raging Cold War, displaced communism in the eyes, and from the hearts of the people.
Solidarity weakened Polish Communism providing a vehicle of transmission for years of grievances against a government out of touch with the ideals of the Polish people. This is shown below in the picture taken from: "http://encarta.msn.com/find/MediaMax.asp."
Solidarity took workers grievances, and grafted onto them more general national grievances (Russian dictatorship, suppression of the church etc.). Photographs of Solidarity led demonstrations show how they united people to challenge what they believed to be wrong. The challenge to the government's principles undermined it as a unit, lost any credibility, and weakened it in the eyes and minds of the people.
Solidarity not only weakened Communism by providing an organized channel for grievances, but also gave people new ideas, as seen in the "1980 Gdansk Agreement", article 4, issued by Solidarity: "To re-establish the rights...of all students who have been excluded from...higher education because of their opinions"
This idea of free speech and thought was new as Communists devoted mass energies to suppressing this. The Church also received active support, where it had been oppressed by the government, turning the masses towards Solidarity, and against the present government, this possibly being Solidarity's trump card.
... (Piven & Cloward, 18) Workers protest by striking against their employer, it is easier for employees to protest because they are all located and working together under one roof and are fighting for one thing, and that one thing is related to the workplace. While it is easier for employees to protest, it is not that easy for lower class employees to protest because they have little ability to protect themselves against their institutional managers. When the lower class workers have an informal organizational protest the government is eventually stepping in to disarm the protestors and make efforts to conciliate, “…mobs of unemployed were granted relief in the 1930s…” (Piven & Cloward, 29) The protests cause disruption and sometimes that disruption can make a change but when people are protesting blindly they are more prone to social injustice then making a change.
...feelings prevailed over those of unification. The division inside the socialistic party put only one question in front of Europe - how will the bettering of the workers' lives come upon the continent, through gradual small reforms or through big and rapid revolution?
Have you ever questioned the tax taken out of your hard-earned money? Questions similar to that are where the money is going and if it is being used properly. In the U.S. news recently those questions have been on a great deal of State’s minds; reaching back to 2003, this issue has been brought up time and time again. The main topic of tax money is the use of assistance money and are the recipients really using the money for the right reasons. There are many problems with the assistance program but the one that comes to mind the most is that many people abuse the money given to buy the essentials and provide, for their family for illegal drugs. The solution that many state representatives have come up with is drug testing as a requirement for assistance. This will eliminate the abuse of the assistance program; also it will cut down the cost of assistance which is very expensive as a whole.
Among the many ways Americans can participate in politics, voting is considered one of the most common and important ways for Americans to get involved. The outcome of any election, especially at the national level, determines who will be making and enforcing the laws that all Americans must abide by. With this in mind one might assume that all Americans are active voters, but studies show the voter turnout is actually astonishingly low. With this unsettling trend it is important to know what statistics say about voter turnout as was as the four major factors that influence participation: Socioeconomic status, education, political environment, and state electoral laws, in order to help boost turnout in future elections.
Welfare is a federally funded program that provides health care, food stamps, child care assistance, unemployment, cash aid, and housing that is under the umbrella of TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). Per Welfare Information, eligibility is determined by net income, family size, and any crisis situation such as: pregnancy, homelessness, and unemployment. TANF also requires the recipient to obtain employment within two years of receiving help (2014). A majority of the monies that support Welfare come from taxes paid by the working class and donations from private companie...
There is an ongoing debate over whether or not welfare recipients should be drug tested to receive the benefits. Both sides of the argument have merit. Those who oppose the idea of drug testing say that it is unconstitutional and violates the Fourth Amendment. Furthermore, they claim that this law stereotypes and discriminates against those from low socioeconomic demographics, implying that because they are poor, they must be drug addicts. However, those who support the law note that its intended purpose is to ensure that taxpayer money is not being squandered on people who only plan to abuse this assistance. Only nine states so far have instituted drug testing of candidates for welfare assistance. This drug testing has proven to be prohibitively expensive in many cases. Consequently, some states only test subjects with whom they find suspicion, or who have admitted to past drug use. Though proposed drug testing of welfare applicants initially appears to be a good idea to eliminate potential abusers of the system from receiving assistance, it appears that even more money may be wasted on the testing process, which negates the savings that are the primary objective of the law.
From its early period, the United States has obtained an indirect type of democracy, and has always had contentment that its citizens are allowed to vote for their representatives, especially the President. Nevertheless, the amount of citizens that actually vote in nationwide elections has decreased noticeably over the years. Voter participation and turnout has been declining in the United States throughout history. Voter turnout, the percentage of eligible individuals who actually vote (Ginsberg), to this day is lower than it was in the 1900’s. Since 1912, presidential elections have only had about 50 to 65 percent of Americans participate. This means that about half of United States citizens who are eligible and have the freedom to vote have failed to participate in presidential elections. At the end of the nineteenth century voter turnout started plummeting, reaching the 60 percent level by the election of 1912 (Teixeira, 1987). The declining rate of voter participation in the United States is due to voter registration and procedu...
While the Congress of Vienna largely achieved its goal of military peace among European states in the nineteenth century, ideological and social conflicts took shape within and among these states. Responding to the Industrial Revolution, writers of the time encouraged workers to unite against oppression and demand the rights they deserved. Though this call to action was widespread, not everyone shared the same vision of how these goals ought to be achieved. Specifically, while many sought to evade or destroy the influence of mainstream capitalist society in order to improve workers’ standards of living, in The Workers’ Union, Flora Tristan seems to imagine a workers’ revolution that would work within the current laws and use the existing political structure to its advantage.
Dr. Dana Bates’s explanation of communism and the impact of its tyrannical hold over Romania was like nothing I had heard before. I had heard explanations of communism, Marxism, and propaganda, but it was never accompanied by an explanation of the social effects. Dr. Bates’s explanation of the brutalized societal structures and psychology of the Romanian citizens provided a whole new depth to the topic. As he continued to explain the affects of the system, I felt a growing pit in my stomach: the capacity for humanity to inflict brutality upon others can sometimes appear boundless. This evil had trickled down and settled like cement into the broken Romanian society. Families were so desperate to survive that if they did not steal from their
Munson, Ronald. Intervention and Reflection: Basic Issues in Bioethics. 9th ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
...4 strikes in Minneapolis inspired many around the country to fight for what was right in the work place. It was thanks to the socialists and there way of thinking that helped the Local 547 to become a dominate force in this strike. The Trotskyites and there socialist way of thinking about the working class and equality throughout social classes was a fighting point for equality in the work place. Although the Communist League of America was playing a major part in the union holding many of the top leadership positions they did not require any member of the union to commit to the league or there way of thought. So I would have to say that there agenda for the strike was to help the workers out and improve the wages and working conditions for employees and if they increased there political views it was a plus but it was not there reason for entering into the strike.
Steinbock, Bonnie, Alex J. London, and John D. Arras. "The Principles Approach." Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine. Contemporary Readings in Bioethics. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 36-37. Print.
The Soviet economy was highly centralized with a “command economy” (p.1). fsmitha.com), which had been broken down due to its complexity and centrally controlled with corruption involved in it. A strong government needs a strong economy to maintain its power and influence, but in this case the economic planning of the Soviet Union was just not working, which had an influence in other communist nations in Eastern Europe as they declined to collapse. The economic stagnation led to the frustration of the workers because of low payments, bad working conditions, inefficiency, corruption and any lack of incentive to do good work. There were lots of frustrations among the workers in the working field who began to express their feelings and emotions towards the Soviet government.
The Communist Manifesto made the oppressed people aware of their status and called them to unite. It did this by outlining the history of classes and class struggle. The Communist Manifesto stated that society and history are shaped by class struggles and that two classes were present in 1848, the bourgeois and the proletariat. The document goes on to state that the bourgeois had created capitalism and were oppressing the proletariat.[1] Marx defines the proletariat as “an appendage of the machine”. [2] He recognized how the proletariats were being exploited and he brought it to the attention of the public. Not only does the Communist Manifesto point out that the proletariats were being exploited, it went a step further and called the proletariats to action. He called the working class the revolutionary class and told them that they had the power to fight the bourgeois.[3] The Communist Manifesto forced the Proletariats to recognize their exploitation. As a result the attitude of the proletariat was changed. Proof that the proletariats attitudes were changed comes from the widespread uprising of revolutions in Europe that followed the publication of the Communist Manifesto.
Islamists, leftists, and the poor united under Ayatollah Khomeini to get rid of the Shah (Dove, 01/23/17). This proves that nationalism impacted the Iranian Revolution since the Iranians united to revolt against the Shah because he was directly influenced by America. While the Iranian Revolution demonstrated such change, it can also be seen in the Solidarity Movement in Poland. Uprisings in the satellite states, such as the Solidarity Movement in Poland began because the states lacked political and economic freedoms. Led by Lech Walesa, with support from the Catholic Church as well as the West, mass protests broke out against communism, which forced the government to allow free elections. Thus, leading Poland towards a democracy and away from communism (Dove,