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whole, on the one side an authoritarian tendency characterised by the deep rooted, historically basedhate to communism, on the other side a more liberal self-limiting tendency characterised bypolitical tolerance, willingness to enter compromises and political openness and referring to pro-European values.On the basis of Solidarity and the OKPs new political parties were established, but those parties hada short existence. The normal procedure was the creation of a parliamentary group, later thecreation of election committees, at the beginning they were aiming to secure Walesa's victory to theforth-coming presidential election. ”Solidarnosc Pracy” was established on the basis of the OKPfaction”Solidarnos Pracy”. ”Solidarnosc Pracy” took part in the election in 1991 and was alsorepresented in the new parliament. The changes in the election law including a new five percentthreshold for parliamentary representation had as the result that representatives from ”SolidarnoscPracy” and reform-minded communists joined the new party “Union of Work” (UP) in order toregain seats in parliament.NSZZ Solidarnosc (“S”) year 2000Approximately 1,1 mill. Members, including 100,000 pensioners and rentists. Before the congressesthe local organisations sometimes reports on more members in order to obtain more delegates.The organisational structure: 37 regions and 16 branch secretariats, consisting of 90 kraj-sections.The biggest branches in “S” are: mining, energy, metal, health, teachers and railways. The greatestregions inside “S”: Slasko-Dabrowski, Mazowsze, Malopolska, Dolny Slask, Gdansk.The daily work in “S” has been led by a Komission (“Komisja Krajowa”) consisting of more than100 persons. The day-to-day problems are to be solved by a 15-person presidium KK that meetsonce a week. Chairman of “S” until 2002 was Marian Krzaklewski, in 2000 supported by threevice-chairmen, Janus Sniadek, Józef Niemec and Jerzy Langer.“S” has been a member of three international trade union associations, The European Confederationof Trade Unions, The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and The WorldConfederation of Work.The working members of ”S” pay a fee that corresponds to one percent of the wages. 60 pct. of themoney paid remain in the local organisations, 25 go to the regions, 10 pct. to KK and 5 pct. to strikefunds.Polityka no. 49 (2274), 2 December 2000:26.To conclude, at the time of the June 1989 election Solidarity can be considered as a broadly basedmovement party, i.e. a proto-party organized on the basis of the civic committees (OKP) and theSolidarity trade union, constituting a negative alliance without many concrete plans for the future.50
Moreover, Solidarity signified an embryonic political party composed of many different factions,thus only constituting a party in the minimal sense, however, with deep roots in Polish people andPolish history and culture.2.3. The foundation mythBecause of the fight against the old system Solidarity had a specific party culture (”ethos”) and afoundation myth. The fight against the old system had been more than just a question about incomeand work conditions. As noted by Witold Morawski (Morawski, 1998:71), at the same time thepolitical ethos was Christian and social democratic including slogans about freedom and equality insociety. Furthermore, Solidarity was a patriotic movement, underlining the important historical taskto create a free and independent Poland. Among the parties in opposition to the (post)communistsonly a minority, e.g. the right-nationalistic KPN and the catholic ZChN rejected to negotiate withthe communist authorities and remained faithful to fundamentalist catholic values and politicalslogans.Thus before 1989 Solidarity mostly behaved like a movement for moral renewal. The ”we versus”them” discourses, the manichean division in good and evil and the tendency to speak on behalf ofthe whole nation did not offer much space for moderate policy choices. After the democratic “breakthrough” it was difficult for Solidarity to keep the lead. In the eyes of the majority the old ethos andthe foundation myth going back to 1979-1980 did not play any crucial role after the demise of theold system.According to Edmund Inuk Lipinski 43 this can best be explained primarily by structural factors. Oneimportant consequence of the victory over the old system was that Solidarity lost its classicalmobilising role. Solidarity still obtained the greatest support on big state enterprises, i.e. the“dinosaurs” from the time of planned economy. In the first stage of post-communism theorganisation of work was primarily a political, not economic and including a spill over on theattitudes of workers to the political authorities. Extrication and output-articulation were stillconsidered as the best ways of influencing the political system. Engagement in the private sectorwas not only aimed at creating a market economy, but was considered also a political enterprise.Mainly for that reason Solidarity criticised ”theft” of public ownership through the nomenclatureprivatisation. Solidarity also tried to block privatisation, should privatisation of state enterpriseslead to more unemployment.Due to the structural factors the victims of the introduction of market economy were thoseemployed on the big state enterprises, i.e. the old strongholds of the Solidarity trade union. Thus therevolution once again “ate its own children”. Tension erupted between the historic fundament forSolidarity, i.e. the fight against the old system, and those interests, which had to be defended duringthe transition to market economy, first of all employment and better living standard. After thecollapse of the old system Solidarity was split up in several ideological groups and factions. Afterthe break through in 1989 Solidarity was joined by people who had not taken part in the fightagainst the old system in the 1980s. Many from that group rejected the “thick line” policy ofTadeusz Mazowiecki. As noted above, until then the disagreements inside Solidarity had beenartificially repressed in order to keep alive the fight against the old system (Morawski, 1998:178).43 Interview with Wnuk-Lipinski, Zycie Gospodarcze, no.26, 28 June 1992:1 and 4, ”Demokracja nie jest ideologia”.51
Page 3: “This provisional situation chara
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Page 44 and 45: expected, much due to the many spli
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Page 48 and 49: Finally, Solidarity can also be con
Page 52 and 53: The economic recession and the grav
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Page 60 and 61: According to the original plans the
Page 62 and 63: values. According to Rybicki, as so
Page 64 and 65: AWS should fight against all types
Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
Page 68 and 69: and workers voted ZChN. At the 1993
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Page 72 and 73: establishment like than LPR’s. Th
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Page 80 and 81: democrats, thereby locating itself
Page 82 and 83: To conclude, the Freedom Union (UW)
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Page 86 and 87: such as KSCM and KSS in The Czech R
Page 88 and 89: The SLD leaders were mainly recruit
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Page 96 and 97: Has the Left any freedom of manoeuv
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The Labour Union (UP), Democratic U
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Nevertheless, before that had taken
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