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place after talks with each applicant. About one third were former members of PZPR, but amongthe new members, we also find many young people. Back in the 1980’s most former members ofPZPR and to day SLD-members had been reform-communists, at that time supporting politicalreforms and subsequently paving the way for the round table negotiations with the opposition in1988-1989.Wojciech Pielecki expressed the opinion that young people joined the party not because of theirattitudes to the past, but because of their personal conviction about Poland’s future. The past theyleft to the historians 87 . Therefore, he argued, SLD can no longer be considered as a party mostlyappealing to pensioners and former communists. 60 pct. of those voting on SLD in late 1990s, wereunder 40 years and therefore had no stake in the old system. A political learning process had takenplace since 1989. The choice of “new-old” party members were pragmatic, almost value free. Manywere engaged in the new private sector and had voted on Solidarity at the first elections, but theychanged opinion and left Solidarity disappointed because of the bad political style and policy-line.According to Pielecki, the fact that the communist past no longer played a big role was primarilydue to psychological factors. A more “cool” evaluation of the past, the period of real socialismincluded, was needed. People were almost overwhelmed by so many great changes in society thatinevitably the memories of the time before 1989 receded in the background. Therefore “a newauthentic thick line” towards the past had to be drawn like in the case in Spain after Franco. Thatwould open up for new more fruitful political alliances, maybe a historical compromise betweenSLD and the Freedom Union (UW). In principle SLD’s coalition potential was great as the barriersfor a historical compromise between SLD and UW were historical and only to a small extentpolicy-related.At the 2001 election no less than 3.5 mil. young Poles could vote for the first time. So the politicalparties tried to appeal to young voters who often did not move to the ballot box. According topublic opinion polls about 40 pct. of the first time voters would vote SLD. Thus SLD had alsobecome a “party of the youth”. SLD obtained the greatest support in all important social groupsirrespective of sex, age, education, means, working place and home place. At the earlier electionsthe majority of best educate had decided to vote the Freedom Union (UW), now the same majorityvoted SLD. Opposite SLD’s then strongest political rival, the right wing AWS, had the greatestelectoral support among older people, private entrepreneurs and people with short-term educationand training.The programme proposal put forward at the 1999 founding congress underlined that no “third way”existed between planned economy and market economy. As put by the chairman for the programmecommission, Andrzej Celinski, the pathway in the economic policy had been laid already in the“Balcerowicz plan I”, set in motion shortly just after the formation of the first Solidarity-ledgovernment in 1989. Only minor adjustments in that plan were possible. Thus, only smalldifferences existed between the policy of the neo-liberal Leszek Balcerowicz and the left wingeconomist and later prime minister Marek Belka. Nevertheless, Celinski argues, the Left is obligedto give the socially weakest in society a new chance and equalize the far too big regionaldifferences in social welfare.87 Rzeczpospolita 23 August, 1999:A2 and Wojciech Pielecki, ”Trup niezgody”, Gazeta Wyborcza, 15 November, 1999and my own interview with SLDs Tadeusz Iwinski, Warsaw 20 October 1999.94
The declarations stressed that SLD should link itself to the historical traditions in the Polish andEuropean socialist movement, thereby underlining the connections going back to the traditions andthe political thinking on the European Left. The day-to-day politics should be based on a fruitfulinteraction between patriotism, independence and protection of human and social rights. On thatbasis the party should make use of the principles about social justice, freedom and self-government.The attitudes to the past was much debated at the founding congress and therefore followed withgreat attention by the public. In the programme proposal the crimes of Stalinism were condemnedand the lack of democracy deplored referring to the “economic pathology” and the limitations in thecivil rights. Nevertheless, it was said, SLD appreciate those, who under the old system in honestways contributed to rising the material wealth through their hard work. In a resolution adopted atthe congress SLD dissociated itself from the communist totalitarianism and crimes that hadoffended the main ideals of the Left. The party was also ready to pay economic compensation tovictims of Stalinism. According the Leszek Miller the evaluation of the past should be “severe, butfair”.The exact formulations of the programme were discussed during the founding congress. Thoseformulations that were adopted, did not satisfy all, primarily because the political and economicconditions before 1989 were not mentioned directly in the resolutions adopted. Before the congressopened and, without the SLD-leaderships knowledge, Aleksander Kwasniewski had read outthrough a spokesman a letter to the delegates, in which he asked the party to break with the past notonly symbolically but radically and in-depth. The many questions about the reckoning with the pastwas reactivated as AWS presented a law proposal that tightened existing lustration-laws. Thatproposal was, however, rejected by the majority in the parliament, including the Freedom Union(UW). Had the proposal from AWS been adopted, it no doubt would have been met by a veto fromthe president primarily due to the legal problems connected to the proposal. Thus despite size,organisational strength and internal transformation SLD still constituted an axis of polarisation inPolish politics.Important was to limit the waste of votes. Therefore SLD encouraged the Labour Union (UP) tonominate candidates on the party’s lists at the election in autumn 2001. According to opinion pollsUP was in risk not to be represented in parliament obtaining only between four and five percent ofthe votes like at the 1997 election. Furthermore, as regards seats in parliament small parties wereunderrepresented due to the rules of the election law. So under all circumstances an electioncooperation with SLD would be beneficial to UP, at least as far as seats in parliament wasconcerned.There has been much talk about the need for more unification of the Left. Even a federation and acommon election block was proposed consisting of SLD, the Labour Union (UP), Polish SocialistParty (PPS) and some other minor left groups like “Ruch Ludzi Pracy” 88 . “Ruch Ludzi Pracy”worked together with the trade union OPZZ, but the political influence was modest. In spring 1999UP took initiative to set up new “round table discussions of the Left”, in which the different groupson the Left might discuss ideas and programme proposals put forward from different groups. In thatconnection former Prime Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz raised two important questions: Howto combine higher economic growth with the demands on the Left about more social justice? And:88 “The Working Peoples Movement”.95
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“This provisional situation chara
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marketisation and privatisationshor
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purposes, are channels for “expre
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the significance of strategic choic
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presidentialism gave rise to “flo
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antipolitics and reinforcement of a
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In the late 1990’s elections most
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determined primarily by “politica
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politics and antipolitics, all sign
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which attitudes to state regulation
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Anti-communism has been defined in
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elections and the Slovak communists
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Cartel agreementsbetter representat
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Basically the absence of clear cons
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After 1989 different types of polit
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complex project for transition unde
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window of opportunity in spite of s
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analyses of party institutionalizat
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political messages and slogans. Thu
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well established party culture may
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Page 50 and 51: whole, on the one side an authorita
Page 52 and 53: The economic recession and the grav
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Page 62 and 63: values. According to Rybicki, as so
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Page 66 and 67: 2001 parliamentary election, howeve
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Page 86 and 87: such as KSCM and KSS in The Czech R
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