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UnSolidarity on Solidarity’s Birthday |
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August 30, 2000
WARSAW (AP) - Solidarity celebrates the 20th anniversary this week of the trade union that broke the back of Polish communism. But these days, it is having a hard time living up to its fabled name. Riven by personality clashes, plummeting poll numbers and loose-cannon lawmakers who snub the party line, the Solidarity of 2000 sometimes seems set to self-destruct. Far from the unified voice of popular dissent, Solidarity has evolved into a fractious political coalition of nearly two dozen conservative or right-wing parties, societies, trade unions and religious associations. Even legendary Solidarity trade union founder Lech Walesa, who broke with Solidarity over leadership issues and formed his own party called the Christian Democracy of Poland in 1997, says the movement has lost its way. "After reaching 'Bus Stop Freedom,' we should have rolled up the Solidarity banners," Walesa said in recent a telephone interview from his office in Gdansk. "The ideal role for Solidarity now would be to go back to its trade union positions and to ensure democracy - sometimes help parties, but never fill in for them." The antics of a few dozen Solidarity deputies have so disrupted the government's economic reform program that the pro-market Freedom Union, Solidarity's junior coalition partner for the past 30 months, bolted the government because Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek couldn't keep them in line. As a result, the Solidarity bloc has been ruling without even a nominal majority in the parliament since June. The troublemakers are a noisy minority of right-wing deputies that have been holding the government hostage over such crusades as Sunday shopping limits, efforts to settle old scores with ex-communists and phobias about foreign intrusion into the economy. Even festivities celebrating Solidarity's 20th birthday that run through Thursday have opened old wounds, with some former activists criticizing organizers for refusing to invite President Aleksander Kwasniewski, an ex-communist. Organizers say he was left off the guest list because he supported Solidarity's suppression under martial law. At a moment when it should be savoring its victory over communism, Solidarity is instead struggling to retain its relevance. Since a revamped Solidarity bloc took over the government after winning 35 percent of the vote in 1997, its approval ratings in surveys of voting-age Poles have plummeted to around 15 percent. Given the chance to vote today, they almost certainly would hand the government back to the tight opposition bloc of ex-communists. "Right now it's a federation" instead of a disciplined party, said Lena Kolarska-Bobinska, director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a Warsaw think tank. "And right now it threatens to disappear."
Despite its incessant internal squabbling, the government has pushed through some impressive fiscal reforms, nurtured solid economic growth, brought Poland under NATO's military umbrella and set it on course for EU membership. But the harsh realities of the free market, tight budgets and painful restructuring of ailing industries such as coal and steel have helped push unemployment to nearly 14 percent, leaving many Poles anxious and angry. Pawel Grzelak of the Demoskop polling agency likes to compare a graph of Solidarity's plunging popularity with a near-identical chart of falling consumer confidence. "People now treat Solidarity like a regular political party, and it's now accountable for the economy, for social policy, for whether people feel more secure or not," he said. Kolarska-Bobinska noted that all main political groups agree on the basic goal of a market economy fit to join the EU. But she said it is folly for Solidarity to keep differentiating itself with what many view as a passe obsession with anti-communism and Roman Catholic Church doctrine. Though plenty of anti-communist sentiment lingers, it is "less useful today for organizing the political scene," she said. And while more than 90 percent of Poles are Catholic, church-backed anti-abortion laws and efforts to end Sunday shopping have proved widely unpopular. Solidarity has hit the political skids before. It's feuding factions went separate ways for the 1993 elections - and got clobbered by better organized ex-communists. For the 1997 ballot, Marian Krzaklewski, Walesa's successor as head of the union, cobbled together a quirky array of conservative and far-right groups on a Solidarity Electoral Action ticket. It worked, but critics say he let too many rogues into the camp that have caused headaches ever since. Now Solidarity must try to ride it out as a minority government. Parliamentary elections are not due until fall of 2001, but could come sooner if the government fails to get key budget bills approved. Krzaklewski, meanwhile, faces a potential humiliation in his long-shot run for the presidency this fall against Aleksander Kwasniewski, the ex-communist incumbent who is Poland's most popular politician. Analysts say Solidarity will always have a core of support likely to ensure it a bloc of seats in the parliament, but its influence is waning. "They have a future, but they will have to construct it on something other than history or nostalgia," Kolarska-Bobinska said. |
