What would you say is the reason for the propaganda going on there? Were people not satisfied with the Polish socialist government or is it that the bourgeoisie took over the media and decided to propagandize heavily to ensure they stay in power?
The element of dissatisfaction with the socialist government was definitely very strong, the revisionists made many mistakes, starting with “destalinisation” and bureocratisation of state and party, though they did delivered what socialism promised. They made colossal mistake in the 60’s and 70’s though, the politics of opening to the west (stemming from typical lack of understanding of imperialism) made country vulnerable to western propaganda, and they used that opportunity hard, american and west Europe media flooded the country, presenting the petty bourgeoise and labour aristocracy life quality as the standard possible just by having capitalism. This proven incredibly pervasive, as after 89+reinforcing of the consumerism people still measure their wellbeing largely by the access to consumer goods. Second mistake was the economic closing, loans, etc.
In 1980 problems converged, and a rising cost of living* sparked massive strikes and manifestations, which were outwardly socialist in nature, but were in fact organized and hijacked by people ultimately serving the antisocialist factions like church and growing liberals with entire thing being sponsored by USA (it wasn’t even first time). This put a wrench in the economy cogs, worsening the crisis manyfold and also caused huge political crisis splintering the government into two factions. Then perestroika hit and opportunists get open signal from Moscow that they are free to do whatever they want.
89 transformation when looked from some distance have all characteristics of a coup, in which government (by then thoroughly purged from socialist elements) with opposition couped in fact the nation. We will probably never know what really and exactly happened back then and in the next few years, since the first thing they seized and subordinated was police and security services, and in the next years people threatening to disclose some details were (i’m sure completely coincidentally /s) been killed by mafia, committed suicide, died in car accidents etc. So what i wrote here is basically my observations, true marxist analysis will probably never be made, trots are producing some utter rubbish about it, which don’t make it easier.
Of course media been really the 4th power in this, as i wrote above off all the forces and their emanation in play, they seems to be the one which is, completely against the expectations, the most uniform force that clearly demonstrates that the issue is of course nothing else but the class, they have all the factionalism of various bourgeois interests and opinions, but nothing, in the entire spectrum, going against their class interests, if the case is even potentially concering the class issues, they speak with one voice.
*This is especially bitter irony, what officially sparked those protests were the cost of living rise comprable to those which we now have monthly. And nearly nobody is minding, nobody is protesting, not even if we take the destruction of the unions under consideration.
Thank you for the detailed response! It makes sense that the country’s dissatisfaction with the past government stems from these points and not only young people or the current ownership of the media, but it really makes me think why an understanding of imperialism as well as the reason behind consumer goods being so common in the west should be a fundamental part of socialist education as to not make people look to the west as something people would want to strive to be like.
And to fill in on the last point, I’ve also noticed the complete apathy to rising cost of living in my country. No one is protesting or doing anything about it. Most people aren’t politically engaged because they seem to feel it’s a headache with all the commotion that politics is associated with so they think just voting for a populist is enough and they wont boycott or go on strikes because it’s just more inconvenient than forcing a change. It seems as if the risk of the strikes or protests being getting broke is what is disincentivizes people to take action (although France would be a different case). The labour movement here seems completely dead when it should be on the rise. People being so indifferent about the state of their livelihood is a red flag to me (pun not intended) as it seems to symbolize the control that people now are living under.
This is yet another bitter irony. One of the main point of communism is to politically activate and empower the masses of workers, something always denied by the liberals and left anticommunists. Well sure as fuck it did happen in Poland, proving those two groups wrong, lo and behold 10 million workers (which was more than 25% of entire population, that level of political participation is seriously crazy) did risen and fought for what they percieved as their own class interest.
What would you say is the reason for the propaganda going on there? Were people not satisfied with the Polish socialist government or is it that the bourgeoisie took over the media and decided to propagandize heavily to ensure they stay in power?
I often wonder about it myself.
The element of dissatisfaction with the socialist government was definitely very strong, the revisionists made many mistakes, starting with “destalinisation” and bureocratisation of state and party, though they did delivered what socialism promised. They made colossal mistake in the 60’s and 70’s though, the politics of opening to the west (stemming from typical lack of understanding of imperialism) made country vulnerable to western propaganda, and they used that opportunity hard, american and west Europe media flooded the country, presenting the petty bourgeoise and labour aristocracy life quality as the standard possible just by having capitalism. This proven incredibly pervasive, as after 89+reinforcing of the consumerism people still measure their wellbeing largely by the access to consumer goods. Second mistake was the economic closing, loans, etc.
In 1980 problems converged, and a rising cost of living* sparked massive strikes and manifestations, which were outwardly socialist in nature, but were in fact organized and hijacked by people ultimately serving the antisocialist factions like church and growing liberals with entire thing being sponsored by USA (it wasn’t even first time). This put a wrench in the economy cogs, worsening the crisis manyfold and also caused huge political crisis splintering the government into two factions. Then perestroika hit and opportunists get open signal from Moscow that they are free to do whatever they want.
89 transformation when looked from some distance have all characteristics of a coup, in which government (by then thoroughly purged from socialist elements) with opposition couped in fact the nation. We will probably never know what really and exactly happened back then and in the next few years, since the first thing they seized and subordinated was police and security services, and in the next years people threatening to disclose some details were (i’m sure completely coincidentally /s) been killed by mafia, committed suicide, died in car accidents etc. So what i wrote here is basically my observations, true marxist analysis will probably never be made, trots are producing some utter rubbish about it, which don’t make it easier.
Of course media been really the 4th power in this, as i wrote above off all the forces and their emanation in play, they seems to be the one which is, completely against the expectations, the most uniform force that clearly demonstrates that the issue is of course nothing else but the class, they have all the factionalism of various bourgeois interests and opinions, but nothing, in the entire spectrum, going against their class interests, if the case is even potentially concering the class issues, they speak with one voice.
*This is especially bitter irony, what officially sparked those protests were the cost of living rise comprable to those which we now have monthly. And nearly nobody is minding, nobody is protesting, not even if we take the destruction of the unions under consideration.
Thank you for the detailed response! It makes sense that the country’s dissatisfaction with the past government stems from these points and not only young people or the current ownership of the media, but it really makes me think why an understanding of imperialism as well as the reason behind consumer goods being so common in the west should be a fundamental part of socialist education as to not make people look to the west as something people would want to strive to be like.
And to fill in on the last point, I’ve also noticed the complete apathy to rising cost of living in my country. No one is protesting or doing anything about it. Most people aren’t politically engaged because they seem to feel it’s a headache with all the commotion that politics is associated with so they think just voting for a populist is enough and they wont boycott or go on strikes because it’s just more inconvenient than forcing a change. It seems as if the risk of the strikes or protests being getting broke is what is disincentivizes people to take action (although France would be a different case). The labour movement here seems completely dead when it should be on the rise. People being so indifferent about the state of their livelihood is a red flag to me (pun not intended) as it seems to symbolize the control that people now are living under.
This is yet another bitter irony. One of the main point of communism is to politically activate and empower the masses of workers, something always denied by the liberals and left anticommunists. Well sure as fuck it did happen in Poland, proving those two groups wrong, lo and behold 10 million workers (which was more than 25% of entire population, that level of political participation is seriously crazy) did risen and fought for what they percieved as their own class interest.
Too bad it was false after all.