Lost in Transition
by Anna Wójcik
After 1989, the political establishment set up three goals: democracy, free market, and Europe. Poland managed to achieved them more or less successfully, holding first semi-free elections to the parliament on the 4th of June 1989, painfully adjusting to the harsh reality of the market economy, and joining NATO in 1997 and European Union in 2004 with 10 other Central and Eastern European countries. Today, it shapes up its position within the EU, trying to secure national interests, but the goals became more fluid, as mentioned by Professor Andrzej Rychard. The results of recent presidential elections – with low turnout and anti-systemic enfant terrible Paweł Kukiz gaining 20% of votes – suggest that Poles need a serious energizer to keep going up.
From today’s perspective, “the carnival of Solidarity” in the early 80s, described by Konstanty Gebert, seems like an almost mythical moment of unity for the cause. Poles of different walks of life were united in their understanding that the socialist system was in many ways dysfunctional on economic, political, and moral level. “Solidarity” became a mass movement totaling at astounding 10 million members. Regarded from the distance, it excluded certain groups of people. This exclusion was not evident in the rush of the happenings, and also because at that time there was no awareness of the complexity of Polish society and language to speak about the exclusion of women, non-Catholics, and national minorities from the movement. It is somehow comforting to witness that the legends of “Solidarity” and beneficiaries of the transformation, such as our speaker Mr. Gebert, are narrating the history of “Solidarity” with more balanced perspective, acknowledging its successes and flaws.
Moreover, the narrative about the gains and costs of economic transformation is becoming increasingly nuanced in Poland, as demonstrated by Professor Andrzej Rychard. It has become apparent that the burden of systemic changes was not distributed equally, and that in 2015 we still struggle with structural unemployment, skills mismatch, and disparities in the standards of living of the population, all triggered during first years of the transition. In the beginning of 1990s, neoliberal discourse infused Polish society, the result being that society was ready for major sacrifices. Citizens believed that, democracy equaled meritocracy, and that free market eventually guaranteed success for all – if an individual, , invested in education,and was flexible, and shrewd.
Today, as an increasing number of opinionmakers are influenced by Thomas Piketty rather than Francis Fukuyama, and a highly educated and skilled workforce is stuck on junk-contracts with limited perspectives of social mobility, the dissatisfaction is most evident in the last decade. Fortunately, at least a part of the younger generation seems to remember a lesson of “Solidarity”, and instead “burning the committees is creating their owns” (I refer to the quote of Jacek Kuroń, a hero of “Solidarity” and Polish left).
This new energy was palpable in the narrative of city activists gathered around City Movements Congress, as presented by Artur Celiński. Once again, this is a classic tale of people coming together for the cause. Today causes are ususally less grandiose than overthrowing the communist jug: activists demand more transparency and participation in local governments or are fed-up with extensive advertising in the public spaces, for example. Their ideas spread like a virus: starting in private conversations, going on in (digital) print, slowly paving its way to mainstream media, and eventually to policymakers, and yes, sometimes eventually also to the parliament.
26 years after the first semi-free elections in Poland and major structural reforms that followed, the question arises: has the transition period ended already? It is of course the task of historians to answer this question from afar. At the same time, it is tempting to look at the issue from a slightly different perspective and conclude that the paradigm of transition is here to stay. We should remember that things are open to improvement, and act.
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