Solidarity in Poland!

The textbook talks about how polish workers in 1980 organized strikes and laid out several key demands: "first, they objected to working conditions imposed by the government to combat a severe economic crisis. Second, they protested high prices and, especially shortages, both of which had roots in government policy and priorities. Above all, though, the Polish workers in Solidarity demanded truly independent labor unions instead of labor organizations sponsored by the government" (1039). By questioning high prices, working conditions, and the basis of the structure of the labor unions- the workers were questioning the socialist government- and therefore questioning communism as a whole. This clearly angered the mother country of the Soviet Union. The Soviet response was that this solidarity movement (lead by Lech Walesa) was the "growth of anti-sovietism in Poland" and that this aroused hatred among poles towards the Soviet Union and Soviet people and to go even further, the response said that this meant "to break the bonds of fraternal friendship linking our peoples and as a result to tear Poland from the socialist community and to liquidate socialism in Poland." I found this to be EXTREME- but I guess that if the Soviets didn't overreact, then Poland might drop out of theWarsaw Pact and be lost to democracy forever and ever. This website claims that "Solidarity was an independent labour union instrumental in the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union, and the primary catalyst that would transform Poland from a repressive communist satellite to the EU member democracy it is today." In my opinion, I am happy that Poland is now a democracy today and no longer a communist state.

In most of these documents, something that i found interesting was that the communists in the Soviet Union had a very strong fear of this anti-soviet power building up in Poland, and it reminded me a little bit of the fear of communism that took hold of western europe and the United States in particular (which in turn lead to the concept of containment). I guess you are always afraid of THE OTHER!

Something else that I noticed was the brilliant diplomacy of Wojciech Jaruzelski's Announcement of Martial Law in Poland. I just liked how he announced that the soviet union would be bringing in their army into Poland for the "sole task of the protection of legal order in the country and the creation of executive guarantees that will make it possible to restore order and discipline." I just think that Wojciech was able to please the people of Poland and the Soviets by mentioning the "Polish-Soviet alliance...which will remain, the cornerstone of the Polish raison d'etat, the guarantee of the inviolability of our borders." Of course Wojciech did have to repress Solidarity itself. 

All in all, I feel as though this incident in Poland was mainly just one of the factors that caused the collapse of communism.