(An interview with Polish antifascist and anarcho-syndicalist Jacub Neumann. The German translation of it with some explanations will soon appear in the new paper issue and on the blog of das Grosse Thier. Behold! – liberadio)
* There have been some important changes in the Polish society since 2015 as the PiS come to power. I have some questions on that. Why did such social-democratic or social-liberal forces like Platforma Obywatelska (PO) lost the elections after the crisis? Where is the Solidarność in this mess now?
PO is not and was never neither social-democratic nor social-liberal force. It is typical conservative-liberal party connected strongly with CDU, Partido Popular or Fidesz. They were ruling very long but their power was built on fear. Most of their voters were anti-PiS voters. People who remembered terrible two years of rulling right-wing populist coalition of PiS-LPR-Samoobrona. They lost because they did not care about social cases and were sure that their conservative-liberal agenda is enough to win again. In Poland parties and voters of parties is not the same because people choose some party to vote against another party that they hate.
The political climate changed world-wide during the Ukrainian crisis and escalation of Syrian conflict. The hybrid war helped PiS very much. It should be noted that PiS became even more radical than it used to be anytime and rhetoric against Muslims was very similar to Nazi rhetoric against Jews. After reveals of Cambridge Analitica and Facebook scandal we also know who installed PiS government in Poland using massive propaganda in social medias.
The problem is that the liberal opposition is also right-wing. They do not criticize PiS politics in any position except neoliberal and during the voting of liberalization the abortion law they voted against. They also all voted for official praising the Narodowe Siły Zbrojne, far-right anticommunist and antisemitic guerrilla active during WW2 in opposition to leading anti-German resistance movement which was Armija Krajowa.
Solidarność is not a normal trade union. It is rather national-conservative anticommunist movement that sometimes supports some social cases. The former leader of the union Janusz Śniadek became PiS deputy later, the present one Piotr Duda claimed that under his control the union will be apolitical. But it is more pro-PiS than it ever was. Their cooperation with neofascist movement is separated topic that should be discussed by world-wide level. International trade unions who oppose far-right in their country have nothing against other union in other country that supports far-right government and neofascist organizations. In my opinion if they support such positions they should do such things in their country not legitimize such behaviors in Poland. Continue reading “„We are a bit better organized than we used to be 4 years ago””