Law /
Those of us in Sterling GBP are having our backsides kicked [35]
Not really You made a mistake of throwing all of Solidarity's track record in one bag.
The problem is that actually, Solidarity from the beginning were dreadfully socialist. I'm almost certain that the "split" in Solidarity partially came about because the intellectuals realised that simply giving the workers what the Party members had was a recipe for disaster in a bankrupt state.
The "reform of many industries", as you cal it, consisted (in most cases) of former commie oligarchy to become capitalist oligarchy. I full understand the grievance. The people have been robbed and in may cases, the proceeds of the robbery were sold to foreign interests.
Many industries were/are still State owned and have suffered with huge problems with this. Look at the ridiculous privileges handed out to miners, for example - again, a direct result of emotional blackmail.
You might also want to consider that Solidarity management ruined many State owned businesses - as I said, Ciegelski is a great example. Likewise, the shipyards - they refused to modernise. I met one director personally from Ciegelski, who made it clear that they were bound by the workforce - a workforce that doesn't want to change with the times. One example I was given - there was a proposal to produce some new equipment for ships, in a brand new production hall. It was going to involve the re-training of many workers, all at the company expense. It was refused by the trade union - because - the workers didn't want to do something new.
Utter nonsense, don't you think? And that's in a State owned company!
That's a gem. A worker making 3000 pln would like to make 5000 pln and that's greed. A business owner person making 1,000,000 pln wants o make 2,000,000pln and that's not greed :)
No, greed is when the workers demand payrises in a company which is losing money. The risk should be shared, no? Greed is also deliberately obstructing reform in order to protect your own position - I know this is why Solidarity are almost non-existent in many large Polish companies, because they simply cannot be trusted to cooperate with management.
Wow. It took you only what, 20 years to realize that? Of course Solidarnisc is politically motivated. It has been from day one and it needs to remain such. Politics that is bad for the working class is surely the first thing any trade union needs to fight first.
Shouldn't trade unions be apolitical, fighting for the best possible deal for their members irrespective of political inclinations?
Walesa's words when quitting the trade union should be listened to - it had no longer become a trade union, but rather a mouthpiece of the Kaczynski leadership. And that wasn't good for anyone - not least the workers.
