Download or read book From Solidarity to Sellout written by Tadeusz Kowalik and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1980s and 90s, renowned Polish economist Tadeusz Kowalik played a leading role in the Solidarity movement, struggling alongside workers for an alternative to "really-existing socialism" that was cooperative and controlled by the workers themselves. In the ensuing two decades, "really-existing" socialism has collapsed, capitalism has been restored, and Poland is now among the most unequal countries in the world. Kowalik asks, how could this happen in a country that once had the largest and most militant labor movement in Europe? This book takes readers inside the debates within Solidar
Download or read book Polish Revolution written by Timothy Garton Ash and published by . This book was released on 1998-09 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Timothy Garton Ash was with the strikers in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk in August 1980 when the trade union Solidarity was born, in opposition to the Communist government. He witnessed their bravery and defiance and the emergence of an improbable leader and hero in the country's future president, Lech Walesa. This text recreates the ideals and terrors of that time, and exposes the mechanics of oppression of the communist regime.
Download or read book Solidarity with Solidarity written by Idesbald Goddeeris and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2010 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Polish crisis in the early 1980s provoked a great deal of reaction in the West. Not only governments, but social movements were also touched by the establishment of the Independent Trade Union Solidarnosc in the summer of 1980, the proclamation of martial law in December 1981, and Solidarnosc's underground activity in the subsequent years. In many countries, campaigns were set up in order to spread information, raise funds, and provide the Polish opposition with humanitarian relief and technical assistance. Labor movements especially stepped into the limelight. A number of Western European unions were concerned about the new international tension following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the new hard-line policy of the US and saw Solidarnosc as a political instrument of clerical and neo-conservative cold warriors. This book analyzes reaction to Solidarnosc in nine Western European countries and within the international trade union confederations. It argues that Western solidarity with Solidarnosc was highly determined by its instrumental value within the national context. Trade unions openly sided with Solidarnosc when they had an interest in doing so, namely when Solidarnosc could strengthen their own program or position. But this book also reveals that reaction in allegedly reluctant countries was massive, albeit discreet, pragmatic, and humanitarian, rather than vocal, emotional, and political.
Download or read book Breaking the Barrier written by Lawrence Goodwyn and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1991 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last year the world has been electrified as one Soviet bloc government after another has collapsed. But ten years before the events of the past year came the first successful challenge to the Leninist state--the shipworker's strike in Gdansk, which led to the first free trade union in the communist world. Here is a fascinating history of the Solidarity movement.
Download or read book The Roots of Solidarity written by Roman Laba and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 1980, two weeks before the Gdansk shipyard strikes, Roman Laba arrived in Poland as an American graduate student. He stayed there for almost two and a half years before he was arrested and expelled from the country for "activities noxious to the interests of the Polish state." Laba had set himself the ambitious task of documenting the history of Poland's free trade union. Martial law was in force for the last year of his stay, but even during that time he continued his rescue of the unique historical materials that contribute so much to Roots of Solidarity. The book uses this hard-earned information to challenge the commonly accepted view of the Polish intelligentsia as the driving force behind Solidarity and to demonstrate that the roots of the movement go back a decade earlier than the 1980 strikes. Laba presents compelling evidence that Solidarity emerged directly from the activities of workers in the 1970s along the Baltic coast. It was not the intellectual elite but these workers, independent of and unknown to the rest of Poland, who created three crucial strategies for struggle against oppression: the sit-down strike, the interfactory strike committee, and the demand for free trade unions independent of the party state. This concise and provocative work is divided into two parts. The first is a narrative of the creation of Solidarity. The second shows how workers' resistance to the Leninist state gradually generated new forms of democratic organizations and politics. Laba criticizes elitist ways of understanding social movements and also presents an unusual analysis of Solidarity's ritual symbolism. In addition, new evidence transforms our understanding of the role of the police and the army in a one-party state. Originally published in 1991. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Download or read book Transnational Labour Solidarity written by Katarzyna Gajewska and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why and how to study European solidarity? -- Analytical categories in conceptualizing solidaristic behaviour -- Presentation of cases -- The vertical dimension of Europeanization of the trade union movement -- Interaction and action as transformational mechanisms -- Framing solidarity : interests, identification and reciprocity -- Situational mechanisms : market integration and trade unions.
Download or read book KOR written by Jan Józef Lipski and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The signing of the Gdansk Agreements in August 1980 signaled the birth of the Solidarity independent trae union movement. The sixteen months that followed until the December 1981 declaration of martial law remain one of the most fascinating chapter in the history of communist states. But the events of August 1980 did not materialize from thin air. The groundwork for Solidarity was prepared five years before when a group of dissident intellectuals gathered to boldly proclaim their solidarity with persecuted workers at Random and Ursus. This group called itself the Komitet Obrony Robotnikow (KOR) or the Worker's Defense Committee. What was KOR? What were the social and political circumstances that lead to its formation? And how did it presage a movement that would come to symbolize the hopes of a whole generation of Poles? The answers to these questions lie in the rare insights provided by one of Poland's most respected historians, Jan Jozef Lipski, who was also a found and active member of KOR. His book, translated from the Polish, is a meticulously detailed, insider's account of KOR from its formation in 1976 to its dissolution of 1981 when it was subsumed by the more powerful movement of mass, organized protest, Solidarity. The history of KOR is painted on the broad canvass of Polish society, in a manner which sheds light on the roles of other actors--workers, peasants, government officials, the Catholic Church, the Soviet Union--who also had a hand in shaping events during this period. KOR: A History of the Workers' Defense Committee in Poland is a work of first-rate importance unlike any other published in the West. It provides a deep insight into the origins of events in Poland, and will also inform those intersted in the process of liberation elsewhere in Eastern Europe. Although written with a historian's attention to detail and objectivity, it is a riveting work of sustained dramatic tension. For Lipski is a dissident who writes about Poland from Poland and the history he writes about is till in the making. This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1985.
Download or read book Solidarity written by Michael Szporer and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2012 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty five interviews with workers and intellectual allies of Solidarity.
Download or read book Solidarity s Secret written by Shana Penn and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 414 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book to document women's crucial role in the fall of Poland's communist regime
Download or read book Empowering Revolution written by Gregory F. Domber and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2014-10-06 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the most populous country in Eastern Europe as well as the birthplace of the largest anticommunist dissident movement, Poland is crucial in understanding the end of the Cold War. During the 1980s, both the United States and the Soviet Union vied for influence over Poland's politically tumultuous steps toward democratic revolution. In this groundbreaking history, Gregory F. Domber examines American policy toward Poland and its promotion of moderate voices within the opposition, while simultaneously addressing the Soviet and European influences on Poland's revolution in 1989. With a cast including Reagan, Gorbachev, and Pope John Paul II, Domber charts American support of anticommunist opposition groups--particularly Solidarity, the underground movement led by future president Lech Wa&322;&281;sa--and highlights the transnational network of Polish emigres and trade unionists that kept the opposition alive. Utilizing archival research and interviews with Polish and American government officials and opposition leaders, Domber argues that the United States empowered a specific segment of the Polish opposition and illustrates how Soviet leaders unwittingly fostered radical, pro-democratic change through their policies. The result is fresh insight into the global impact of the Polish pro-democracy movement.
Download or read book A Covert Action Reagan the CIA and the Cold War Struggle in Poland written by Seth G. Jones and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A tale of victory for peace, for freedom, and for the CIA— a trifecta rare enough to make for required reading.” —Steve Donoghue, Spectator USA In 1981, the Soviet-backed Polish government declared martial law to crush a budding democratic opposition movement. Moscow and Washington were on a collision course. It was the most significant crisis of Ronald Reagan’s fledgling presidency. Reagan authorized a covert CIA operation codenamed QRHELPFUL to support dissident groups, particularly the trade union Solidarity. The CIA provided money that helped Solidarity print newspapers, broadcast radio programs, and conduct an information campaign against the government. This gripping narrative reveals the little-known history of one of America’s most successful covert operations through its most important characters—spymaster Bill Casey, CIA officer Richard Malzahn, Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, and the Polish patriots who were instrumental to the success of the program. Based on in- depth interviews and recently declassified evidence, A Covert Action celebrates a decisive victory over tyranny for US intelligence behind the Iron Curtain, one that prefigured the Soviet collapse.
Download or read book The Defeat of Solidarity written by David Ost and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did the fall of communism and the subsequent transition to capitalism in Eastern Europe affect the people who experienced it? And how did their anger affect the quality of the democratic systems that have emerged? Poland offers a particularly provocative case, for it was here where workers most famously seemed to have won, thanks to the role of the Solidarity trade union. And yet, within a few short years, they had clearly lost. An oppressive communist regime gave way to a capitalist society that embraced economic and political inequality, leaving many workers frustrated and angry. Their leaders first ignored them, then began to fear them, and finally tried to marginalize them. In turn, workers rejected their liberal leaders, opening the way for right-wing nationalists to take control of Solidarity. Ost tells a fascinating story about the evolution of postcommunist society in Eastern Europe. Informed by years of fieldwork in Polish factory towns, scores of interviews with workers, labor activists, and politicians, and an exhaustive reading of primary sources, his new book gives voice to those who have not been heard. But even more, Ost proposes a novel theory about the role of anger in politics to show why such voices matter, and how they profoundly affect political outcomes. Drawing on Poland's experiences, Ost describes lessons relevant to democratization throughout Eastern Europe and to democratic theory in general.
Download or read book Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution written by Jack M. Bloom and published by Brill Academic Publishers. This book was released on 2013 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jack M. Bloom presents a moving account of how an opposition developed and triumphed in communist Poland, showing the perspectives and experiences of the participants, while often letting them recount their own stories and explain their thinking.
Download or read book Strike for Freedom written by Robert Eringer and published by New York : Dodd, Mead. This book was released on 1982 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the Solidarity movement in Poland, a sixteen-month-old struggle by the independent trade union movement and its worker leader, Lech Walesa.
Download or read book Political Solidarity written by Sally J. Scholz and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Solidarity and the Politics of Anti Politics written by David Ost and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 1991-08-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on extensive use of primary sources, this book provides an analysis of Solidarity, from its ideological origins in the Polish "new left," through the dramatic revolutionary months of 1980-81, and up to the union?s remarkable resurgence in 1988-89, when it sat down with the government to negotiate Poland?s future. David Ost focuses on what Solidarity is trying to accomplish and why it is likely that the movement will succeed. He traces the conflict between the ruling Communist Party and the opposition, Solidarity?s response to it, and the resulting reforms. Noting that Poland is the one country in the world where "radicals of ?68" came to be in a position to negotiate with a government about the nature of the political system, Ost asks what Poland tells us about the possibility for realizing a "new left" theory of democracy in the modern world. As a Fulbright Fellow at Warsaw University and Polish correspondent for the weekly newspaper In These Times during the Solidarity uprising and a frequent visitor to Poland since then, David Ost has had access to a great deal of unpublished material on the labor movement. Without dwelling on the familiar history of August 1980, he offers some of the unfamiliar subtleties?such as the significance of the Szczecin as opposed to the Gdansk Accord?and shows how they shaped the budding union?s understanding of the conflicts ahead. Unique in its attention to the critical, formative period following August 1980, this study is the most current and comprehensive analysis of a movement that continues to transform the nature of East European society.
Download or read book The Legacy of Polish Solidarity written by Andrzej Rychard and published by Studies in Social Sciences, Philosophy and History of Ideas. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Polish movement of Solidarity contributed to the collapse of communism in 1989. What is left of Solidarity? How did it evolve, and contribute to the collapse of the old system and to the building of the new? These are the question the authors, leading specialist on the problems of social movements and social change address in this book.
