A personal opinion about Poland

[pieter]

Dear friends,

Since I am half Polish, have Polish family and friends in Poland and Polish-American family and other Polish family in the Polish diaspora in Europe I feel personally, genetically (genes and dna), ethnically, historically, culturally, geopolitically (as a fellow European, fellow Westerner and fellow World citizen -towards Poles, Polish diaspora/Polonia and Poland-) and politically connected to Poland (Maybe due to my cousin, Pjotr Gardecki in Wrocław, Bonobo in Kraków, Tufta in Warszawa and Bunjo, Adam, Zooba and Jerzy, wherever they are in Poland. Maybe like Karl to Denmark (the country of his mother, aunt and cousins; Esbjerg on the southwestern coast of of the Jutland peninsula[ in Denmark just above North Frisia -Friesland-), Kai (Ron) to Slovakia (and partly to the Czech republic and Germany where he worked and lived and travels to over and over again and Poland which Ron has learned to know in recent years) and Eric to Russia (where he studied and lived and traveled to several former Sovjet republics, now independent states). Poland is not just a country for me, it is the country in which my mother and Ciocia Marysia (her elder sister) were born in Warsaw during the early thirties. It is the country of my babcia (grandmother) and dziadek (grandfather) and Rodzina (family; the Kotowicz, Pantoflinsky, Kalinowsky and Kwasieborski families, and the Kaczmierzak family of the the husband of my American and thus also my family. And the friends and former Polish colleagues of my mother in Warsaw and Poznań. That Polish family now has Polish, American diaspora and European diaspora branches. And we are stil expanding, because my sister with her half Polish blood moved to South-Africa. My South-African niece Katja and nephew Jack [the children of my sister] have a quarter Polish blood and their American cousins from Chicago have 100% Polish blood, because the Polish American family is ethnic 100% Polish).

Poland has had a difficult past and managed wonderfully to rebuild and reestablish democratic constitutions, a legal system with the separation of powers, a parliamentarian democracy with free elections, freedom of speech, freedom of expression and an independent press and media. Poland suffered under devastating foreign invasions of Tartars, Teutonic (German) knights and Swedish destructive forces and foreign imperialist royal occupation (Prussia, Hasburgian Austria and Czarist Russia), internal instability during the interbellum (the 1926 Coup 'd Etat and the Sanacja and Colonels regime after that, the devastating effect of the Second World War which did not only ruin Poland and take away a large part of it's population, but also Poland's environment (the neighbouring states and countries). From primitive and Brutal Stalinism Poland developed into the direction of a Polish communism (which was harsh, but slightly less bad than the Stalinist terror of 1945-1956). Poland was rebuilt, but Poles weren't free, because they were locked up behind the Iron Curtain in the East-Block system of the Warsaw Pact Military alliance and the Comecon socialist economical alliance.

The last 26 years have been tough too for Poland. After the peaceful liberation of Poland from communism via cooperation, transformation and negotiation (the Round Table Talks of the late eighties) and the first democratically elected government with a mixed democratic and communist adminstration, Poland moved towards a real democracy and freedom. It was with ups and downs, the Shock therapy of the Balcerowicz Plan (1989-1992). The Balcerowicz Plan (Polish: Plan Balcerowicza), also termed "Shock Therapy", was a method for rapidly transitioning from a communist economy, based on state ownership and central planning, to a capitalist market economy. Named for its author, the Polish minister and economist Leszek Balcerowicz, the plan was adopted in Poland in 1989.

In September 1989 a commission of experts was formed under the presidency of Leszek Balcerowicz, Poland's leading economist, Minister of Finance and deputy Premier of Poland. Among the members of the commission were Jeffrey Sachs, Stanisław Gomułka, Stefan Kawalec and Wojciech Misiąg. The commission prepared a plan of extensive reforms that were to enable fast transformation of Poland's economy from obsolete and ineffective central planning to capitalism, as adopted by the states of Western Europe and America.

Positive

The packet of reforms passed by the parliament drastically limited the state's influence over the economy. The plan released price-fixing for many products, allowing them to be dictated by the market instead of the Central Statistical Office. Also the internal debt was drastically limited, by circa 3% of GNP, by cutting down on state subsidies to coal, electricity and petroleum. Initially the social costs of the reforms were seen as extremely high, and roughly 1.1 million workers at state-owned firms lost their jobs. Although inflation seemed to be out of control, the Polish economy gradually started to get back on track. By 1992, more than 600,000 private companies had been set up, providing jobs for approximately 1.5 million people.

Most economists agree that without this shock therapy, which sacrificed short-term gains for long-term growth, modern Poland would be a much poorer country. For example, Poland's annual growth rate between 1989 and 2000 was the highest of all post-Communist economies.

Criticism

Some populists were highly critical of the reforms, and Balcerowicz sustained many political attacks. Andrzej Lepper, the leader of the populist Self-Defense (Samoobrona) party, to create the slogan: "Balcerowicz must go" (Balcerowicz musi odejść).

The wave of bankruptcies of inefficient state-owned industrial giants left approximately 20% of Poles unemployed. The change was especially drastic in rural areas of the country, which had previously been collectivized by the Communists into state-owned farms. However, critics often point out that the reforms of 1990 only showed the unemployment that had existed in a hidden form during Communist times.

I knew some Polish friend of my mother back then, who was a fierce anti-communist during the Peoples Republic was so disappointed in the new system, politics and unemployment and hardship of the early nineties that he wrote; "We wont the reds back, the Western companies are pillaging Poland." Ofcourse that was a rather primitive, emotional and comical outcry, but it said something about that period.

Poland made a difficult and tough transition from a Communist socialist planned state economy to a Western, free market, Laissez Faire, capitalist economy. That was certainly not easy time for the pensioners, the workers who became unemployed and some young people who couldn't get a job and had to go abroad for work. But the transformation has taken place and it worked well for many Poles, and the entrance of the European Union in May 2004 added to that succes. Like also the entering of NATO.

But weak governments, division, corruption, nepotism and scandals stayed a problem. And one after another government collapsed. The democracy was vulnerable and fragile. But the Platforma Obywatelska (PO) government of the last eight years managed to let the economy grow and to show that Poland is a force to be reckoned with in Europe and the world. The problem of Platforma Obywatelska (Civic Platform, PO) was maybe that they forgot who had voted them and whom they were working for, the Polish electorate, the Polish people, the Polish voters. Arrogance and political scandals (secret recordings of conversations between top officials and etc. Bad language and etc.) made the people tired of the liberal-conservative PO cabinet. People went back to an old well know force and party, PiS.

I very much respect the vote of for instance Jaga's family members, my own Polish family members ( my cousin, her father and her sister) and friends of my mothers, the Polish family of John, Nictoshek, Jim, Bunjo, Adam, Tufta, Zooba, Jerzy and others. Wether they voted left, right or centrist (center right, the mid even point center or the center left). It is their democratic right to vote who ever they want to vote; PiS, Solidarna Polska, Polska Razem Zjednoczona Prawica (Polska Razem), Paweł Kukiz's political party Kukiz'15, Ruch Narodowy or the Centrolew like United Left (Zjednoczona Lewica), .Nowoczesna, Platforma Obywatelska or Razem. It is their legitimate and free choice. In the 2015 parliamentary election by the way Kukiz'15 cooperated with the far-right National Movement ( Ruch Narodowy ); about one quarter of Kukiz' 41 parliamentary seats will be held by members of the National Movement ( Ruch Narodowy ).


Polska Razem Zjednoczona Prawica







I learned from reading Bonobo's statements, opinions, experiences as a Pole and educator of highschool pupils and university students in Kraków on the other Polish Forum. He has his excellent content on this Forum and his wonderful images to illustrate that content or tell a story of their own in their sequence narrative. He is clearly critical of the new government. In the past I learned a great deal on this (Jaga's) Forum about Poland today and Poland in the Second half of the 20th century during the People's Republic communist dictatorship from Jaga, Bunjo (Wojtek), Adam, Tufta and Pawian. I miss Tufta's, Bunjo's and Adam's quintessence, quality content over here today sometimes, because they spoke from inside Poland about the reality today. Bonobo partly replaces them on the other Forum as a voice (in my point of view) of the Polish intelligentsia of Krakow. And a very selfcritical and humoristic representitive he is of that Polish academical group of people. The educators of pupils and students. And also of course from Zooba, Kaima with his travels in Poland and others. Recently I learnt more about the present situation in Poland due to contact with a Polish cousin, who speaks and writes excellent English (She is an English teacher too) and a Polish artist. My mother spoke with an old Polish friend from Warsaw who is ultra-conservative and government supporter. My mother felt her fear for foreigners and especially Muslim refugees due to her tone and the stories she told . The Warsaw friend of my mother don't want Muslim refugees to enter Poland. (My mother is more liberal and moderate progressive in her opinion than her Polish friend. She has her 49 years of experience in the West with immigration and a Western democracy, the Netherlands) My clear and reliable friends in Poland assured me that the worrysome news in the quality press of the West was right in it's assumptions about the deteriorating situation in Poland. I hope that Bonobo will not be brought to justice one day. Neither I wish for him being fired, because he will be not considered morally and ethically Polish enough to teach Polish pupils and students, because he does not follow the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość doctrines.

I say that everybody is entitled to vote for whoever he or she wants to vote. But that doesn't say that the opposition, disappointed voters (of PiS and Solidarna Polska) and others can't criticize, oppose and take action against the new government if it commits bad deeds, implements wrong laws and measures and for instance intimidates people of the opposition and people within their own ranks who dare to be critical, objective or act according to their ethnical, moral and social believes. Jaga, justly once said, Adolf Hitlers NSDAP party was also elected into the German government office via a majority of the German vote. That didn't made the NSDAP dominated government a good government and the later Third Reich a good state. Mind you I don't compare the PiS-Solidarna government with the NSDAP Hitler-Goebbels, Ribbentrop and Göring regime. But the PiS-Solidarna Polska government has clearly signs of the Hungarian authoritarian Viktor Orbán Fidesz Fidesz party government and the Russian regime of Putin.



Bonobo for instance as an English teacher in Krakow is obviously not Patriotic enough in the standard of PiS Nationalism, he is not conservative enough, not rightwing Socialist Polish in the PiS sense of view enough and will be certainly not Polish Roman-Catholic enough, although he is a good Polish Roman-Catholic and a Polish Patriot. But ofcourse you have Patriotism and (another sort of Polish Ultra-Nationalist) Patriotism nowadays. The Ultra-Nationalist, anti-Western, Anti-German, Anti-Russian, Anti-Muslim and Pro-Hungarian Fidesz/Viktor Orbán Polish Patriotism of Jarosław Kaczyński's, Andrzej Sebastian Duda's and Beata Maria Szydło's Prawo i Sprawiedliwość is ofcourse the only right one today. (Ironical remark for the ones who don't understand this humor)



Platforma Obywatelska Patriotism is wrong and PiS and Solidarna Polska are clearly the enemy of the ancien régime, .Nowoczesna will be to centrist and to liberal for PiS and an electoral threat. .Nowoczesna is the enemy because it is part of Komitet Obrony Demokracji, KOD (Committee for the Defence of Democracy). The Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (PSL) will not be good in the eyes of PiS, because it cooperated in the past with leftist enemies of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the biggest rival Platforma Obywatelska in coaltion governments. Solidarna Polska is clearly and allie of PiS, because since 16 November 2015 Zbigniew Tadeusz Ziobro is justice minister of Poland in cabinet of Beata Szydło. From October 2005 to November 2007 Ziobro was the Minister of Justice and Public Prosecutor General. He was elected to the Sejm on September 25, 2005 in the 13th Kraków district, running on the Law and Justice list. He received over 120,000 votes in the parliamentary election, the highest percentage constituency result on a nationwide scale. Solidarna Polska was founded in 2012 by Ziobro, who then still was a Law and Justice (PiS) MEP. He led the party's conservative Catholic-nationalist faction.



Ryszard Kalisz, a left wing MP and leader of a committee investigating the suicide of an affiliated leftist politician in 2007, has recommended in a draft report that former prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński should be stand before Poland’s highest court for his role in the events that led up to the death of that Polish leftwing politician. Kalisz says in the 266-page report, published Tuesday, that the interior minister of the then conservative-led cabinet, Zbigniew Ziobro, should also stand before the State Tribunal, for breaking Poland’s Constitution during a corruption investigation involving former Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) MP and construction minister Barbara Blida.


Ryszard Kalisz, a left wing MP and leader of a committee investigating the suicide in 2007 of former Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) MP and construction minister Barbara Blida


Former Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) MP and construction minister Barbara Blida

Blida was reported to have shot herself with a pistol through the heart in her bathroom, as officers raided her home looking for evidence that allegedly implicated her in a coal mining corruption scandal in Silesia, southern Poland. Kaczyński and Ziobro of the Law and Justice party "used criminal law in the pursuit of the exclusion of large groups of citizens, creating a system of exclusion [from public life] of individuals assigned to certain groups, particularly in relation to Barbara Blida,” Kalisz writes in the report, which will be approved or amended at a meeting on 19 July. The draft report alleges that “political and ideological” forces lay behind the events that led to the suicide.



Polska Razem (center right, liberal-conservative), Kongres Nowej Prawicy of Michał Marusik, Koalicja Odnowy Rzeczypospolitej Wolność i Nadzieja KORWiN of the lunatic Janusz Korwin-Mikke, Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, Unia Pracy and the 'New Left' Razem will all be wrong kind of Poles and the wrong kind of Polish Patriotism for Jarosław Kaczyński, Beata Szydło (Kaczyński's puppet prime-minister), Andrzej Duda, Mariusz Błaszczak (Internal Affairs), Witold Waszczykowski (Foreign Affairs) and Zbigniew Ziobro. Maybe PiS will try to bond with the rightwing rebel Paweł Kukiz who had quite some succes with his political party Kukiz'15.


Witold Waszczykowski, the Polish minister of Foreign Affairs


Mariusz Błaszczak, the Polish minister of Internal Affairs

Both Kukiz'15 and .Nowoczesna will be electoral threats to Prawo i Sprawiedliwość. In the same time .Nowoczesna can be a threat to Platforma Obywatelska. Paweł Kukiz and his Kukiz'15 are a threat to PiS (and PO) because their key postulates is "destroying particracy". And PiS and Solidarna Polska are just doing that creating a new particracy of rightwing conservative, nationalist parties who form the coalition government of PiS-Solidarna Polska.





I was joking here with a tongue in the cheek, but seriously the situation in Poland is not a situation of jokes. With a anti-Western, anti-EU, openly xenophobic, islamophobe, anti-opposition, anti-free press, anti-Trias Politica (Separatation of Powers) government who is working to divide the nation in staid of uniting it in a difficult time for Poland and Europe (with the Ukrainian crisis next door, the refugee crisis in Western- and Southern-Europe on Poland's doorstep, with increasing tensions in the Middle-east, and dropping export rates for Poland due to the economical boycott of Russia [which is disastrous for Polands agriculture sector - the farmers and the food processing industries], and now Standard & Poor has given a warning to the Polish government, which has cut the country’s rating and warned of a further downgrade. Standard & Poor has lowered Poland's long-term foreign credit rating to BBB+ from A-. It is so sad and bad that Poland has now a Lower Medium Grade as investment grade. I really wished it stayed an Upper Medium Grade, or better a High Grade or Prime. An obligor has ADEQUATE capacity to meet its financial commitments. However, adverse economic conditions or changing circumstances are more likely to lead to a weakened capacity of the obligor to meet its financial commitments.





Today I really wish and pray for a Polska Partia Pragmatyczna, PPP. A strong, moderate, centrist, Patriotic, Freedom loving, transparent, honest, technocratic, uniting force and movement which will unite the pragmatic and liberal-democratic center right and center left in the Polish political spectrum. A party with a left wing, a centrist wing and a right wing. A party that will unite the best elements of Józef Piłsudski's legacy (moderate Sanacja elements, but not the regime's 1926-1939 oppression and lack of freedom and democracy), Centrolew ((Polish People's Party "Wyzwolenie", Polish People's Party "Piast", National Workers' Party, Polish Socialist Party, Stronnictwo Chłopskie and Polskie Stronnictwo Chrześcijańskiej Demokracji), Bund ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Jewish_Labour_Bund_in_Poland ) and Marek Edelman (Bund leader, Ghetto- and Warsaw Uprising fighter and Solidarność activist), Folkspartei (A jewish democratic party in Poland), Blok Mniejszości Narodowych (loyal, moderate and Polish minded minorities in Poland, which should have minority rights), Polish intelligentsia, moderate Polish Roman-Catholics (opposed to theocracy and ultra-nationalist Polish reactionary National-Catholicism), and mainly Polish Social-democrats without ties to the former communist regime (preferably Polish Social democrats with roots or ties with Solidarność and Komitet Obrony Robotników. People like Paweł Bartłomiej Piskorski (Mayor of Warsaw from 30 March 1999 to 14 January 2002; and former member of Unia Wolności and Stronnictwo Demokratyczne; the branch of *SD which didn't cooperated with PZPR), Bronisław Komorowski (the former president), Marek Marian Belka (b. 9 January 1952 in Łódź), Jerzy Hausner (born 6 October 1949 in Świnoujście), Bartłomiej Henryk Sienkiewicz (ur. 29 lipca 1961 w Kielcach), Danuta Hübner (born 8 April 1948) Władysław Frasyniuk (born 25 November 1954 in Wrocław; although he has retreated from active politics); Wojciech Michał Olejniczak (born 10 April 1974); Marek Stefan Borowski (born 4 January 1946 in Warsaw, Poland; ; I know about possible ties to the PZPR); Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz (born 13 September 1950 in Warsaw, Poland; I know about possible ties to the PZPR); Adam Ostolski (born 7 November 1978); Sławomir Sierakowski the head of Krytyka Polityczna; Waldemar Pawlak (born 5 September 1959) from Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe; Aleksander Kwaśniewski (born 15 November 1954; according to the English wikipedia page List of politicians in Poland the most trusted politician in Poland. Ranking nr. 1; and yes, I know he is a former communist too); Leszek Balcerowicz (born January 19, 1947 in Lipno); Marek Ludwik Pol (ur. 8 grudnia 1953 w Słupsku) from Unia Pracy (UP); Lech Wałęsa (born 29 September 1943); Mateusz Kijowski (born Dec 12, 1968 in Warsaw, Poland) founder of the Facebook group Komitet Obrony Demokracji; Marcin Święcicki (ur. 17 kwietnia 1947 w Warszawie) as a useful communist; Lidia Geringer d'Oedenberg, economist and journalist; Józef Pinior (born on 9 March 1955 in Rybnik) and the collective leadership of Razem; Aleksandra Cacha, Alicja Czubek, Jakub Danecki, Maciej Konieczny, Magdalena Malińska, Mateusz Mirys, Katarzyna Paprota, Adrian Zandberg and Marcelina Zawisza.


Mateusz Kijowski founder of the Facebook group Komitet Obrony Demokracji





Like KOR and Solidarność during the Polish People's Republic with it's one state Marxist-Leninist PZPR dictatorship and repression by the Służba Bezpieczeństwa, Milicja Obywatelska, the notorious ZOMO motorized riot troops and the Ludowe Wojsko Polskie, the Poska Partia Pragmatyczna (PPP) should unite Polish intelligentsia and workers. It should avoid mistakes the previous Polish governments made, but should use and learn from succesful elements from the cabinets of Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Jan Olszewski, Waldemar Pawlak, Hanna Suchocka, Jerzy Buzek, Marek Belka, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz, Donald Tusk and maybe even the short period of Prime-minister Ewa Kopacz. It is maybe a personal tragedy and very sad for Ewa Kopacz that her government was so short lived.


Members of Komitet Obrony Robotników during the seventies



Polska Partia Pragmatyczna (PPP) should involve all segments of Polish society. It should be connected to the Polish country side (the farmers, agricultural workers and rural middle classes and working classes of rural towns and cities in the province, far away from Warsaw, Kraków and Poznań. It should unite Social-democratic (Labour) and Greenparty and Razem secular leftwing intellectuals from the Warsaw, Kraków and Poznań cultural-, media (Press) and political intelligentsia with moderate liberal and conservative Roman-Catholic (Christian-democratic) intellectuals. It should be a party rooted in Polish education and science. It should attract and consist of Polish primary school teachers, high school teachers, professors of universities and vocational universities, coaches and trainers of adult education (institutes, foundations, workshops and seminars), people who work for Research institutes (Research and Development) and Think Tanks. The Party for sure should attract and have modern ICT (Information and Communication Technology), Audio-visual, Graphic and Webdesign, marketing communication, Public relations and Social Media experts and professionals (look how Obama won the 2008 elections with a modern technological campaign with the use of social media, and good content; good ideas).



The PPP movement should be modern, but in the same time keep some traditional good Polish values. The PPP could avoid mistakes Platforma Obywatelska made in the past 8 years. But should certainly use and continue the good elements the PO governments used, implemented and carried on. The PPP should be a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week party movement, with hard working employee's, managers, activists (volunteers), professional politicians and scientists for the Party's Scientific bureau. The PPP would have to have a very strong grassroots movement with devoted democratic pragmatic Free Liberal Democratic activists. And good youth and student movements. The PPP would advocate a strong Polish democracy and would favor a political landscape with a clear right, center and left. The situation that there is no left in the Polish parliament today is very bad in my opinion. A healthy democracy has a balance between progressive leftwing and conservative rightwing political movements, a balance between supporters of Etatism (state plan economy, state socialism and a large state; Leftwing Social-democrats, leftiwng social-liberals, marxists, and communitarian Christian Democrats) and supporters of Laissez faire ( a small state who only has a few vital tasks, and a large free market; libertarians, liberal-conservatives and the rightwing of Social democracy, and rightwing liberals or Classical liberals). Platforma Obywatelska was and is clearly a Laissez faire party and government ( a mix of conservative free market christian-democrats, classical liberals -or liberal-conservatives, and some objectivist libertarians),

Examples of party scientific bureau's: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiardi_Beckman_Stichting / en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telders_Foundation

Hopefully, dear Forum friends and other readers, .Nowoczesna and Razem are the center-right and left versions of my ideal Polska Partia Pragmatyczna. I will pray, hope for and wish that .Nowoczesna will become the largest party. For me they may have all the votes of Platforma Obywatelska, votes of disappointed PiS voters, and votes from the United Left (Polish: Zjednoczona Lewica, ZL) and Razem. From the other hand I hope that [Razem will receive all the votes from Zjednoczona Lewica (the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Your Movement (TR), Polish Socialist Party (PPS), Labour United (UP), and The Greens (PZ)) and some votes from the disappointed left wings of Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (unlikely, but everything can happen in the Polish democracy today -like in other European democracies-), Platforma Obywatelska (also unlikely, but again today everything might happen), and people who didn't voted yet. Are you compulsory to vote in Poland?

(*In 1943 SD split into two factions, one of which supported the Polish Government in Exile in London, and the second co-operated with the communist Polish Workers' Party and recognized the State Country Council as the actual parliament and the Provisional Government of National Unity as the actual government of Poland.)

Cheers,
Pieter

Sources: Polish Radio and Wikipedia

[pieter]

Dear friends,

It is very important that the opposition party wether it is .Nowoczesna, Razem or maybe a future Polska Partia Pragmatyczna (PPP) will also have the support of civil servants, entrepreneurs, engineers, police officers, Firefighters, regional leaders and party officials of various democratic parties, local activists and militants of the same political parties (grassroots movements of youth and student activists, and civilian activists), volunteers, military (professional officers, soldiers and other military personel from the airforce, navy and special forces; people like Czesław Piątas with experience in both the Peoples Republic and in Democratic Poland; Waldemar Skrzypczak; General Zbigniew Głowienka ), intelligence community (people like Stanisław Koziej and Roman Polko) , university students and professors, the Polish middle class, the Polish aristocracy (szlachta and Magnata; like Adam Zamoyski; a British historian and author, descended from the ancient Polish Zamoyski noble family), the Polish Roman-Catholic church (priests, monks, nuns, abbots [opat / abbas], bishops, cardinals, prelates [prałat in Polish], vicars [ wikariusz], deans, chaplains, deacons, Pastoral worker, catechisists -teachers of the Catechism-, and even the Pope in Rome -to have his blessings-).


A Polish Roman Catholic priest in a Kraków street.

And your surely also need the the support of christian minorities (Orthodox-christians, and Polish Calvinists, Lutherans, Methodists and Baptist and Evangelical christians; their prayer and mental support can be equally important), professional sport people, and shop owners (the Polish middle class), Horeca people (Hotel, restaurants and Café's), economists like Andrzej Olechowski, doctors, nurses and medical specialists (Henryk Skarżyński), lawjers, prosecutors, judges, Civil-law notaries, and former and present day high level public servants, like directors-general (general directors); the highest executive officers within a governmental, statutory, NGO, third sector or not-for-profit institutions. Poland has several former presidents, former prime-ministers, ministers of internal affiars, ministers of foreign affairs, ministers of finance, ministers of Economical Affairs, ministers of Education-, Healthcare, Defense, Justice, agriculture, Industry, innovation, technology, science and Research & Development. You need the education, experience, information, knowledge, and national and international networks of these people to succeed. With succeed I mean to defeat PiS and Solidarna Polska.


Andrzej Marian Olechowski (born 9 September 1947 in Kraków, Poland) is a Polish politician. He was one of the co-founders of conservative liberal party Civic Platform in 2001 with Maciej Płażyński and Donald Tusk. He served as Minister of Finance (1992) in the Jan Olszewski's Government and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1993–1995) in the Waldemar Pawlak's Government.




General Zbigniew Głowienka


General Waldemar Skrzypczak


Polish police officers


A lot of people work in medical professions, they are an important part of the electorate


Also universitity students in the many Polish cities can be a political force

The aim is to restore the Trias Politica (Separation of Powers), the independence and the freedom of the public television and Radio chanals, and to end the Polish Constitutional Court crisis. The Polish economy must be saved and economical growth and thus development stimulated. Corruption and nepotism must be defeated and erased and more transparency and honesty and decency must be implemented in the Polish political culture, by political reforms.

This national opposition movement should restore the values and foundations of the Polish democracy and should cherish pluriformity, diversity and freedom of choice, the freedom to differ from opinion from one another, and being respected for that. We don't need a turn to the far right nor do we need to return to the far left.

Poles are reasonable, realistic, pragmatic, moderate, ethical, decent, freedom loving, tolerant, normal, good and sane people. I am sure that a lot of people voted PiS out of frustration as a protest vote. And some of them will be shocked now now they see what the PiS and Solidarna Polska coalition government is doing.

Poles have to change this, maybe even via a political crisis when large demonstrations will bring an end to this government. If the economy is going down, the independence of the legal system is at stake and the free press will be transferred to a muzzled, Henchmen and henchwomen of the PiS/Solidarna Polska government. That is not what real democratic and freedom loving Poles want and that's why so many Poles went demonstrating in december and januari against this government.

Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

Most important is that internal and external pressure will hold this PiS-Solidarna Polska government on the free and democratic track. KOD, .Nowosczesna, Razem and PO will continue to put internal pressure on this Polish government. The EU puts pressure on Poland, because it has to as a Voluntary association of member states. That member states have agreed upon a set of rules and guidelines; like transparent government, human rights, the respect of minority rights, freedom of press and expression and the separation of powers. If the EU accepts the present measures in Poland it will accept that un-democratic and unconstitutional and undemocratic laws, measures and legislation will be accepted in the territory of the EU. In that case Turkey, Russia and Belarus could become a member today.

[pieter]

The Polish democracy is what it is



I want to state that what I have wrote here about a national united opposition movement of several parties and a broad coalition of Polish forces and professions only should take place if Poland would develop into an authoritarian, totalitarian, undemocratic, dictatorial direction. Poland is stil a democracy and the present PiS-Solidarna government knows that it has to work hard for the Polish economy to work, to fullfill it's promises, creating employment, raising wages and social spending. The present governmet will ofcourse do anything to cleanse the present central goverment ministries, institutions and structures of all elements of the center right (PO) and leftwing opposition.

The governmet ofcourse will try to influence the Polish education system of Kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, vocational universities and universities. It will try to infuence government funded and backed research insititutes and other institutions with loyal scientists and researchers. It will try to put loyalist top managers, staff and top public servants like directors-general (general directors) in key positions. It will try to put PiS and Solidarna Polska people in the security aparatus (Intelligence agencies, secret services and etc.), and to control the police forces, border guards and other armed forces. I will try to control local and regional civil guards and militia with their regional and local party structures (party activists, militants and cadre), and will also monitor national, regional and local public tv and radio stations, newspapers and magazines. It will manipulate the commercial media too. It will speak more to government loyal national conservative chanals and ignore or boycott liberal and progressive (leftwing) commercial media.

In it's isolationalist, national conservative, arch-conservative Roman-Catholic, and Polish socialist ideology it will resist pressure from the EU, the USA, the IMF, World Bank, the United Nations, the Council of Europe (CoE; French: Conseil de l'Europe) and the Weimar Triangle. It might withdraw itself from the Weimar Triangle or downgrade the importance of the Triangle. It certainly will strengten the ties with the Visgrad Group members and also with the Ukraine.

What the future will bring us in the case of Poland we will have to wait and see. The spokesperson of the Dutch Polish Diaspora Małgorzata Bos-Karczewska – redaktor naczelna Polonia.nl, portalu Polonii holenderskiej, spoke very critical about the situation in Poland on the Dutch National TV news.


Małgorzata Bos-Karczewska – redaktor naczelna Polonia.nl, portalu Polonii holenderskiej

Kontakt mailowy: [e-mail]
na Twitter twitter.com/BosKarczewska
na Linkedin

na Facebook www.facebook.com/malgorzata.boskarczewska

This video (youtube) shows the ceremony at the Embassy the Republic of Poland in The Kingdom of Netherlands on 8 Oct 2015 awarding Malgorzata Bos-Karczewska with Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Republic of Poland.


Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

[pieter]

German tv reportage about Poland today
www.facebook.com/heuteplus/videos/1151678621511051/?theater

Source: The wikipedia page of Małgorzata Bos-Karczewska – redaktor naczelna Polonia.nl

[Jaga]

Pieter,

in your photographs you showed the most important people of Polish politics. Some of these people are very prominent and respected - like Olechowski, or Lis some are much more controversial like Kaczynski and Ziobro.

[pieter]

I realise that I took the risk of puting controversial figures between them Jaga. But I had to do it for this research! No politician has 100% clean hands.


Poland: The EU's media freedom conundrum

[Jaga]

Pieter and all,

Andrzej Duda, Polish president, wrote an editorial in Financial Times. Too bad that he had to explain why there are so many doubts about Poland. My brother thinks that some of these people in the government are just simply crazy, like Macierewicz. I hope that Duda and others would stop doing everything what Kaczynski (szara eminencja) ask them to do!

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/04425cfa-bb88-11e5-b151-8e15c9a029fb.html#axzz3xZIUkat2
Poland is still pro-European

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [e-mail] to buy additional rights. www.ft.com/cms/s/0/04425cfa-bb88-11e5-b151-8e15c9a029fb.html#ixzz3xZJMzekp

Poland underwent a political sea change last year with the election of a conservative president and a government led by the Law and Justice party. The wishes of the Polish people were clear: a single party enjoys an absolute majority for the first time in the country’s recent history.

A string of reforms has since been initiated and there are many issues that require our attention. A majority of Poles have lost trust in the judiciary, according to a number of surveys. They are unhappy about the domestic healthcare system and clamour for changes in education. They want a modernised army. They are weighed down by red tape and a byzantine tax system that makes starting a business and creating jobs extremely difficult. Finally, Polish citizens feel increasingly apprehensive about the immigration crisis that threatens to spiral out of control across Europe and the spectre of terrorism that haunts the continent.
....

[Jaga]

I agree with some comments under the article, like this one:


President today is saying all the right things but his actions do not follow his words. He is accused by many, and that includes many legal bodies, of breaking the Constitution several times. He behaves and sounds very much like a spokesman for the ruling PiS, Law &Justice party than non-partisan president he is meant to be.

It is a amazing that many intelligent, highly educated people in Poland miss the meaning of what it is to 'obey the law' *even* if one has power. Many people seem to associate winning democratic elections with absolute power without barriers. That is totally wrong.

Others, justify illegal actions of PiS by saying "they are only doing what the previous regime was doing". The problem is, that is not true. The previous government did not disobey the rulings of the Constitutional Tribunal. The examples often given by PiS supporters are pieces of legislation that required further legislative work and were not yet implemented - none involved direct refusal of the tribunal's ruling. What PiS did was direct refusal which has not happened before. That's blatant law breaking and this is why PiS actions are so dangerous.

[karl]

Pieter

First I must thank you for your sharing of your life, in the first, this may sound simple, but in reality, not so. For many have the correct thoughts, but not the skill to place it in words as you have. For you have many skills that are unique only to your self, this skills that serve you so well were founded by two very important people, your father and your mother, and the life they built for them selves to create the home environment that formed the foundation that is today your self and your sister.

For you are of a unique DNA that is only of your self and your family. Being half Polish and Half Dutch is an excellent melding of two different peoples that are your self. For the best of each is then represented in you. For you have one side that is very sensitive to detail as exampled by your natural ability in the arts enhanced by professional training, whilst you have the intrinsic skills enhanced by professional association in journalism/photography and professional journalistic camera set up for editing and electronic retention in the interviewing of subject matter for purpose of public media exposure. A very commendable back ground to the present in any ones book I must say.

For as above, it is perfectly understandable of your high interest of the issues that are of Poland, for the reason that part of Poland is in you. For many in such a situation of standing with one foot by the ties of DNA on one side of the river, to then stand with the other foot upon the opposite side, would be confusing, but you have taken this in stride that you are a National of The Netherlands, but simularaly have ethnic ties to Poland through your mother. My self, this was solved through the process of dual citizenship of Danish and German, both congenial to one another.

A considerable amount of discussion has occurred and is ongoing in the currant and recent past situation in the change in internal matters of the Polish Government. There is little I have the previlage to entertain in saying, but I do have the option of reflection of currant events I would like to share.

Although, the actions of the new Polish government as promoted by the party of PiS, chaired by Mr. Kacziski has not gained much admiration from the West and the EU. All things change, and Poland is little different, but with change, is the process of maturation that this new government will mature and grow into. Rather be to the liking of the EU and The West, is what time will tell.

What is clear and present is the cleaning of the slate through the designs of Mr. Kacznski through the party of PiS, is some house cleaning with tossing out the old for room to emplace the new. With the process through the eyes of the West, is tossing the baby out with the bath water resulting in considerable confusion that must be cleared up with future diplomatic efferts that should be chaired by Poland.

At present has been some notable changes in tax relief for foreign firms operating on Polish soil. This is well and good, for these firms in the manner of existence, provide services for various sectors and employment to Polish Nationals. This the relates to pay cheque cashed at the local bank with relationship to adding into the various local and regional economies, a win win situation. To hamper this, with federal interference would be as tossing the spanner into the gear box of progress.

It would be of expectations that for the time being, changes will be in order, for the reason of a new party of Polish leadership has began. As time provides the maturation process of what works and what needs to be changed, we of the west, must be patient. For the process of change through necessity is the mother of progress.

Karl

[pieter]

Polska Partia Pragmatyczna

PPP for me stands for Progressive, Pragmatic, Patriotic, Polish and Modern Poland. The Poland of the new generation. But also the Poland which used the wisdom, experience, talent and vision of the older generation, who experienced old (the Polish Peoples Republic and the PZPR dictatorship) and the New (present day Poland with Freedom, Democracy and Trias Politica [Separation of Powers] and a free and independent press).

Polska Partia Pragmatyczna stands for 'Internet democracy', the fair and good use of Facebook, youtube, Twitter, blogs, websites, tv ads and radio ads, well designed flyers, good and smart political marketing campaigns, professional politics, vision, hope, transparency, reform, Research & Development, innovation, self reliance, Polish self awareness and pride, a Polish Patriotism which respects the dignity of others peoples Patriotisms and respects the rights of minorities in Poland. The PPP rejects racism, discrimination on skin colour, sexual preference, sex and background, it rejects anti-semitism, islamophobia, xenophobia, chauvinism, sexism and ethnocentrism. It rejects isolationalism, narrow minded autarkic nationalism (Ruch Narodowy), rightwing populism (Kukiz'15), leftwing populism (Samoobrona Rzeczpospolitej Polskiej), and Marxism-Leninism (Communism in Poland).

My ideal Polska Partia Pragmatyczna would be a party for young and older Poles, a party for Polish Roman-Catholics, Polish atheists, Polish agnostics, Polish jews, the German minority, the Ukrainian minority, the Vietnamese minority, the Lithuanian minority and other Baltic minorities and the Belarussian minority. The PPP is an inclusive party, not an exclusive party.

In it's ideology the Polska Partia Pragmatyczna will merge classical liberalism with Catholic social teaching, Christian corporatism, Social democracy, social liberalism, elements of the old Pre-war Patriotic Polish Socialist Party – Freedom, Equality, Independence (Wolność, Równość, Niepodległość), and Centrolew, and will be more Laissez Faire oriented than Etatist. My Polska Partia Pragmatyczna will choose a Third Way inbetween Laissez Fiare and Etatism. It wants to built a Civil Society. It would like a constructive and pro-active cooperation between the government, employers and Unions for a better society like in the Dutch Polder Model.

The polder model is consensus decision-making, based on the acclaimed Dutch version of consensus-based economic and social policy making in the 1980s and 1990s.

The polder model has been described as "a pragmatic recognition of pluriformity" and "cooperation despite differences". It is thought that the Dutch politician Ina Brouwer was the first to use the term 'poldermodel', more specifically in her 1990 article Het socialisme als poldermodel? ('Socialism as polder model?'), although it is uncertain whether she coined the term or simply seems to have been the first to write it down.

It supports the pursuit of greater egalitarianism in society through action to increase the distribution of skills, capacities, and productive endowments, while rejecting income redistribution as the means to achieve this. It emphasizes commitment to balanced budgets, providing equal opportunity combined with an emphasis on personal responsibility, decentralization of government power to the lowest level possible, encouragement of public-private partnerships, improving labour supply, investment in human development, protection of social capital, and protection of the environment.

The current polder model is said to have begun with the Wassenaar Accords of 1982 when unions, employers, and government decided on a comprehensive plan to revitalise the economy involving shorter working times and less pay on the one hand, and more employment on the other. This polder model, combined with a neoliberal economic policy of privatisation and budget cuts has been held to be responsible for the Dutch economic miracle of the late 1990s.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassenaar_Agreement

An important role in this process was played by the Dutch Central Planning Bureau (CPB), originally founded by Jan Tinbergen. The CPB's policy advice since 1976, in particular with the Den Hartog and Tjan model, in favour of wage restraint, was an important argument, supportive for government and employers, that the unions could not easily counter. ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bureau_for_Economic_Policy_Analysis )

Although the Polska Partia Pragmatyczna makes use of the christian inspired Catholic social teaching, Christian corporatism and the Communitarianism of the Israeli-American sociologist Amitai Etzioni (born Werner Falk, 4 January 1929) it is secular in it's emphasis on separation of Church and state and the idea that politics is secular. But it admids that it is inlfuenced by the ethnical, moral and social ideals of Christianity, and the Democratic socialism of Social-Democracy, and the classical liberalism of the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe.

Polska Partia Pragmatyczna would if it existed represent a Third Way in Polish politics between the quarreling Right (PiS & PO) and the crumbling Left (Zjednoczona Lewica, Razem and the non-parliamentarian radical activists in the margin). It would merg center right and center left ideas. It would support a Free Market economy, a transparent and free parliamentarian democracy. It would certainly stand for Freedom and Democracy. The Polska Partia Pragmatyczna would promote and work for more pluriformity and diversity in Poland in the political sense. For a healthy democracy the PPP believes you need a Rightwing, a Center-right, a Leftwing and a center left in Polish Politics. The Democratic Left should return in the Sejm. But the PPP will not be the promotor of the left. The left has to do it herself. The Polska Partia Pragmatyczna is the radical centerand is inbetween left and right.

The Polska Partia Pragmatyczna does not exists, but it would be good if it existed in Poland. If PPP would exist it should be a very disciplined, strict (in the positive hard working way, not in a dogmatic, orthodox or doctrinary way) and honest movement. It would be vehemently opposed to Corruption, nepotism, authoritarian tendencies in Polish politics, sectarianism, abuse of power, and isolationalist policies and measures.

If Polska Partia Pragmatyczna would exist it would work very hard to built a National Movement with local chapters, a grassrootsmovement, a youth movement, Young Pragmatists, a women organisation; Pragmatic women; an organisation for elderly people who want to make themselves useful for the country; Pragmatic Elders and local debate centers of the party. Patry members and activists will be trained in debate, political discussion, negotiations and campaigning.

In these debate clubs which will be tough Polska Partia Pragmatyczna debaters will be attacked by other PPP members who play PiS politicians and supporters, Solidarna Polska people, Ruch Narodowy people, Kukiz’15 people, people like Jerzy Urban, Bronisław Wildstein, Leszek Miller and Jarosław Kaczyński. The PPP militants and politicians must be trained through and through. In PPP training centers the Polish Parliament and the local city councils must be rebuilt in scale. PPP politicians must be trained in ethical politics, in pragmatism, in political vision, in the history of Poland, in the history of Polish political thought, in the history of all the major political ideologies and movements of left and right. For instance they have to know what Capitalism, democracy, a democratic system, communism, socialism, liberalism, conservatism, green party politics, feminism, anarchism, islamism, social-democracy (and the difference between Social-democracy, communism and leftwing socialism is), christian-democracy, nationalism, fascim, nazism are. They have to know what threatened and occupied Poland in the past and what the current internal and external threats are. They must be trained in negotiating, in mediation, in political skills, in Political action, in the daily political work (the political reality), in how the Polish democracy works.

The Polska Partia Pragmatyczna will be there for all Poles. So, no it does not hate or rejects people who voted for or are member of PiS or Solidarna Polska. PPP loves Poland, Polish culture, the Polish Roman-Catholic church and the Polish Roman-Catholic identity (eventhough it is a secular party), the presence and the history of Polish Judaism and thus Polish jews, the German community in Poland and the Ukrainian community in Poland.

Reality is that the PPP would receive the most votes and support from KOD, .Nowoczesna, Platforma Obywatelska and Razem supporters if it existed. It will be to centrist for the left and to centrist for the right, but it will attract centre right and centre left voters, like Centrolew did before the Second World War in the Thirties.

The PPP will come very close in the direction of the Purple Wim Kok Cabinets in the Netherlands in the nineties and early this century, New Labour of Tony Blair and the New Democrats of Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton managed to attract modere liberal-conservatives. The PPP will be if it will come out of Pieters brain and dream a Polish version of that. Maybe .Nowoczesna could be the Polish PPP, and maybe not? Maybe PPP is to centre left for Ryszard Petru.

Polska Partia Pragmatyczna supports the pursuit of greater egalitarianism in society through action to increase the distribution of skills, capacities, and productive endowments, while rejecting income redistribution as the means to achieve this. It emphasizes commitment to balanced budgets, providing equal opportunity combined with an emphasis on personal responsibility, decentralization of government power to the lowest level possible, encouragement of public-private partnerships, improving labour supply, investment in human development, protection of social capital, and protection of the environment.

The Polska Partia Pragmatyczna searches for a Free Polish socialism, a Polish version of Western-European Social-democracy, social-liberalism and the left wing of the European Christian-democracy. The PPP is not conservative, because it is Polish Liberal, Polish socialist, Christian social and pragmatic. It is nor Old Left nor the New Left of the Sixties and Seventies. It is a New Movement.

The Third Way has been defined as:

...Something different and distinct from liberal capitalism with its unswerving belief in the merits of the free market and democratic socialism with its demand management and obsession with the state. The Third Way is in favour of growth, entrepreneurship, enterprise and wealth creation but it is also in favour of greater social justice and it sees the state playing a major role in bringing this about. So in the words of... Anthony Giddens of the LSE the Third Way rejects top down socialism as it rejects traditional neo liberalism.

— Report from the BBC, 1999

The Polska Partia Pragmatyczna wants it's members, voters and supporters to think for themselves, and will only attract intelligent, independent and free people, because there is no party doctrine, absolute PPP truth, party discipline and a dogmatic party ideology or party orthodoxy. We are free, democratic and pragmatic people.
The PPP if it will exist will be there for the Poles, by the Poles, through the Poles, due to the Poles. It will only exist and function if Polish people, Polish voters want it to exist. The PPP wants to serve the Polish electorate and fight for more pluriformity and diversity in Polish politics. That is one of it's main tasks. To break the one sided power of the Right, with the only tool it has, Freedom of speech and freedom of expression!

Sources: Wikipedia and Pieters fantasy and thinking.

[pieter]

Catholic social teaching is the body of doctrine developed by the Catholic Church on matters of social justice, involving issues of poverty and wealth, economics, social organization and the role of the state. Its foundations are widely considered to have been laid by Pope Leo XIII's 1891 encyclical letter Rerum novarum, which advocated economic distributism and condemned both capitalism and socialism, although its roots can be traced to the writings of Catholic thinkers such as St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo, and is also derived from concepts present in the Bible and the cultures of the ancient Near East.

According to Pope Benedict XVI, its purpose "is simply to help purify reason and to contribute, here and now, to the acknowledgment and attainment of what is just. ... [The Church] has to play her part through rational argument and she has to reawaken the spiritual energy without which justice ... cannot prevail and prosper", According to Pope John Paul II, its foundation "rests on the threefold cornerstones of human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity". These concerns echo elements of Jewish law and the prophetic books of the Old Testament, and recall the teachings of Jesus Christ recorded in the New Testament, such as his declaration that "whatever you have done for one of these least brothers of Mine, you have done for Me."

Catholic social teaching is distinctive in its consistent critiques of modern social and political ideologies both of the left and of the right: liberalism, communism, feminism, atheism, socialism, fascism, capitalism, and Nazism have all been condemned, at least in their pure forms, by several popes since the late nineteenth century.

Catholic social doctrine has always tried to find an equilibrium between concern for the whole society, especially for the weakest and poorest, and respect for human liberty, including the right to private property.



History

The principles of Catholic social teaching, though in most cases far older in origin, first began to be combined together into a system in the late nineteenth century. Since then, successive popes have added to and developed the Church's body of social teaching, principally through the medium of encyclical letters.

Rerum novarum

The publication of Leo XIII's encyclical Rerum novarum in 1891 marked the beginning of the development of a recognizable body of social teaching in the Catholic Church. It dealt with persons, systems and structures, the three co-ordinates of the modern promotion of justice and peace, now established as integral to the Church's mission. In the years which followed there have been numerous encyclicals and messages on social issues; various forms of Catholic action developed in different parts of the world; and social ethics taught in schools and seminaries. To mark the 40th anniversary of Rerum novarum, Pope Pius XI issued Quadragesimo anno, which expanded on some of its themes.

Pope John XXIII



Further development came in the post-World War II period when attention turned to the problems of social and economic development and international relations. On May 15, 1961 Pope John XXIII released Mater et magistra, subtitled "Christianity and Social Progress". This encyclical expanded the Church's social doctrine to cover the relations between rich and poor nations, examining the obligation of rich countries to assist poor countries while respecting their particular cultures. It includes an examination of the threat of global economic imbalances to world peace. On April 11, 1963, Pope John expanded further on this in Pacem in terris (Latin: Peace on Earth), the first encyclical addressed to both Catholics and non-Catholics. In it, the Pope linked the establishment of world peace to the laying of a foundation consisting of proper rights and responsibilities between individuals, social groups, and states from the local to the international level. He exhorted Catholics to understand and apply the social teachings:

Once again we exhort our people to take an active part in public life, and to contribute towards the attainment of the common good of the entire human family as well as to that of their own country. They should endeavor, therefore, in the light of the Faith and with the strength of love, to ensure that the various institutions—whether economic, social, cultural or political in purpose – should be such as not to create obstacles, but rather to facilitate or render less arduous people's perfectioning of themselves both in the natural order as well as in the supernatural.

This document, issued at the height of the Cold War, also included a denunciation of the nuclear arms race and a call for strengthening the United Nations.

Second Vatican Council



The primary document from the Second Vatican Council concerning social teachings is Gaudium et spes, the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church and the Modern World", which is considered one of the chief accomplishments of the Council. Unlike earlier documents, this is an expression of all the bishops, and covers a wide range of issues of the relationship of social concerns and Christian action. At its core, the document asserts the fundamental dignity of each human being, and declares the Church's solidarity with both those who suffer, and those who would comfort the suffering:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.

Other conciliar documents such as Dignitatis humanae, drafted largely by John Courtney Murray, an American Jesuit, have important applications to the social teachings of the Church on freedom today.


John Courtney Murray, an American Jesuit

Pope Paul VI



Like his predecessor, Pope Paul VI gave attention to the disparities in wealth and development between the industrialised West and the Third World in his 1967 encyclical Populorum Progressio (Latin: The Development of Peoples). It asserts that free international trade alone is not adequate to correct these disparities and supports the role of international organizations in addressing this need. Paul called on rich nations to meet their moral obligation to poor nations, pointing out the relationship between development and peace. The intention of the Church is not to take sides, but to be an advocate for basic human dignity:

There can be no progress towards the complete development of individuals without the simultaneous development of all humanity in the spirit of solidarity. Experienced in human affairs, the Church ... "seeks but a solitary goal: to carry forward the work of Christ Himself under the lead of the befriending Spirit." ... But, since the Church lives in history, she ought to "scrutinize the signs of the times and interpret them in the light of the Gospel." Sharing the noblest aspirations of men and women and suffering when she sees them not satisfied, she wishes to help them attain their full flowing, and that is why she offers all people what she possesses as her characteristic attribute: a global vision of man and of the human race.

The May 1971 apostolic letter Octogesima adveniens addressed the challenge of urbanization and urban poverty and stressed the personal responsibility of Christians to respond to injustice. For the tenth anniversary of the Second Vatican Council (October 26, 1975), Paul issued Evangelii nuntiandi (Latin: Evangelization in the Modern World). In it he asserts that combating injustice is an essential part of evangelizing modern peoples.

Pope John Paul II



John Paul II continued his predecessors' work of developing the body of Catholic social doctrine. Of particular importance were his 1981 encyclical Laborem exercens and Centesimus annus in 1991.

On one hand there is a growing moral sensitivity alert to the value of every individual as a human being without any distinction of race, nationality, religion, political opinion, or social class. On the other hand these proclamations are contradicted in practice. How can these solemn affirmations be reconciled with the widespread attacks on human life and the refusal to accept those who are weak, needy, elderly, or just conceived? These attacks go directly against respect for life; they threaten the very meaning of democratic coexistence, and our cities risk becoming societies of people who are rejected, marginalized, uprooted, and oppressed, instead of communities of "people living together."



While not endorsing any particular political agenda, the Church holds that this teaching applies in the public (political) realm, not only the private.

Laborem exercens qualifies the teaching of private ownership in relation to the common use of goods that all men, as children of God, are entitled to. The Church "has always understood this right within the broader context of the right common to all to use the goods of the whole creation: the right to private property is subordinated to the right to common use, to the fact that goods are meant for everyone." Many of these concepts are again stressed in Centesimus annus, issued on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Rerum novarum, which encompasses a critique of both socialism and unfettered capitalism. Another major milestone under Pope John Paul II's papacy occurred in 2005, with the publication of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, a work entrusted to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

Pope Benedict XVI



Pope Benedict XVI's 2009 Encyclical Caritas in Veritate added many additional perspectives to the Social Teaching tradition, including in particular relationships with the concepts of Charity and Truth, and introduced the idea of the need for a strong "World Political Authority" to deal with humanity's most pressing challenges and problems. This idea has proven to be controversial and difficult to accept, particularly by right-of-center U.S. Catholic thinkers who are generally suspicious, or even disdainful, of supranational and international organizations, such as the United Nations. The concept was further developed in a 2011 Note issued by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace entitled "Towards reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the context of World Political Authority".

In Caritas in Veritate, Benedict also lifted up Paul VI's social encyclical Populorum Progressio, setting it as a new point of reference for Catholic social thought in the 21st century. Noted scholar Thomas D. Williams wrote that “by honoring Populorum progressio with the title of ‘the Rerum novarum of the present age,’ Benedict meant to elevate Populorum Progressio, conferring on it a paradigmatic status not dissimilar to that enjoyed by Rerum novarum throughout the twentieth century.” Williams claims that the reason for this elevation is that Populorum Progressio, “for all its real deficiencies, effected an important conceptual shift in Catholic social thinking, by moving from the worker question (with its attendant concerns of just wages, private property, working environment, and labor associations) to the broader and richer social benchmark of integral human development.”

Pope Francis



Pope Francis, in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium, explicitly affirmed “the right of states” to intervene in the economy to promote "the common good." He wrote:

While the earnings of a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control. A new tyranny is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly imposes its own laws and rules.

Pope Francis has warned about the "idolatry of money" and wrote:

Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system.

In his second encyclical, Laudato si, the pope lays forth a "biting critique of consumerism and irresponsible development with a plea for swift and unified global action" to combat environmental degradation and climate change.

Principles

Every commentator has their own list of key principles and documents, and there is no official ‘canon’ of principles or documents.

Human dignity

The principle of Catholic social teaching is the correct view of the human person. "Being in the image of God, the human individual possesses the dignity of a person, who is not just something, but someone. He is capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons. And he is called by grace to a covenant with his Creator, to offer him a response of faith and love that no other creature can give."

Solidarity and the common good

Solidarity is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good, not merely "vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of others" (Joseph Donders, John Paul II: The Encyclicals in Everyday Language). Solidarity, which flows from faith, is fundamental to the Christian view of social and political organization. Each person is connected to and dependent on all humanity, collectively and individually.

Charity

In Caritas in Veritate, the Catholic Church declared that "Charity is at the heart of the Church". Every responsibility and every commitment spelt out by that doctrine is derived from charity which, according to the teaching of Jesus, is the synthesis of the entire Law (Matthew 22:36-40). It gives real substance to the personal relationship with God and with neighbour; it is the principle not only of micro-relationships but with friends, family members or within small groups.[26]

The Church has chosen the concept of "charity in truth" to avoid a degeneration into sentimentality in which love becomes empty. In a culture without truth, there is a fatal risk of losing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word “love” is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite. Truth frees charity from the constraints of an emotionalism that deprives it of relational and social content, and of a fideism that deprives it of human and universal breathing-space. In the truth, charity reflects the personal yet public dimension of faith in God and the Bible.[27]

Subsidiarity
In the Roman Catholic Church, subsidiarity is a principle of social teaching that all social bodies exist for the sake of the individuals so that what individuals are able to do, society should not take over, and what small societies can do, larger societies should not take over.[28] So Pope Pius XI said, "It is a fundamental principle of social philosophy, fixed and unchangeable, that one should not withdraw from individuals and commit to the community what they can accomplish by their own enterprise and/or industry."

Distributism and social justice

Distributism holds that social and economic structures should promote social justice, including wide ownership of corporations and is the basis for progressive tax rates, anti-trust laws and economic cooperatives including credit unions. Rerum novarum, Quadragesimo anno, Centesimus annus and Caritas in veritate are all documents which advocate a just distribution of income and wealth.

Key themes
As with the principles above, there is no official list of key themes. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has identified these seven key themes of Catholic Social Teaching set out here. Other sources identify more or fewer key themes based on their reading of the key documents of the social magisterium.

Sanctity of human life and dignity of the person

The foundational principle of all Catholic social teachings is the sanctity of human life. Catholics believe in an inherent dignity of the human person starting from conception through to natural death. They believe that human life must be valued infinitely above material possessions. Pope John Paul II wrote and spoke extensively on the topic of the inviolability of human life and dignity in his watershed encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, (Latin for "The Gospel of Life").

Catholics oppose acts considered attacks and affronts to human life, including abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, genocide, torture, the direct and intentional targeting of noncombatants in war, and every deliberate taking of innocent human life. In the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et spes (Latin for "Joy and Hope"), it is written that “from the moment of its conception life must be guarded with the greatest care." The Church does not oppose war in all circumstances. The Church's moral theology has generally emphasised just war theory.

In recent years, some Catholics have discouraged application of the death penalty, though even the most opposed must concede that "the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor." The Roman Catechism says of capital punishment that a

kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which are the legitimate avengers of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord.

Related to the same concern of the above quotation from the Roman Catechism, the more recent Catechism of the Catholic Church also says of capital punishment (repetition of some previous text for sake of context):

The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.

"If, instead, bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

"Today, in fact, given the means at the State's disposal to effectively repress crime by rendering inoffensive the one who has committed it, without depriving him definitively of the possibility of redeeming himself, cases of absolute necessity for suppression of the offender 'today ... are very rare, if not practically non-existent.'[John Paul II, Evangelium vitae 56.]."
Believing men and women are made in the image and likeness of God, Catholic doctrine teaches to respect all humans based on an inherent dignity. According to John Paul II, every human person "is called to a fullness of life which far exceeds the dimensions of his earthly existence, because it consists in sharing the very life of God." Catholics oppose racism and other forms of discrimination. In 2007, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote:

Catholic teaching about the dignity of life calls us ... to prevent genocide and attacks against noncombatants; to oppose racism; and to overcome poverty and suffering. Nations are called to protect the right to life by seeking effective ways to combat evil and terror without resorting to armed conflicts except as a last resort, always seeking first to resolve disputes by peaceful means. We revere the lives of children in the womb, the lives of persons dying in war and from starvation, and indeed the lives of all human beings as children of God.

A belief in the inherent dignity of the human person also requires that basic human needs are adequately met, including food, health care, shelter, etc. Many see this as a basis for the support of the welfare state and of governmental economic policies that promote equitable distribution of income and access to essential goods and services.

Call to family, community, and participation and the pursuit of the Common Good

According to the Book of Genesis, the Lord God said: "It is not good for the man to be alone". The Catholic Church teaches that man is now not only a sacred but also a social person and that families are the first and most basic units of a society. It advocates a complementarian view of marriage, family life, and religious leadership. Full human development takes place in relationship with others. The family—based on marriage (between a man and a woman)—is the first and fundamental unit of society and is a sanctuary for the creation and nurturing of children. Together families form communities, communities a state and together all across the world each human is part of the human family. How these communities organize themselves politically, economically and socially is thus of the highest importance. Each institution must be judged by how much it enhances, or is a detriment to, the life and dignity of human persons.

Catholic Social Teaching opposes collectivist approaches such as Communism but at the same time it also rejects unrestricted laissez-faire policies and the notion that a free market automatically produces social justice. The state has a positive moral role to play as no society will achieve a just and equitable distribution of resources with a totally free market. All people have a right to participate in the economic, political, and cultural life of society and, under the principle of subsidiarity, state functions should be carried out at the lowest level that is practical.[44]A particular contribution of Catholic social teaching is a strong appreciation for the role of intermediary organizations such as labor unions, community organizations, fraternal groups and parish churches.

Rights and responsibilities; social justice

Every person has a fundamental right to life and to the necessities of life. The right to exercise religious freedom publicly and privately by individuals and institutions along with freedom of conscience need to be constantly defended. In a fundamental way, the right to free expression of religious beliefs protects all other rights.

The Church supports private property and teaches that "every man has by nature the right to possess property as his own." The right to private property is not absolute, however, and is limited by the concepts of the "universal destiny of the goods of the earth" and of the social mortgage. It is theoretically moral and just for its members to destroy property used in an evil way by others, or for the state to redistribute wealth from those who have unjustly hoarded it.

Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to our families, and to the larger society. Rights should be understood and exercised in a moral framework rooted in the dignity of the human person and social justice. Those that have more have a greater responsibility to contribute to the common good than those who have less.

We live our lives by a subconscious philosophy of freedom and work. The encyclical Laborem exercens (1981) by Pope John Paul II, describes work as the essential key to the whole social question. The very beginning is an aspect of the human vocation. Work includes every form of action by which the world is transformed and shaped or even simply maintained by human beings. It is through work that we achieve fulfilment. So in order to fulfil ourselves we must cooperate and work together to create something good for all of us, a common good. What we call justice is that state of social harmony in which the actions of each person best serve the common good.

Freedom according to Natural Law is the empowerment of good. Being free we have responsibilities. With human relationships we have responsibilities towards each other. This is the basis of human rights. The Roman Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, in their document "The Common Good" (1996) stated that, "The study of the evolution of human rights shows that they all flow from the one fundamental right: the right to life. From this derives the right to a society which makes life more truly human: religious liberty, decent work, housing, health care, freedom of speech, education, and the right to raise and provide for a family" (section 37). Having the right to life must mean that everyone else has a responsibility towards me. To help sustain and develop my life. This gives me the right to whatever I need to accomplish without compromising the mission of others, and it lays on others the corresponding responsibility to help me. All justice is the power of God compensated solely in terms of individual relationships.

The Ten Commandments reflect the basic structure of the Natural Law insofar as it applies to humanity. The first three are the foundation for everything that follows: The Love of God, the Worship of God, the sanctity of God and the building of people around God. The other seven Commandments are to do with the love of humanity and describe the different ways in which we must serve the common good : Honor your father and mother, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbour (Exodus 20:3–17). Our Lord Jesus Christ Summarised the Commandments with the New Commandment: "Love one another, as I have loved you" (John 13:34, 15:9–17). The mystery of Jesus is a mystery of love. Our relationship with God is not one of fear, of slavery or oppression; it is a relationship of serene trust born of a free choice motivated by love. Pope John Paul II stated that love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. By his law God does not intend to coerce our will, but to set it free from everything that could compromise its authentic dignity and its full realisation. (Pope John Paul II to government leaders, 5 November 2000.)

Preferential option for the poor and vulnerable

Jesus taught that on the Day of Judgement God will ask what each of us did to help the poor and needy: "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me." This is reflected in the Church's canon law, which states, "The Christian faithful are also obliged to promote social justice and, mindful of the precept of the Lord, to assist the poor from their own resources."

Through our words, prayers and deeds we must show solidarity with, and compassion for, the poor. When instituting public policy we must always keep the "preferential option for the poor" at the forefront of our minds. The moral test of any society is "how it treats its most vulnerable members. The poor have the most urgent moral claim on the conscience of the nation. We are called to look at public policy decisions in terms of how they affect the poor."

Pope Benedict XVI has taught that "love for widows and orphans, prisoners, and the sick and needy of every kind, is as essential as the ministry of the sacraments and preaching of the Gospel". This preferential option for the poor and vulnerable includes all who are marginalized in our nation and beyond—unborn children, persons with disabilities, the elderly and terminally ill, and victims of injustice and oppression.

Dignity of work

Society must pursue economic justice and the economy must serve people, not the other way around. Employers must not "look upon their work people as their bondsmen, but ... respect in every man his dignity as a person ennobled by Christian character." Employers contribute to the common good through the services or products they provide and by creating jobs that uphold the dignity and rights of workers.

Workers have a right to work, to earn a living wage, and to form trade unions[52] to protect their interests. All workers have a right to productive work, to decent and fair wages, and to safe working conditions. Workers also have responsibilities—to provide a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, to treat employers and co-workers with respect, and to carry out their work in ways that contribute to the common good. Workers must "fully and faithfully" perform the work they have agreed to do.

In 1933, the Catholic Worker Movement was founded by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin. It was committed to nonviolence, voluntary poverty, prayer, and hospitality for the marginalized and poorest in Society. Today over 185 Catholic Worker communities continue to protest injustice, war, racism, and violence of all forms.

Solidarity and the universal destiny of the goods of the Earth

Pope John Paul II wrote in the 1987 encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis, "Solidarity is undoubtedly a Christian virtue. It seeks to go beyond itself to total gratuity, forgiveness, and reconciliation. It leads to a new vision of the unity of humankind, a reflection of God's triune intimate life. ..." It is a unity that binds members of a group together.

All the peoples of the world belong to one human family. We must be our brother's keeper, though we may be separated by distance, language or culture. Jesus teaches that we must each love our neighbors as ourselves and in the parable of the Good Samaritan we see that our compassion should extend to all people. Solidarity includes the Scriptural call to welcome the stranger among us—including immigrants seeking work, a safe home, education for their children, and a decent life for their families.

Solidarity at the international level primarily concerns the Global South. For example, the Church has habitually insisted that loans be forgiven on many occasions, particularly during Jubilee years. Charity to individuals or groups must be accompanied by transforming unjust political, economic and social structures.

The world and its goods were created for the use and benefit of all of God´s creatures and any structures that impede the realization of this fundamental goal are not right. This concept ties in with those of Social Justice and of the limits to private property.

Care for God's creation

A Biblical vision of justice is much more comprehensive than civil equity; it encompasses right relationships between all members of God's creation. Stewardship of creation: The world's goods are available for humanity to use only under a "social mortgage" which carries with it the responsibility to protect the environment. The "goods of the earth" are gifts from God, and they are intended by God for the benefit of everyone. Man was given dominion over all creation as sustainer rather than as exploiter, and is commanded to be a good steward of the gifts God has given him. We cannot use and abuse the natural resources God has given us with a destructive consumer mentality.

Catholic Social Teaching recognizes that the poor are the most vulnerable to environmental impact and endure disproportional hardship when natural areas are exploited or damaged. US Bishops established an environmental justice program to assist parishes and dioceses who wanted to conduct education, outreach and advocacy about these issues. The US Conference of Catholic Bishops Environmental Justice Program (EJP)[61] calls Catholics to a deeper respect for God's creation and engages parishes in activities that deal with environmental problems, particularly as they affect the poor.

[Jaga]

Pieter,

your post about Catholic Church is just on time, especially since they started a Year of Mercy

[pieter]

I didn't know that the church started a Year of Mercy? Thank you for reminding me.


Polska Partia Pragmatyczna










Where are they talking about. This discussion between these two great Poles must be interesting. Do they talk about polticis? Both are dead, but both had a great influence on Polish thinking, dissident circles and post-communist Poland.


Bonobo’s reaction:

They re talking about desire for power and exerting influence on people. Is power necessary at all? What prerogatives should it have? Stalin is mentioned as a charismatic ruler who killed people but was loved by his nation. etc etc Geremek desires for rulers who will be respected and liked by the nation not because they are cruel but pragmatic. There is a question where to find such people. It is necessary to educate youngsters so that one day good rulers may emerge in future.