Post by Jaga on Jun 3, 2019 22:52:48 GMT -7
In the same time when people were killed in protests in Tiananmen Square in May 1989 - Poland was undergoing its first semi-free elections. There were two lists - one with Solidarity representatives. Majority of people took their time to delete the names of all, except one communistic representatives, which were in the beginning of the list, so that Solidarity people would be chosen.
The sad fact is that the present government wants to forget about it, since Kaczynski who used to be Walesa's ally, after he gained political recognition try to destroy his boss and and all liberal forced that created Solidarity.
Below is some info about Chinese and Polish lessons of June 4, 1989
www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/from-china-to-poland-lessons-from-june-4-1989/
From China to Poland, lessons from June 4, 1989
What can we learn from comparing the 1989 revolutions in Poland and in China?
Maciej Bartkowski
On June 4, Poles celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first free elections since the end of World War II. In 1989, the Polish Solidarity opposition won a landslide, capturing all but one contested seats in both the upper and lower houses of the parliament. This victory led to the appointment of the first non-communist prime minister and a unity government where former political dissidents sat together with their former oppressors. In this powersharing pact the government moved forward to dismantle the Polish communist system and initiate a peaceful democratic transition well before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Soviet Union collapsed.
On the same day Poles celebrated the freedom to choose their own representatives to parliament, on the other side of the globe in another communist country, political leaders led a brutal crackdown on the peaceful student protest in Tiananmen Square. According to various estimates, between a thousand and several thousand demonstrators were killed.
The Polish opposition was watching the events in China with apprehension, asking itself if their communist partners could turn once again into their oppressors, rejecting the election results and following the example of their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese communist leaders looked in turn with terror at the news from Poland, fearing the “Polish disease” would spread to their land. They were committed to stopping it before it contaminated wider swaths of the Chinese society. As it turned out, the different strategies pursued by these movements were instrumental in determining both the peaceful outcome in Poland and the violent burial of democratic hopes in China.
A deliberate strategy of the “self-limiting revolution” drove a 10 million-strong Solidarity movement to its first victory. The popular resistance shook the communist government to its core in 1980, forcing it to legalize the first ever free trade union in the communist bloc. Poland’s self-limiting revolution emphasized the importance of nonviolent discipline within the resistance together with the building of a broad-based coalition of diverse groups in order to wage powerful actions of non-cooperation and disobedience. For a movement as strong as Solidarity, the goal was relatively unassertive. It was not calling for full-fledged democracy; that remained an unfulfilled dream as long as 100,000 Soviet troops were stationed in Poland. Instead, the opposition limited itself by choosing a more concrete and seemingly achievable goal: free trade unions.
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The sad fact is that the present government wants to forget about it, since Kaczynski who used to be Walesa's ally, after he gained political recognition try to destroy his boss and and all liberal forced that created Solidarity.
Below is some info about Chinese and Polish lessons of June 4, 1989
www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/from-china-to-poland-lessons-from-june-4-1989/
From China to Poland, lessons from June 4, 1989
What can we learn from comparing the 1989 revolutions in Poland and in China?
Maciej Bartkowski
On June 4, Poles celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first free elections since the end of World War II. In 1989, the Polish Solidarity opposition won a landslide, capturing all but one contested seats in both the upper and lower houses of the parliament. This victory led to the appointment of the first non-communist prime minister and a unity government where former political dissidents sat together with their former oppressors. In this powersharing pact the government moved forward to dismantle the Polish communist system and initiate a peaceful democratic transition well before the Berlin Wall came tumbling down and the Soviet Union collapsed.
On the same day Poles celebrated the freedom to choose their own representatives to parliament, on the other side of the globe in another communist country, political leaders led a brutal crackdown on the peaceful student protest in Tiananmen Square. According to various estimates, between a thousand and several thousand demonstrators were killed.
The Polish opposition was watching the events in China with apprehension, asking itself if their communist partners could turn once again into their oppressors, rejecting the election results and following the example of their Chinese counterparts. The Chinese communist leaders looked in turn with terror at the news from Poland, fearing the “Polish disease” would spread to their land. They were committed to stopping it before it contaminated wider swaths of the Chinese society. As it turned out, the different strategies pursued by these movements were instrumental in determining both the peaceful outcome in Poland and the violent burial of democratic hopes in China.
A deliberate strategy of the “self-limiting revolution” drove a 10 million-strong Solidarity movement to its first victory. The popular resistance shook the communist government to its core in 1980, forcing it to legalize the first ever free trade union in the communist bloc. Poland’s self-limiting revolution emphasized the importance of nonviolent discipline within the resistance together with the building of a broad-based coalition of diverse groups in order to wage powerful actions of non-cooperation and disobedience. For a movement as strong as Solidarity, the goal was relatively unassertive. It was not calling for full-fledged democracy; that remained an unfulfilled dream as long as 100,000 Soviet troops were stationed in Poland. Instead, the opposition limited itself by choosing a more concrete and seemingly achievable goal: free trade unions.
...