Poland right wing

[george]

I had asked this question before but got no responce. I'm very curious about this so i will ask it again to see if i get any info or opinions.
I never heard of Polands right wing socal conservatives during the tumultous 1980's. However, since Poland regained its independence it seems the right wing social catholic conservatives have come out of the woodwork. There seems so many of them. My question is this. Where were they during the 80's? I'm surprised because in the west we never heard from them until fairly recently. Were they alwys there and only recently let themselves be heard? Just curious. Maybe native Poles could help answer this question.

[Pawian]

george said:

I had asked this question before but got no responce. I'm very curious about this so i will ask it again to see if i get any info or opinions.
I never heard of Polands right wing socal conservatives during the tumultous 1980's. However, since Poland regained its independence it seems the right wing social catholic conservatives have come out of the woodwork. There seems so many of them. My question is this. Where were they during the 80's? I'm surprised because in the west we never heard from them until fairly recently. Were they alwys there and only recently let themselves be heard? Just curious. Maybe native Poles could help answer this question.

They were always there. It was the phenomenon of the 70s and 80s opposition movement, that people of different backgrounds and beliefs decided to cooperate. There were social democrats, centrists and right wing too. Some were radical, some weren`t. Some of them believed in God, some didn`t.

Those were beautiful times. They worked together because their major enemy was communism.

After the system had been abolished, all those people took a leave from Solidarity and formed their own parties. Many times they quarreled and accused one another of cooperation with communists. The relations turned sour and nasty.

Three major currents in Polish opposition of 70s:
web.ku.edu/~eceurope/hist557/lect18a.htm

****A group of intellectuals organized the Komitet Obrony Robotnikow - KOR (the Committee for the Defense of Polish Workers) in late summer-early fall 1976. (In 1978, it changed its acronym to Komitet Samoobrony Spolecznej, KSS KOR (= Committee for Social Self- Defense). Two of its best known members were Jacek Kuron [pron. Kooron] and Adam Michnik (pron. Meekhneek) both trained historians and former communists. Others included the literary critic Jan Jozef Lipski (pron. Yan Yoozef Leepskee), a dissident since 1955, and the historian Bronislaw Gieremek,[pron. Guyerehmehk] who had resigned from the party in 1968. Th

KOR’s original goal was to help the workers. It collected money to aid workers’ families deprived of their breadwinners and to pay defense costs for trials. KOR published its first underground bulletin in September, but it adopted the policy of open activism. This meant that KOR members claimed the rights of freedom of speech, association, and publication on the basis of existing rights in the Polish Constitution, the Helsinki Agreements of August 1975 (which specifically safeguarded human rights), and international labor agreements - both signed by the Polish and other communists governments. Thus, while publications were printed underground without government permission, the authors signed their names, daring the authorities to come after them. KOR was the first organization to adopt this policy in a Soviet bloc state. It provided a model for the Czech Charter 77 dissident group formed in Czechoslovakia in 1977.

Similar organizations, but leaning toward the center or the right, followed. The Ruch Obrony Praw Czlowieka i Obywatela -ROPCIO (Movement for the Defense of the Rights of Man and Citizen) represented moderately reformist and right-wing intelligentsia, while the Konfederacja Polski Niepodleglej -KPN (Confederation for an Independent Poland) was a right wing organization. ****

After KOR in 70s, Solidarity took over the opposition leadership in 1980.

[george]

Thank you for responding Pawian. I'm sure these guys ( Right wing social conservatives ) were around, but i never heard of them. They seemed quiet during the 70's and 80's. Your posting mentioned liberal dissidents from the 1970 to 1980's. The conservatives seemed to only sneek in when it was safe. Maybe i'm missing something.

[varsovian]

KOR also arose out of the 1968 infighting in the communist party when the "Jewish" faction lost. I use "Jewish" advisedly not because I'm an anti-semite but because that was the way the cookie crumbled then. "Jews" included anyone who had Jewish ancestry and allied him/herself along those lines.
I personally remember Michnik being left untouched in the 1988 Warsaw University demonstration to mark the 20th anniversary of the student protests. The ZOMO were less pleasant to others present.
The brothers K. were well-known hangers-on and advisers to Lech Wa³êsa, and their more or less blameless past has been well-documented. Can't say I like them though. And as for Mazowiecki, well, he seems to make use of friends in high places when needs be - though I know little of him apart from the fact that his son was left to run an international school in Warsaw without the required permits. Don't know how.
The church is afflicted by scum in it's upper echelons. Radio Maryja, which is still highly influential, was a Nazi-funded start-up (I'm not joking!! - look up Kobylañski). And Polish bishops are quite happy with that. The church in Poland is an empty shell as far as the priesthood is concerned - they have zero credibility in my eyes because of their happy acceptance of support from disgusting extremists. The Pope stands by unconcerned - that says a lot too.
By the way, I'm a church-goer ...
Poland is a weird country which doesn't fit easily into boxes.