Canada - a post nationalist state? Really?

It often takes an outsider to put a situation or a place in perspective. KatarzynaWezyk, a reporter recently sent by to report on Canada by Polish magazine Agora has recently performed this favour in a new book, not as yet, published in English. Wezyk, aprogressive feminist, approaches Canada as a model alternative for her own country of what she calls “post-nationalism”. For Wezyk the country she visited was one that has been largely, and understandably, mythologized in many regions as one of the best places to live in the world: a vast, open, prosperous country with a superior social safety net. But the “paradise” that is the Canada of Anne  of  Green Gables , ironically grounded by the recent Paradise paper revelations about tax evasion by government officials like Finance Minister Bill Morneau and others, has a darker side and the reporter in Wezyk is critical enough to include thast along with her appreciative references to the well knownchildren’s story. 

So, for each of the various Canadian pluses she cites Wezyk also notes shadowy minuses. Canada’s vast natural beauty is shadowed by polluting resource industries, most notably Alberta’s tar-sands, from which the country derives much wealth. Canada’s relatively welcoming inclusion of immigrants from around the world is shadowed by its shameful treatment of the First Nation inhabitants of the land to which it has given the name Canada. Canada’s international reputation as principled defender of human rights is historically shadowed by the historical treatment by its colonial elites of French-speaking citizens in Quebec and the murder and incarceration of so many of its aboriginal inhabitants.

Perhaps wisely Wenzyk makes no attempt at a comprehensive interpretation of these contradictions of the Canadian reality. She leaves readers to make their own judgments. With a Canada seemingly content with its role as a respected middle power on the world stage it is unlikely that any real national effort to remove such dark shadows from the sunny ways celebrated by Prime Minister Trudeau in his “Justin of Green Gables”character, is likely to occur, however many  selfies with happy citizens he agrees to submit himself to. 

I appreciate and respect Wenzyk for her book’s willingness to see both light and shadow where they exist but among inevitable omissions was her failure to present the often very different opinions of many Polish immigrants to Canada from older generations, in their comfortable neglect of Canada’s dark side. Both Canadians and Poles will benefit from Wezyk’s reflections on the coexistence of light and dark in Canada’s legacy. With both countries situated next to large and insecurity generating powers Canada and Poland thus have much political psychology in common, But the difference between the two cultures is profound. Throughout its history Poland has had to fight for its existence, while Canada, though not its first nations, meti, and inuit populations, has peacefully coexisted with imperial powers, first Britain and now the USA to the south. The large distance of Canadian Anne’s green gables from the now rebuilt from devastation cities of Poland, like Warsaw, is more than physical. There is potentially much to learn and apply but we should not underestimate the limits. 

The New Poland: Too Old and Too Young

Poland’s new system of capitalism, now 30 years old, raised expectations by offering a radical Western style “normality”. The elite who led the peaceful revolution did not take into account the social costs inevitably followed. Many new writers are now turning attentions to these social costs and lookibg for alternatives. One of these new voices, Marek Szymaniak in his book Urobieni (the Overworked ) presents the stories of those who have paid the highest price for the post-1989 change to capitalist neo-liberalism , e.g. a  woman who, to retain work, hides her critical illness and dies, the mainly young 2 million economic refugees who have left Poland and the 2 more million who want to. In this new world there are few, if any, social supports. So, there is aging society and desperate undocumented workers Ukrainians imported to work as modern day slaves e.g. a domestic helper kept captive and employed in several locations and workers whose wages were stolen. Plus corporations like Amazon, so predatory that workers are organizing strikes in solidarity with other Amazon workers in Germany and Spain.

The political left, historically the representatives of the excluded and exploited, are either too old (relics of the communist regime) or too young - the new left that like in many other countries is heavily represented among the educated and the high income elites, unlike in the 1960’s and 1970’s when the left was based in the working class and the right supported the affluent. 

Many are surprised and shocked by the rise of right wing populism but, as Thomas Piketty`s, noted French economist,analysis of 4 most developed Western countries over 70 years documented the political left and right are both controlled by elites, the left by technocratic intellectuals the right by the rich. Meanwhile the poor and the working class are not being heard or represented and so are showing their anger through right-wing nationalistic populism. The internal contradictions of capitalism are deepening inequality and injustice in Poland. The global crisis of 2008 was survived in Poland because the relatively immature financial system in Poland was less exposed. Since then the new system has been allowed to run unchallenged through the EU funding and large scale emigration. There has no real debate about alternatives to the new status quo to avoid being seen as nostalgic about the communist past.  

So where can Poland go now. The solutions Szymaniak suggest include strengthening unions, greater participation, more democracy and meaningful work. Will it work? If the rich are willing to sacrifice a little for the common good. The status quo cannot continue, so alternatives are necessary.
In my opinion Szymaniak’s suggestions are worthy of serious consideration. A right-wing populism is the political expression of this sense of frustration. As stated by Timothy Garton-Ash in his recent presentation in Toronto, Poland once again is similar to the others only more so. The major alternative political groups currently active in Poland are either too old or too young for thismarginalized group and populist groups are addressing theirfrustration by actions such as increasing the minimum wage, blaming immigrants, supporting the old, and lowering theretirement age. 

Progressive economists like Andrzej Szahaj that is interviewed for the book “Urobieni”…… point out that Poland wanted change so much  that they ignored progressive options like Kowalik’s and Scandinavian social democracy because they were not “different enough.”