Grazynas’ Strike

Of all literary heroines Grazyna, the heroine of Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz’s eponymous classic is, perhaps the greatest feminist. What a shame that her name is under attack in this “me too” moment of the women’s movement. In Mickiewicz’s epic Grazyna dons the armour of her husband Rymwyd and takes up arms against the invading Teutonic Knights in a battle certain to be lost, but after her death in battle she turns the tables on the enemy when the identity of the knight in armour is revealed to be a woman. A new generation of Polish women that honours the tradition of Grazyna is taking into their hands the reins of today’s movement. Now more than ever women everywhere are saying no to subjugation at the hands of their communities. Shame on men and women who demean the name of Poland’s bravest female.

"Rydzyk and Friends"

Who is Tadeusz Rydzyk? A Polish priest and powerful media mogul. He, through his outlets, and his sect-like follower group, called by its founder the family of Radio Maryja, TV Trwam, and his newspaper Nasz Dziennik, has wide audinces in Poland and around the world. Opinions voiced on them have the potential to influence outcomes of elections and consequently to change the course of history, as we now know from the last election in Poland, his home country. The publication of Tomasz Piatek’s 2-volume book, “Rydzyk and Friends” makes clear the depth of Rydzyk’s ties to Russia. It argues that it is time to take a look at the “father-director" himself, his circle of friends and the projects created by them. On the surface Rydzyk’s message has no overt Russian reference points. But on closer examination it becomes clear how aligned it is with the anti-Western, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-liberal propaganda of Putin’s Russia. The aggressive Putin propaganda media machine is like an octopus with tentacles reaching into many corners, often unexpected. And although it seems that Rydzyk’s Torun broadcast channel is an unlikely ally of Russia it may in fact be working as one. Piatek’s revelations of hidden links between this Polish Catholic media evangelist and Putin’s Russia suggests that “father-director” Rydzyk may be a willing tool of an aggressive regime. In addition to a visit by a Russian delegation to his home base in Torun, Poland in the 1990’s Rydzyk has been favoured with military broadcast frequencies for his Radio Maryja communications channel. This allows him that bring his messages to a worldwide audience. As reported on this blog in the past, Putin’s propaganda campaign against the West includes an “alternative TV channel called RT (abbreviated from Russia Today to somewhat conceal its purpose). RT bills itself as “neither right nor left. Whatever it is not, RT is definitely 100% pro-Putin, albeit mainly by avoiding any criticism of the now notorious regime that is its sponsor. The prominent western presenters, like Chris Hedges, hired by RT to deliver its message are either improbably naïve or cynical about the roles they are being paid to play. Unlike Rydzyk they are definitely on the Kremlin payroll. To give Rydzyk a chance to state the falseness of the suspicions about him an enquiry should be called to clear the air.

27 deaths of Toby Obed: Canada’s shame

When they think of Canada many may have in their minds the innocence of fictional schoolgirl Anne of Green Gables or the smart red uniforms of principled law enforcers the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But for many in 2019 another, darker, country has emerged. Canada, like Poland, the native land of Joanna Gierak-Onoszko, author of this book (based on her several years of research in Canada and published first in Polish), is having to come to terms with painful aspects of its history. Canada has been generally known around the world as a “good actor” and peacemaker in world affairs, but it was responsible for the deaths of many of the indigenous inhabitants of what are now more properly known as the First Nations of Turtle Island, that is the land now called Canada. “27 Deaths…” recounts the stories of “survivors” of residential schools who were forcibly removed from their indigenous families by the state and placed under the authority of teachers/guardians, mainly religious in nature, whose mission was “to take the Indian out of the Indian”, sometimes at the hands of other victims, themselves also indigenous. Still, many years later, Canada’s oppressive conditions continue for its indigenous peoples who suffer extreme levels of poverty, addiction, trauma, incarceration and suicide. All indigenous peoples, after colonization by their uninvited European invaders, have experienced similar traumas and the wounds have been passed on from generation to generation, especially, for many, an imposed loss of positive identity and self-worth. Only very recently is Canada recognizing its responsibility for what is now seen by many as the genocide of its First Nations. Gierak-Onoszko, like some inside the country itself, doubt the genuineness of Canada’s “Truth and Reconciliation” process, an initiative of the current Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau. Is it just a PR operation prompted by guilt about the gap between Canada’s rosy international reputation and the shocking reality of its impact on the first inhabitants of this land? And the impact continues. Not only are there still native reserves without guaranteed clean drinking water, corrosive prejudice continues in non-native Canada and a disproportionate population of indigenous people is incarcerated in Canada's prisons.The recent discovery of unmarked residential school graves is only the latest evidence of Canada's legacy of racist abuse against its native peoples. With over 120 languages represented in Canada's immigration populations we wonder how many have access in their own tongues to the indigenous experiences recounted in Gierak-Onoszko's pioneering work in Polish. We invite readers to inform us about their own awareness of these matters and what sources in any medium they are aware of and have learned from.

Poland on the way to unfreedom

The Tymothy Snyder's book "The Road to Unfreedom" is scary because it draws lines between seemingly unconnected events that point to a single cause of major recent political instability around the globe and an underpinning vision behind it. That vision is Russia’s, or, more properly, Russia seen through the neo-fascist lens of early 20th century ideologue Ivan Ilyin and his current champion Vladimir Putin. From the invasion of Crimea to BREXIT and the heavily abetted election of Donald Trump Snyder finds one common precipitating idea: the rejection of liberal democracy in favour of xenophobic autocracy. As an academic who champions progress through diversity and openness Snyder himself is an example of what distresses Putin’s Russia, itself an incarnation of what Snyder calls Eternity, a mindset that sees the world in an unchanging quasi-religious way, with Russia as a bleeding martyr of western assaults. It is binarily opposed, in Snyder’s vision, to the Inevitability mantra he understands as the common view of western culture, a belief in advancement through change. Since Russia cannot change, in Snyder’s interpretation of the Eternity view, its only available reward is “to make others weaker”(p. 269). 

This is a bleak view and the rise of similar gangster leaders and their tactics around the world in recent times gives it credibility. The question for Snyder and for others opposed to the application of any kind of theologically entwined pessimism inworld affairs is, then, what to do about this movement to un-freedom? As ever, Poland finds itself in the eye of a geo-historical storm, squeezed between east and west. The Russian fifth column electronic media are active in Poland as elsewhere, sewing seeds of confusion. For historical reasons, as part of the former “Eastern Bloc”, like Ukraine, Poland finds itself anatural, if reluctant, part of what can be seen, with Snyder, as akind of Eastern Bloc restoration plan. The “blockage”, of course, is the never to be forgotten historical victimization of Poland by the Soviet Union, from which flows Polish President Kaczynski’s nationalist politics. With friends like Putin Poles may think, who needs enemies?      

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.”  

Retrotopia: the new Eastern Europe?

In 1989, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, capitalism extended into Eastern Europe, and brought the "consumer dream" of happiness through stuff to the impoverished masses of the former Eastern Bloc. This dream has turned out to be an illusion for many. 

Robbed of former ideals and beliefs and feeling powerless to control their future many now seek alternatives. One such alternative, was described by renowned Polish sociologist Zygmund Bauman in his last book. He called it Retropia; it is a form of utopia in the past. As absurd as it may seem for those who knew the real historical past, idealizing it, or selected portions of it, may seem attractive. The temptation is fuelled in large part by today's lack of credible visions of a better world. Has the Left, the traditional source of utopian dreams, lost the struggle for minds, not just for popular support? 

Bauman thinks so. One result is that people are left with two primary lifestyle options, both troubling: one - existence as a faceless individual alienated from community  and their fellow consumers; the other - join a mass movement, of the kind offered by today's right-wing populists, that idealizes a previous world of connectedness from the past. For Bauman this latter ideal of what he calls retrotopia is an opponent to the progress sought by all left movements, that is: a continuous improvement in the human condition for all. Without reframing positive left futures Bauman leaves us with the clear conclusion that going back to times that were anything but utopias is definitely not the way forward.