Working Paper 2020/16/ATL

Polish Citizens in a Transformed Society: A Social Contract Perspective on Business and Ethics in

Iwona Kuraszko Bolöv INSEAD, [email protected]

N. Craig Smith INSEAD, [email protected]

When 10 million Polish workers united to form the Solidarity movement in 1980, it became the first domino to fall in a chain of events that led to the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Within Poland, Solidarity created a social contract for rebuilding Polish society with the values of justice, dignity and freedom. Yet the actual transformation that Poland underwent emphasized mainly freedom, of those three values. Leaders implemented “shock therapy” to transform the economic system into a free market economy—with scant regard to the effects on human welfare. Today, Poland is regarded as one of the success stories of the post-Soviet transformation. But many Polish workers and consumers have felt excluded from the gains in living standards. Critics complain that the values of dignity and justice were ignored in the process of bolstering Poland’s economic freedom. Illustrating this at the level of the firm are cases on a labor strike and a consumer protest that also show Polish citizens challenging the terms of the social contract under which businesses operate in Poland. The discussion concludes that, in newly established democracies, social contracts must continually evolve as the population awakens to the challenges of creating a free and inclusive society.

Keywords: Social Contract Theory; Business Ethics; Poland; Solidarity; Transformation; Shock Therapy; Cultural Specificity; Tesco; M-Bank

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3553194

Working Paper is the author’s intellectual property. It is intended as a means to promote research to interested readers. Its content should not be copied or hosted on any server without written permission from [email protected] Find more INSEAD papers at https://www.insead.edu/faculty-research/research Copyright © 2020 INSEAD Polish Citizens in a Transformed Society: A Social Contract Perspective on Business and Ethics in Poland

This paper examines Poland’s transformation from a communist-run society to a capitalist one through the lens of social contract theory. Its main contribution is to explore whether Poland’s economic and social transformation were in step with a social contract established with the country’s populace. While the focus is on Poland, our findings are relevant to other Central Eastern European countries and, potentially, to other regions undergoing transformation. The paper’s primary theoretical contribution is to illustrate the application of social contract theory to business ethics in a novel context while highlighting, in particular, the deep cultural specificity of social contracts—a characteristic that requires that each social contract draw upon the history, economy, politics and social norms of the constituent parties in shaping the relationship between business and society. Furthermore, we conclude, the social contract must be periodically revisited and renewed as the society matures and becomes more demanding.

Using an interdisciplinary approach and multiple data sources, the article paints a portrait of modern Poland, focusing on the interchange between Polish citizens and consumers and the country’s newly created business institutions. More specifically, it identifies a social contract—part-extant and part-hypothetical—between and the international and local businesses that now operate in the country. This social contract is reflective of the relationship between business and society in pre- and post- transformational Poland.

1 Poland’s transformation from a communist state in 1989 to a capitalist one today has been widely seen as a remarkable success story.1 The McKinsey report, Poland 2025:

Europe’s New Growth Engine, summarized the country’s economic turnaround this way (Bogdan et al. 2015, p. 1):

Twenty-five years ago, events in Poland touched off changes that swept Central and Eastern Europe, resulting in massive economic and political transformations. As the Polish economy emerged from decades of state control, industries were privatized and market-based competition was introduced, followed by painful reforms. Within a few years, Polish GDP and living standards began to rise significantly, as the country started on a growth path that has not ended. Accession to the European Union in 2004 confirmed the success of Poland’s effort and indicated a development path that was leading toward the level of Europe’s most advanced economies.

According to the report issued in January 2015, the Polish economy has doubled in size over the last 25 years when measured in terms of real GDP. The growth in GDP between

1991 and 2008 was an impressive 4.6 percent per annum and continued, as Poland became the only country in the European Union not to suffer a recession following the financial crisis of 2008 (see Figure 1). The Polish economy is now the eighth largest in the EU in terms of GDP. “As a result,” the report says, “the country, long a marginal

European economy, is poised to become Europe’s new growth engine” (p. 2). This growth trajectory has continued, with real GDP growth over 5% in 2018 (though a decline in the rate of GDP growth is forecast by the IMF in the period to 2024).2

1 This portrayal of Poland’s transformation as a success story has been featured prominently in various international media, including: “Europe’s unlikely star,” The Economist, 28 June, 2014 (article available online) and “The Miracle Next Door: Poland Emerges as a Central European Powerhouse,” Der Spiegel, 25 May, 2012 (article available online). 2 See: https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/poland/forecast-real-gdp-growth (accessed 30 October 2019).

2

Figure 1. Change in GDP per capita in Poland 1990 - 2012

Source: www.ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/graphs/2014-10-

06_poland_success_story_en.htm

Perhaps surprisingly, despite the media narrative portraying Poland as a “success story”, there are underlying questions of whether the country’s economic changes match agreed upon values of the populace and thus are consistent with a social contract that may be said to have been developed at the start of Poland’s remarkable transformation process. Central to this contract were the values extolled by the

Solidarity movement of freedom, dignity and justice (Staniszkis 1984).

What is the definition of a successful transformation? Must there be a high moral cost for economic transformation? Can the values of justice, dignity, and freedom, which sparked Poland’s peaceful revolution, be simultaneously integrated into a socio- economic system and adopted by business? What responsibility does business have to act consistent with the social contract?

3

The social contract for the transformation of Poland was clearly set in place by the

Solidarity Movement, beginning in 1980. But where is that social contract today? “In the long run, marketization must be accompanied by democratization,” wrote Polish economist Grzegorz Kołodko in the comprehensive study From Shock to Therapy: The

Political Economy of Post Socialist Transformation (2000, p. 343). “This is the most likely and most welcomed scenario. Nonetheless, a non-democratic, market-friendly regime could undertake structural reform and institutional and cultural change to a sufficient degree to achieve a transition to the market without establishing a full-fledged democracy or a civic society. This has already happened in the less-developed world, and such a scenario is quite imaginable for several former Soviet republics, especially those in Central Asia” (Kołodko 2000, p. 343).

In Chodakiewicz, et al.’s (2003, p. 5) comprehensive study, Poland’s Transformation:

A Work in Progress, three historians argue that “the moral and philosophical leftovers of communism have caused the greatest concern, especially since the communistic system deliberately sought to degenerate social and civic values. Although communism failed with this, its attempt had serious consequences. The need to rebuild a just society based on inalienable principles of human rights has been overshadowed by political compromise between the former communists and the liberal wing of the former opposition.” This has been key to the more recent rise of the Law and Justice party and its success in the 2015 and 2019 elections. After acknowledging the growing social need in society to emphasize dignity and justice in the economic system, the leaders addressed those issues in their vision of “just Poland” and started implementing several pro-social reforms.

4

The social spirit that transformed Poland from the previous regime was obviously a triumph of civil society, but the real challenges of implementing the transformation leave open the question: Has the social contract that was the impetus for the change been fulfilled? This is a big question, though one that we attempt to answer through a framing using social contract theory and by drawing upon analysis from leading Polish commentators, as earlier indicated. We also focus on the question more narrowly as it relates to business and to the effects of the transformation on Polish citizens as employees and consumers and thus how business has responded to the transformation.

Our study examines two case studies and a variety of statistical data to explore the question. Inevitably the case studies are anecdotal, but they illustrate and lend weight to the claim that business practices in Poland today are not consistent with the social contract created at the birth of the Solidarity and these practices are, in some instances, being challenged on these grounds. In developing a new democracy, the citizens are not only supposed to co-create the system but should also know their responsibilities in the process. The cases show two groups of citizens—Tesco’s employees and mBank’s customers—who decided to take responsibility in influencing their daily lives and asserted a case for something closer to the expectations of the social contract created by Solidarity. The case of Tesco’s striking employees shows the group of citizens who demand “more dignified” working conditions, whereas the case of mBank’s protesting customers is about demanding “more just” (long-term) financial product terms and conditions.

In the following section, we examine social contract theory as the theoretical foundation for our analysis, including how social contract theory applies to business. In section

5 three, we turn to the social contract created in Poland at the genesis of the transformation, including evidence for this claim as well as the central terms of the contract. The fourth section examines the Polish transition in more detail, further supporting the broad assertion already implied that key terms of Solidarity’s social contract have not been fulfilled, Poland’s economic success notwithstanding. Next, we illustrate these claims at a more micro level with the two case studies. Finally, in section six, we offer some observations on the Polish experience in light of our analysis and how it informs social contract theory generally and in relation to business. While noting some limitations of our analysis, we conclude with implications for businesses operating in Poland (local and international) and some directions for further research.

Social Contract Theory

Social contract theory is an age-old philosophical model that seeks to explain the moral agreements among people that enable them to shape the societies in which they live.

“People first establish civil society, and afterwards civil society negotiates an agreement

(a fiduciary trust) to establish a legislative power, or government, that will protect society’s rights” (Donaldson 1982, p. 39). As outlined by historian J.W. Gough (1936, p. 143):

Social contract theory has its origins in the social upheavals of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. The decline of feudalism and the rejection of the divine right of kings as a basis for obedience to the state, gave rise to a search for a political philosophy legitimizing state authority. The establishment of society on the basis of a social contract was an attempt to determine the rights and responsibilities of all participants, where each is treated as an intrinsic part of the whole. Principles of community life that are clear and understandable for all provide citizens with a common ground, helping to set basic obligations toward others.

English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) sought to identify a basis for the legitimacy of state authority. He articulated a consent theory of political obligation, saying that "a

6 citizen's obligation to obey the law can be grounded only in that citizen's personal consent to the authority of the law" (Simmons 1992, p. 919). Locke proposed a philosophy justifying the existence of the state and identified the reciprocal obligations of citizen and state. Subsequently, Locke's ideas informed the American Revolution, the United States

Declaration of Independence, and the US Constitution. Underpinning Locke's philosophy is social contract theory.

Locke was influenced by Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), one of the earliest proponents of the social contract. His Leviathan (1651) argued for the institution of an absolute sovereign as a way to further the peace of the community and thereby promote the preservation and comforts of its citizens (Hampton 1992, p. 543). Hobbes identified a “state of nature”, a world without a state, wherein people acted to satisfy their desires, principally self- preservation. Hobbes suggested the state of nature would be a “war of every one against every one" and that life would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Under these conditions, he argued, people would agree to the only remedy of an absolute sovereign

(Hampton 1992, p. 544).

Most social contract theorists have maintained that it is crucial to have the consent of individuals and a method of obtaining agreement amongst those individuals (be it actual or hypothetical) in order to have a valid social contract. The French philosopher Jean-

Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) examined the problem of finding a form of social organization that provides the benefits of social life but avoids its disorders. Rousseau's solution was for all individuals to place themselves under the common direction of the

“general will” (Reath 1992, pp. 1113-14).

More recently, social contract theory was revived in the 1971 book A Theory of Justice by John Rawls. Rawls proposed a thought experiment to determine morality without being

7 biased by one’s own circumstances. The experiment, known as “The Veil of Ignorance,” imagines what principles of justice would be set by the creators of a society, if those creators had no way of knowing what their own roles in that society would be and could not predict their own specific individual circumstances, such as sex, race, education, religion, and social class (Becker 1992, p. 1176). Rawls thus identifies an “original position” so as “to set up a fair procedure so that any principles agreed to will be just...

[and] nullify the effects of specific contingencies which put men at odds and tempt them to exploit social and natural circumstances to their own advantage” (Rawls 1971, p. 136).

Social Contract Theory Applied to Business

In our paper, we combine the philosophical-ethical concept of the social contract between citizens (cf. Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Rawls) with the idea of a contract between business and society to look at the expectations Polish workers and consumers should have of companies in Poland. Thus, we advance a normative model of the relationship between business and society similar to that outlined in the work of

Thomas Donaldson (1982; also see Donaldson and Dunfee 1999), a leading proponent of social contract theory applied to business ethics. He developed a social contract for business (1982), enlarged it to apply to international business (1989), and expanded it to address a variety of business contexts (Donaldson and Dunfee 1994). His social contract for business (SCB) is founded on consent, based on the idea that corporations exist only through the cooperation and commitment of society. This suggests an implied agreement between the corporation and society: “If General Motors holds society responsible for providing the condition of its existence, then for what does society hold General Motors responsible? What are the terms of the social contract?” (Donaldson 1982, p. 42). The simplest form of the contract is to specify what business needs from society and what, in turn, are its obligations to society. Donaldson defines the “moral agents” making this

8 agreement, as productive organizations ("ones where people cooperate to produce at least one specific product or service") and individual members of society (1992, p. 42).3 He suggests society's obligations to productive organizations are: 1) to provide the legal framework that allows the corporation to exist as a single agent; and 2) to grant the authority to use or own land and natural resources, and to hire employees.

Donaldson’s device for agreement (akin to Hobbes’ “state of nature” and Rawls’ “original position”) is to imagine a society without the productive organizations being analyzed.

This he calls the “state of individual production” (1982, p. 44). In this thought experiment, individuals act on their own without binding together to create productive organizations or businesses. In keeping with the social contract tradition, his analysis first, seeks to characterize the conditions that would exist in the state of individual production. Second, it recognizes the problems solved by the introduction of productive organizations. Finally, it requires specification of the terms of the agreement or social contract that individuals and productive organizations would agree to as a result of seeing how productive organizations could benefit or harm society.

Donaldson suggests two principal classes of people would stand to benefit or be harmed by the introduction of productive organizations: consumers and employees. The hypothetical consumers of Donaldson's state of individual production would potentially receive numerous economic benefits from the new productive organizations, including improved efficiency through specialization, improved decision-making resources, and increased capacity to acquire expensive technology and resources; as well as stabilized output levels and channels of distribution (1982, pp. 45-47). The benefits for employees

3 Donaldson (1982:18-35) earlier has argued that corporations can qualify as moral agents under certain conditions.

9 would include increased income potential and greater opportunity to contribute to society

(1982, pp. 47-49). These are some of the reasons why ordinary people, economically interested and rational, would agree to productive organizations.

In keeping with Locke, Donaldson (1982, pp. 49-55) argues that the social contract for business would aim to minimize the prima facie drawbacks of the introduction of productive organizations, as well as maximizing the obvious benefits. From the consumer’s stand point, productive organizations should minimize: 1) environmental impacts (e.g., increased pollution and the depletion of natural resources); 2) the destruction of personal accountability (e.g., the weakening of individual moral responsibility allowed by organizational decision-making and consumer anonymity); 3) the misuse of political power (e.g., lobbying to enhance the interests of organization at the expense of consumer interests). From the employee’s standpoint, organizations should minimize: 1) worker alienation and loss of pride; 2) lack of worker control over work conditions; and 3) monotony (from the repetition that comes with job specialization) and dehumanization

(treating workers as machines).

In sum, Donaldson writes, “corporations considered as productive organizations exist to enhance the welfare of society through the satisfaction of consumer and worker interests, in a way which relies on exploiting corporations' special advantages and minimizing disadvantages. This is the moral foundation of the corporation...” (1982, p. 54). The performance of the business organization can thereby be assessed by a measure of how well it fulfills this social contract. However, Donaldson does add a caveat. The inevitable trade-offs that must be made, especially between the interests of consumers and workers

(lower prices or higher wages?) require that the contract must not violate certain minimum standards of justice; while welfare trade-offs are permissible, organizational acts of

10 injustice are not. Hence, at the minimum, productive organizations must “avoid deception or fraud...show respect for their workers as human beings, and... avoid any practice that systematically worsens the situation of a given group in society” (Donaldson 1982, p. 53).

We believe this formulation of SCT has clear application to Poland’s recent history and turn now to explore the social contract that was intended to guide Poland’s transformation and how it informs the social contract for business in Poland.

The Polish Social Contract

The social contract of modern Poland is rooted in the famous “21 demands” made by the fledgling Solidarity movement in 1980 (UNESCO 2003). The frustration of the

Polish people had mounted through the 1970s, after the country’s economy fell into near collapse under the bureaucratic and inefficient one-party, communist government.

On June 30, 1980, the government announced a 'reorganization of meat distribution,' which made meat difficult to obtain and increased prices for it by 60 percent

(Rennebohm 2011). This led to strikes at factories in cities around the country. In

Gdansk, workers at 180 enterprises had joined the strike by August 1980. They transformed their leadership into an inter-factory committee composed of delegates from each factory and elected shipyard electrician Lech Walesa to lead them. Their pro- social 21 demands included calls for free unions, access to the media, citizen participation in the reform programme, increase in pay, repeal of all repressive measures, an end to certain ruling class privileges, and improvements in working conditions (see Exhibit 1).

The demands, made by the strike committee in August 1980, led to the creation of

Solidarity, the first free trade union within the communist bloc. Solidarity eventually amassed more than 10 million members and became a massive social movement. It was

11 active for more than a year until December 1981, when it was outlawed with the imposition of under pressure from the Soviet Union. However,

Solidarity survived as an underground organization and formed a team of negotiators, who held talks with the government at a round table in 1989. The communist party was forced to make concessions, which led to the first democratic elections in the communist bloc. Subsequently, the elections became an impetus for other countries of the Soviet bloc to fight for freedom and fostered the collapse of the Soviet empire in

1989.

The 21 demands and the creation of Solidarity are treated as the birth of civil society in modern Poland, which gave rise to the political, economic, and social transformation in the country. The 21 demands were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World

Register in 2003.

The formation of a social contract for Poland’s new society came in two stages. First there was the putative agreement, among those of all professions and walks of life, in

Solidarity’s transforming values of justice, dignity and freedom (as evidenced by the large numbers of people joining in the movement). The second came when an actual contract was signed between the representatives of Solidarity and the representatives of the Central Party’s government.

The social contract in Poland (and, arguably, elsewhere in Central Eastern Europe) is unique in the fact that society started a social resistance movement against an imposed and oppressive authority, the Central Party, which controlled all the important political, economic, and social affairs in the country, including most large companies. In theory, the Party had a duty to protect the peoples’ rights; but in reality, it abused its power and

12 held privileges solely for its members. The Polish historian and sociologist Elżbieta

Ciżewska (2010) argues that the birth of Solidarity was a national uprising symbolizing democratic change; in Solidarity people saw an emerging civic society and experienced a sense of authentic religiosity.

French sociologist Alan Touraine maintains that Solidarity was a workers’ movement intent on freeing society; a proclamation of the social and national community that rebels against an imposed authority; and also, a desire to recreate the conditions for democracy in the political, economic and cultural spheres. “Our conclusion – not as obvious as one could expect – is that the situation in Poland called for a ‘total social movement’, i.e. the combination of trade union activity, a fight for free trade unions, a democracy-promoting movement and a national uprising” (Touraine 1983, pp. 80-81).

Some philosophers and political scientists see a resemblance between the birth of

Solidarity and the underpinnings of the French and American revolutions. Arista Maria

Cirtautas argues that the USA, France and Poland are specific examples of countries

“where modern democracy was instituted solely through the efforts of its citizens, in the context of rapid changes in the social, political and economic realms. (…) In these nations, democracy was 'experienced' (…) as a strong and unique desire to be free”

(Cirtautas 1997, p. 7). Mazur notes that Solidarity knowingly instituted new standards of everyday conduct using freely picked values, and not those imposed by the party

(Mazur 2013).

From “Captive Minds” to Activists

The communist ideological system, enforced by the Soviet Union in Central Eastern

Europe after World War II, aimed to create a new type of citizen – The New Soviet

Man. The “New Man” was to be altruistic, selfless in his labour for the common good,

13 and an enthusiastic champion of the Socialist Revolution (Cooray 1985). But the actual characteristics of the Soviet man, which sharply contrasted with those of the communist ideal, began to be cynically described as “homo-sovieticus”, a term initially introduced by the Russian philosopher and sociologist Alexander Zinovyev in 1982 with the novel

Homo Sovieticus (Гомо советикус) 4 The term described someone who was

“contaminated”.

The Polish philosopher Leszek Kołakowski argued that the “communist system created a new communist human being - homo sovieticus: an ideological schizophrenic, a sincere liar, a man capable of continual and unsolicited mental self-mutilations

(Kołakowski 1989, p. 867). , the editor of “” wrote “homo sovieticus is a man who is enslaved, incapacitated, deprived of his own initiative and not being able to think critically” (Turowicz 1993, Pamięć i rodowód,

Tygodnik Powszechny nr. 45, 1993).5 The social experiment of Soviet communism created a system that disempowered the citizen to such an extent that he became a

“captive mind” (Miłosz, 2001).6

Nonetheless, Polish citizens made numerous attempts to defy communist rule. The working class protested in great numbers in Poznań in 1956 and in the Gdańsk region in 1970. The authorities ordered the army and police forces to fire on the protesters.

Students and workers took to the streets again in numerous Polish cities in 1968, but they were forcibly dispersed and victimized. In 1976, a sharp increase in food prices

4 Alexander Zinovyev (1922-2006) was forced to go abroad because of his critical writings in the 1970s and his way of interpreting Communist society. He spent most of his years in Germany. 5 ‘Tygodnik Powszechny’ was the only independent catholic newspaper in Communist Poland 6 “The Captive Mind” is a term used by the Polish Nobel Prize winner for literature, Czesław Miłosz. Miłosz published a philosophical essay “The captive mind” in 1953, which became a universal analysis of citizens in the Soviet Union.

14 sparked workers’ protests in the cities of Ursus, Płock, and Radom. They were met by repression as well (Kozłowski 2011). The growing civil disobedience culminated in the workers’ strikes of the Gdańsk Shipyards in August 1980, eventually spreading to the whole country and spurring the drafting of the 21 demands.

A group of intellectuals joined the workers to assist in negotiations with the Party – “a

Committee of Experts was created; journalists, humanists, philosophers, economists, historians and sociologists headed by . A unique atmosphere of brotherhood was formed, of real unity, solidarity of all who participated, aware and excited by the knowledge that they were fighting not only for short-term gains, but also for a new shape of the Polish reality.” (Kieżun 2013, p. 78). It was in this way that the citizens were able to reach the compromise with the party that led to the formation of the first, free, nationwide civilian organization – known in Polish as Solidarność

(Solidarity).

In The Gdańsk Agreement as a Political Experiment, political scientist Krzysztof Mazur

(2013) points out that this agreement was a social contract in nature. The tens of thousands of people backing the strike agreed to rebuild society after its devastation by the Communist regime. The protesters demanded the right to establish trade union organizations that would be independent from the authorities, the right to strike, freedom of speech and publication, as the well as the release of prisoners of conscience.

They also raised social and economic issues, demanding higher wages, fair distribution of goods, a lower retirement age, and higher quality healthcare services.

The workers wanted to create an organization that would defend against the abuse of power by the state. “We don’t want to take power in the country. We don’t want to be

15 officials… we want to be activists, controllers,” stated Lech Wałęsa in November 1980

(‘Politics’ nr. 44, 1980, p. 6). Thus, Solidarity was to be a kind of watchdog, a non- governmental organization whose role was to check the activities of the central party in public and economic policies. Membership grew very rapidly “on average, over 60,000 people had joined the union daily since the Gdansk Agreements were first signed. To show the scale of the phenomenon, one may say that Solidarity was joined, every day, by the entire population of a medium-sized city” (Kozłowski 2011, p. 5).

Transforming Values of the Solidarity Movement

Solidarity was a bottom-up social movement based on three overriding values known as “the trio”: justice, dignity and freedom. The fight for dignity was related to the concept of brotherhood – it was a defense of the helpless (Staniszkis 1984). The movement constructed a society that countered the edicts of the state. Not only did it mobilize considerable resources in a relatively sparse environment, it made unprecedented progress toward constructing a civil society in a Soviet-type system

(Kennedy 2008).

Solidarity’s values ended up being deeply influenced by the in Poland, according to anthropologist and political scientist Jan Kubik. The author argued that

“the Polish Catholic Church served as a creator, a guard and a booster of national, civic and ethical values in Poland to a degree rarely seen in other countries (Kubik 1994, p.

119). Zbigniew Stawrowski, a political philosopher, wrote that “the Solidarity movement revealed the existence of a universal brotherhood of people of good faith – a union of all those individuals who acknowledged the primordial value of truth in existence, and who tried to live life conscientiously…Solidarity was a purely ethical community, grounded on the issues of man's dignity and his conscience” (Stawroński

16 2010, p. 14). Józef Tischner, the unofficial Solidarity chaplain, maintained that “the deepest solidarity is the solidarity of consciences” (Tischner 1981, p. 8).

The agreement workers reached with the party on the 21 demands was in effect an agreement between the “sovereign” and the “awakened citizens” setting the terms for the political, economic and social reconstruction of Poland. However, it wasn’t until years later, after the semi-free elections of 1989, that the radical changes needed to implement those terms began to be possible. For many years the goals of Solidarity were blocked by a wave of repression that fell upon the country, beginning with the implementation of martial law in 1981.

In December 1981, the government declared “a state of emergency” and established martial law, dispatching the army to the streets to enforce curfews and new censorship edicts, arresting Solidarity leaders and closing the borders to seal Poland off from the rest of the world. 7 It wasn’t until after Solidarity had been outlawed that its representatives understood the need to put forward their own project for political nationwide reforms, and impose real regime change in the nation.

As James MacGregor Burns stated, “The first rebellious innovators were put down in

1981 by martial law wielded by the Communist authorities, but the tenacious leadership, with a shipyard electrician, Lech Wałęsa, at the fore, aroused public opinion and mobilized more followers. Passives became actives, followers became leaders, workers and writers became revolutionaries. Demanding liberty, democracy, and justice as well as economic restructuring, the movement worked effectively with the Polish

7 BBC, “On This Day: 1981 Military crackdown on Polish people”. On This Day is a showcase of some of the most significant as well as some of the quirkier stories broadcast by BBC News since 1950, available online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/13/newsid_2558000/2558955.st m

17 Catholic hierarchy and other restive elements to rob the inheritors of any shred of moral legitimacy, revealing that their defense of the totalitarian status quo relied on sheer force. Eight years after its suppression, Solidarity, triumphed.” (MacGregor Burns

2003, p. 221).

The Transition

Ironically, it was Solidarity’s leaders who oversaw the implementation of the economic policies that later became known as “shock therapy”, under the influence of Western economists. After the Solidarity Party won the election of 1989, leaders knew the population expected rapid improvements in economic conditions, so they acted quickly.

They adopted new regulations that leveled the playing field for private and foreign businesses and prevented the government from propping up state-owned enterprises

(Kureth 2014).

The reforms were adopted by the Polish government in December 1989 and implemented over the course of 111 days. It was an economic experiment in a rapid transition from a centrally planned economy into a capitalist market economy. As journalist Andrew Kureth (2014), noted in the Financial Times, “the results were sudden and drastic.”

Thousands of state-supported companies shut their doors, putting 1.1 million Poles out of work. Unemployment reached 20 percent. Inflation remained stratospheric: at 250 percent in 1990, it was significantly lower than the 650 percent recorded the previous year, but with the economic tightening, the pain was sharper. Gross domestic product growth sank 7 percent in 1990, having already plunged nearly 10 percent the year before.

Importantly, however, the Polish people were not consulted on the plan, instead they became a part of a new market reality, which included achieving competitive advantage

18 for Polish industry via low labour costs. Expectations were high and consultation would likely have slowed down transformation, potentially even causing it to stall. Perhaps this was why the transformation leaders did not involve society at large in the reforms, as the social contract, in Solidarity’s sixth demand, would appear to require: “enabling all sectors and social classes to take part in discussion of the reform programme”

(Exhibit 1).

As Holc pointed out, “the new social order was narrowed to the radical individualist notion of ‘liberty’, and the definition of ‘liberty’ was narrowed to mean economic

‘freedom’” (Holc 1997, p. 415). Professor Marcin Król (2014), a former advisor to the

Solidarity government that made these transitions in the early nineties, admitted: “We were infected with neo-liberalism in the beginning of the transformation, freedom was the most important absolute for us, it was enough for us, unfortunately we were lacking imagination regarding social issues, solidarity, poverty, economic inequalities, etc.”

Elisabeth Dunn (2004), an American anthropologist and the author of a comprehensive study on privatization of the first state-owned company in Poland, Alima-Gerber, said that the workers were excluded from influencing the transformation process within privatized companies. Instead the companies strove for familiar capitalist goals: cost cutting, efficiency, and an increased productivity that redefined the identity of Polish workers. She examined whether there could have been a better way to incorporate the ideas of workers and recognize the value of their labour in the economic transition.

A host of new socio-economic challenges accompanied Poland’s economic changes.

The shock therapy reforms brought about a mass de-industrialization, which meant the

19 virtual destruction of Poland’s key industries. As a result, the new economy was based on low-skilled jobs. As Kowalik (2011, p. 235) observed:

“The Polish authorities sold off many enterprises, as if they were unaware that many hostile takeovers by foreign capital were designed to eliminate domestic firms from the market. Many firms were shut down, and other companies’ activity was drastically reduced to benefit foreign importers. This was one of the main reasons for the premature de-industrialization of the Polish economy, increased unemployment and a permanent foreign trade deficit with the accompanying debt growth.”

After the transformation, Poland was forced to buy goods that previously were produced in the country. “One of the largest workers’ movements that twentieth- century Europe had ever experienced provided Poland with an unprecedented and unrealized chance to create a modern and just society,” wrote Tadeusz Kowalik

(Kłopotliwy sierpień, “Przegląd” 1995.) He argued that this opportunity was largely lost because of the neo-liberal vision adopted by reformers. Today, Poland’s competitive advantage is based largely on low-cost labour with high workforce productivity (see figure 2). Much business comes from foreign firms subcontracting production, with know-how brought in mostly from abroad. Analysts suggest that this does not bode well for the future.

An Oxford Economics Report (2014) notes: “Although growth in Poland in recent years has largely been driven by the adoption of foreign technologies, this channel is likely to be exhausted as Poland develops, meaning further growth must come from Polish innovation and technological progress.” In a paper for ECFIN Country Focus, Polish economists Piotr Bogumil and Rafal Wieladek (2014, p. 7) called for reforms to ensure that Poland can succeed in the future.

“Poland's growth record in the last 25 years has been remarkable. The country managed the transition from central planning to market economy very successfully. However, the past growth record is no guarantee for the future. The growth model underpinning Poland’s success is biased towards low-to-

20 medium technology sectors using cheap and comparatively low-skilled labour.”

Figure. 2. Share of high-tech and medium high-tech manufacturing in the gross value added of industrial production (in %)

Source: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/graphs/2014-10- 06_poland_success_story_en.htm

The Case Studies

To illustrate how this experience of transformation is manifest in the relationship between business and society in Poland, we examine two cases that illustrate how, a quarter century after the Solidarity movement, the terms of the social contract are not being met at a micro level, but also how the Polish population is standing up to protest once again. This time the actions, by consumers and by employees, are against perceived business abuses permitted by the very economic freedoms born of the

Solidarity movement’s success.

The Strike Against Tesco

The first case is an employee strike for better working conditions at a British-owned retail store chain, which workers charged was treating employees unfairly. Tesco is the largest retailer in Great Britain and has become a leading retailer in Poland with over

400 stores including hypermarkets, supermarkets and online delivery. The first Tesco

21 in Poland opened in 1998 in Wroclaw. The company now employs nearly 30,000 people in Poland, and sources from 1,500 Polish suppliers. It provides products for about 5 million consumers per week. Yet, in 2008, workers’ grievances over low pay and poor working conditions at Tesco lead to the first ever strike against a large retailer in Poland since the fall of the communist regime.

Workers in a store in the southern city of Tychy (Silesian district) carried out a two- hour strike in 2008 in an attempt to try to improve their working conditions. The strike was planned by the “August 80” trade union and was perfectly legal under national regulations for resolving collective disputes in the workplace. The employees’ complained that they were paid as little as 200 euros per month and were forced to work so hard that some had to wear diapers to avoid taking bathroom breaks (Sakowski

2009). To ensure high productivity from cashiers, they said, the company measured how many items each employee scanned per hour and set the targets so high that it was difficult to meet them.

The workers’ complaints echoed problems underlying the relationship between business and society throughout Poland. “Once there was no bread, so we went out on the streets. Now we have this proverbial bread, but we have nothing to buy it with, because the wages are so low,” a frustrated employee posted in an online discussion of

Polish workers’ woes in January 2012. “What kind of a job is it if the salary doesn't allow us to live decently? In that case it is worth s... and is nothing but exploitation”.

Today, ten years after that memorable first strike in Tesco, the trade unions and the company have had ongoing negotiations and occasional strikes. The salaries have been

22 raised, both as a possible result of negotiations and because the minimum wages in

Poland have been raising gradually: from 1276 PLN gross per month in 2009 to 2250

PLN gross (approximately €530) in 2019 (in comparison, the German store Lidl pays

2800-3550 PLN gross in 2019, Portuguese Biedronka pays 2650 PLN gross, German

Kaufland: 2600-3100 PLN gross). With increased immigration of Ukrainian refugees to Poland from 2014, Tesco and many other retailers have hired Ukrainian workers fleeing political upheaval as a store staff, including cashers, who may not be as demanding in regard to working conditions.

The actions taken by Tesco workers remain a bold example of workers beginning to stand up for their rights in the new economy. The striking employees demanded more control over work conditions and respect for them as human beings.

Recalling Donaldson’s (1982) social contract for business, Tesco, as a “productive organization”, is expected to minimize dehumanization and enhance the welfare of society through satisfaction of worker interests.

mBank and the Clients’ Protest

The second protest was a consumer action by mortgage-holders who complained they were being cheated by the foreign-owned bank, mBank. Launched by Germany’s

Commerzbank in 2000, mBank was the first virtual bank in Poland—and one of the first attempts in the world to take the business of banking totally online. The bank employed nearly 6,500 people, serving nearly 4.5 million Polish clients in 2014. In

2010, mBank clients and debtors organized Poland’s first consumer social movement, which they named “Impaled by mBank” (Nabici w mBank), to protest the bank’s lending policies. They filed a class action lawsuit, challenging the fact that the bank

23 tied consumer loans to the value of the Swiss franc – which ended up costing borrowers millions of zloty.

The aggrieved borrowers started organizing themselves via the internet in 2009.

Eventually, the Municipal Consumers Advocate in filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of 1247 borrowers. It accused the bank of wrongfully creating mortgage agreements valorized by the strength of the Swiss currency. An estimated 12,000 clients received such loans, which the consumer interest group claimed contained illegal clauses that left borrowers with dramatically increased mortgages.

In 2013, the borrowers won their court case, signaling a victory for the largest consumer protest campaign against a financial institution in the history of the Republic of Poland.

The amount owed to consumers by the bank was estimated at 120 million Polish złotys

(about €28 m. in 2019 euros). In 2014, a court of appeal rejected mBank's appeal and upheld the judgment, which affirmed that the consumers represented by “Impaled by mBank” had indeed been cheated.

The protesting consumers of mBank demanded correction in the terms and conditions governing their long-term financial product. They did not want the company to maximize its profit at their expense. Again, in reference to Donaldson (1982), we might conclude that mBank, as a productive organization, is expected to avoid practices that can worsen the situation of its clients and enhance the welfare of society through satisfaction of consumer interests.

24 In both of these cases, citizens took steps towards improving their situation, they stood up and fought for their rights. Both for the striking Tesco’s employees and protesting mBank clients, the organizations came under attack for maximizing their returns at the expense of consumer and worker interests, which we interpret as ultimately inconsistent with the Polish social contract developed by Solidarity.

Discussion

Although Poland is seen internationally as a success story because of its increased GDP, there have been growing challenges within the country. Citizen complaints have been mounting about economic inequalities, employee grievances, economic “colonization” and a lack of innovation and technology.

This narrative was strongly addressed in the national elections in Poland in 2015 and

2019. The party that promised fundamental social reforms was Law and Justice. Since its triumph in 2015 and again in 2019, the party has been implementing several reforms, such as: family 500+ program with the aim to battle child poverty, increases in the minimum wage and basic retirement benefits, and creating incentives for R&D by small companies. The government implements these reforms as a part of the "responsible development strategy" that aims to raise living standards and realise the vision of the aptly-named "just Poland".

In 2017, the government presented a new vision of a long-term economic development of the Polish state, called Morawiecki plan (Mateusz Morawiecki is Polish Deputy

Prime Minister and head of the Ministry of Development). It aims to change the structure of the entire Polish economy in order to make it more innovative and more

25 effective in its use of physical resources and human capital. Its fundamental challenge is to rebuild the economic model so that it serves the whole of society.8

According to the OECD Economics Department, “raising Poland’s capacity to innovate in line with the government’s Strategy for Responsible Development would help strengthen productivity growth and ensure continued convergence to higher living standards… Private-sector R&D spending is low, particularly among SMEs, hindering new technology absorption and innovation. The government has stepped up the previously limited R&D tax relief and strengthened hitherto weak venture capital investments programmes, which can be well-suited for innovative firms engaging in high risk-return projects. To ensure the quality of such programmes, it will be important to strengthen impact assessment of public support for innovation.”9

According to Eurostat, 2017 Poland has some of the lowest labour costs in Europe (see

Figure 3).

8 Ministry of Innovation and Economic Development, available online: https://www.gov.pl/web/inwestycje-rozwoj/informacje-o-strategii-na-rzecz-odpowiedzialnego- rozwoju)

9 Towards an innovative and inclusive economy in Poland, Nicola Brandt, Pierre Guérin, Poland Desk, OECD Economics Department, March 19, 2018, source: https://oecdecoscope.blog/2018/03/19/towards-an-innovative-and-inclusive-economy-in-poland/

26 Figure 3. Estimated hourly labour costs, 2017

The World Bank’s emphasis on productivity and high GDP growth in the 1990s in developing market economies caused an upward push on productivity without simultaneously developing civil society institutions. This imbalance could create problems of exploitation.

In The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, Naomi Klein (2007) points out that shock therapy might cause not only lack of social trust in society, but also painful economic disparities and poverty. In fact, many citizens have not benefited from the 20 percent rise in GDP per capita since 2007, because Poland failed to improve living standards for many of its 38.5 million people (Financial Times 2015).

A national survey on social trust shows that 88 percent of the population doesn’t trust other people (Czapiński 2015). According to the European Social Survey, 12% of citizens trust others in Poland, in comparison, the figure is 70% in Denmark, 66% in

27 Finland, 54% in Sweden, 33% in the UK, 31% in Germany, 24% in Russia, and 20% in France (European Social Survey, 2014; see Figure 4).

Figure 4. Social trust, EU, 2006-2014 (%)

Source: Czapiński, J. Panek, T., eds. Social Diagnosis 2015: The Objective and Subjective Quality of

Life in Poland, Volume 9 Issue 4 November 2015

A 2018 report from the Central Statistical Office of Poland shows that 10,9 percent of the population lives below the statutory line of poverty (Central Statistical Office of

Poland, 2018). According to Eurostat, 19.5% of the Polish population is at the risk of poverty. In comparison, the highest risk is in Bulgaria (38.9 %), Romania (35.7 %) and

Greece (34.8 %) (see Figure 5).

28 Figure 5. Share of the total population at risk of poverty or social exclusion by country,

2017 (in %)

Source: Eurostat, EU-Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)

EFTA countries (marked with *) do not contribute to EU average

In terms of GDP growth, “Poland beat all the states of the OECD and the whole of

Europe. The country is ranked 13th in the global list based on the data of the World

Bank”10. But this is not reflected in improvements in living standards and the poverty rate.

Has Poland’s transformation become an opportunity for corporations to maximize their profits by exploitation of local workers? Has the weak regulation of business in the country become the type of “Ring of Gyges,” described in Plato’s Republic (Plato 380

BC) – a device which grants impunity for companies to increase profit margins and

10 Jan Cipiur, Poland had the biggest GDP per capita growth in the OECD and in Europe, Central European Financial Observer, 2017

29 overuse domination in dealing with employees and consumers? If so, what does this say about the social contract between Poles and business in the country?

Conclusions

The case studies show how employees, such as Tesco’s, and consumers, such as the mortgage holders from mBank, have challenged the social contract between business and Polish society to make it more reflective of the ideals of Solidarity. Both, Tesco and mBank, operate in a post-Soviet society with a developing democracy. The citizens are still in the dynamic process of transition into a system they hope will be based on agreed values: justice, dignity, and freedom. The spirit of the Polish social contract and the pro-social demands created by the Solidarity movement in 1980 serve as an important reference point.

Yet the transition to a capitalist economy pushed them in a different direction. Poland’s new leaders decided to break away from the old communist system to such a degree, that they broke off from the foundations of Solidarity and their own social roots in the process. When Polish leaders adopted the economic strategy of shock therapy, they lifted the communist ban on independent economic enterprise. In its place, some critics charge, they allowed foreign companies to come in to take to advantage of cheap Polish labour. Thus, Poland’s transition emphasized the economic “freedom” aspect of

Solidarity’s goals -- at the expense of dignity and justice. Perhaps the leaders focused mainly on “freedom”, prioritizing market effectiveness over social inclusion.

The implementation of the shock therapy radically transformed Poland socially and economically. Is the implementation of a neoliberal shock therapy economic model in a developing democratic society counter to the idea of a social contract? What happened

30 to the core values that the Polish people agreed upon (justice, dignity and freedom)?

What was the true cost of the rapid changes made?

Professor Marcin Król, a former advisor and mentor of the Polish leading elite in the early nineties acknowledged Solidarity’s supporters may not have had the vision to see the challenges that would arise as the transition played out. “We were infected with neo-liberalism in the beginning of the transformation, freedom was the most important absolute for us, it was enough for us,” he said. (Król, Polityka, 2014). It seems that transition to a free market without full-fledged democracy can bring challenges when it comes to social issues such as poverty, economic inequalities, solidarity and social capital.

Yet the case studies show how employees and consumers can end up challenging the current social contract between business and Polish society and make it more reflective of the ideals of Solidarity. If the social contract for a business to operate in a society is dependent upon it satisfying the interests of consumers and workers (Donaldson 1982, page 54), what do Poland’s experiences with Tesco and mBank illustrate? They illuminate much bigger questions about the challenges of socio-economic transformation, both in

Poland and around the world. “Poland’s transformation is not just a transition to ideal- typical capitalism but part of a much larger process of globalization that entails the adoption of many of the same systems of governmentality” (Dunn 2004).

Countering one system with another with a radical surgical cutting may lead to a socio- economic “dead end.” Instead, to maintain a social contract with the populace, it may be necessary to gradually connect socio-economic doctrines in a way that is less painful and more sustainable. The neo-liberal reformers implemented capitalism in its most radical form, without thinking about the potential social and economic problems that

31 might follow. Moreover, the fundamentals of the Solidarity movement were implemented only in fragmented form – with the focus on economic “freedom”. The reformers acted as if everything that might come from the past was already

“contaminated” (Dunn 2004).

What can bring the Polish social contract more in line with the ideals sought by the population? There is a growing consensus that Poland (and other central European countries) need to change from cost advantage economies to value creation economies, which are driven by knowledge, innovation and democratic leadership, as proposed by

Olga Grygier-Siddons, CEO of the Polish division of the global accounting firm PwC.

The structural changes required to make this happen include higher R&D spending, a better linkage of academic research to the needs of industry, wider access to venture funding; and a more business friendly environment (Grygier-Siddons 2015). Any system transformation should be accompanied by holistic democratization, otherwise people might face similar abuses as those they faced under a communist regime.

Change is needed in the attitudes of the population as well. Decades of Soviet control created citizens who were passive and unused to asserting control over their society’s institutions. To mature their democracy, Polish citizens need to be more involved, more rational, more responsible and, most importantly, more demanding towards themselves and the leaders in all sectors – political, business, and social.

Is there a social contract for business in Poland today? Our analysis suggests that both employees and consumers have been trying to co-govern their environment in line with the ideals of Solidarity. Both employees at Tesco and clients at mBank have been fighting for citizen empowerment. Polish society may have to actively create its consent daily, because the process of becoming a “mature” society takes time. The cases

32 illustrate how the Polish social contract is not a finished document, but a work in progress. In the mBank case, the protesters won in the courts, whereas in the Tesco case the striking employees have experienced an ongoing process of improvement in their working conditions. Meanwhile, Law and Justice has been addressing the issue of wages and just before the 2019 elections had announced a plan for a staged increase in the minimum wage: to 2600 PLN gross per month by 2020, to 3000 PLN gross by 2022, and to 4000 PLN gross by 2023.

The social spirit of the Solidarity movement serves in both cases as an inspiration for the vision of creating a free, just Poland based on dignity with continuous improvement of living standards. However, implications for business include higher costs, with increased demands for pay from workers and increased demands of product quality from consumers.

The transformation process and its social contract are still in evolution. The values of

Solidarity that sparked Poland’s revolution (freedom, justice, dignity) have been slowly integrated into the socio-economic system and are changing the conditions under which business operates. First it was freedom and a free market, but at a high social cost.

During the transformation not all the Solidarity “values” were taken into account. And perhaps it was impossible to have dignity and justice while “expanding freedom”. After all, Poland was inspired by the American Anglo-Saxon capitalist model, not the

European social market economy tradition (e.g., in Sweden), with a strong state that protects its citizens. More recently, came the demand for dignity and justice with people unwilling to pay the high social cost anymore. This creates new expectations of the companies: they are expected to increase the well-being of society. This is unlikely to

33 come for free. The total cost of implementing the Solidarity pillars of justice and dignity are yet to be seen, both for business and society as a whole.

34 References

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38 Exhibit 1

The 21 Workers’ Demands, August, 1980

1. Acceptance of free trade unions independent of the Communist Party and of enterprises, in accordance with convention No. 87 of the International Labor Organization concerning the right to form free trade unions, which was ratified by the Communist Government of Poland.

2. A guarantee of the right to strike and of the security of strikers and those aiding them.

3. Compliance with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the press and publication, including freedom for independent publishers, and the availability of the mass media to representatives of all faiths.

4. A return of former rights to: 1) People dismissed from work after the 1970 and 1976 strikes, and 2) Students expelled from school because of their views. The release of all political prisoners, among them Edward Zadrozynski, Jan Kozlowski, and Marek Kozlowski. A halt in repression of the individual because of personal conviction.

5. Availability to the mass media of information about the formation of the Inter-factory Strike Committee and publication of its demands.

6. The undertaking of actions aimed at bringing the country out of its crisis situation by the following means: a) making public complete information about the social-economic situation, and b) enabling all sectors and social classes to take part in discussion of the reform programme.

7. Compensation of all workers taking part in the strike for the period of the strike, with vacation pay from the Central Council of Trade Unions.

8. An increase in the base pay of each worker by 2,000 złoty a month as compensation for the recent rise in prices.

9. Guaranteed automatic increases in pay on the basis of increases in prices and the decline in real income.

10. A full supply of food products for the domestic market, with exports limited to surpluses.

11. The abolition of 'commercial' prices and of other sales for hard currency in special shops.

12. The selection of management personnel on the basis of qualifications, not just party membership. Privileges of the secret police, regular police and party apparatus are to be eliminated by equalizing family subsidies, abolishing special stores, etc.

13. The introduction of food coupons for meat and meat products (during the period in which control of the market situation is regained).

14. Reduction in the age for retirement for women to 50 and for men to 55, or after 30 years' employment in Poland for women and 35 years for men, regardless of age.

15. Conformity of old-age pensions and annuities with what has actually been paid in.

16. Improvements in the working conditions of the health service to insure full medical care for workers.

17. Assurances of a reasonable number of places in day-care centers and kindergartens for the children of working mothers.

18. Paid maternity leave for three years.

39 19. A decrease in the waiting period for apartments.

20. An increase in the commuter's allowance to 100 złoty from 40, with a supplemental benefit on separation.

21. A day of rest on Saturday. Workers in the brigade system or round-the-clock jobs are to be compensated for the loss of free Saturdays with an increased leave or other paid time off.

[The 21 Demands written on the August 17th 1980 in Gdańsk, added to the UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register in 2003]

The characteristics of the Polish Social Contract Contexts Characteristics

Political context Before the social contract:  The sovereign rule in the country, which was the Central Party (PZPR) plus its ruling apparatus, was imposed by force onto the nation by the Soviet Union (1945). Power is here practiced in a totalitarian manner. The Party had an absolute and unlimited power in the political, economic and social life of the nation.  The Central Party (PZPR) was in complete control of political, economic, and social spheres, significantly reshaping society and the nation's culture and heritage.  Promotions in leadership positions were often based on Party membership, not personal merit. Economic  Centrally planned economy deciding about production structure, its context distribution, its organization, and investments. Furthermore, economy was also dependent on Soviet strategic plans.  Ineffective management and inefficient resource distribution causing general shortages, queuing for basic products, and leading to crises like numerous drastic rising of food prices.  Limited entrepreneurship, private ownership was possible only on small scale business, substantial black-market activity. Social context  Soviet type society with its homo-sovieticus – a citizen who is “enslaved, incapacitated, deprived of his own initiative and is not able to think critically” (Turowicz, 1993)  The system of terror and deep invigilation causes social fear; there is a lack of personal responsibility, initiative and a low level of social trust.  Censorship and propaganda with its controlled language - “New- speak” (Orwell, 1949); people hiding their true beliefs (Milosz, Captive Mind).  General feeling that the institutions do not represent citizen’s interests. National context  Poland became a satellite state of the Soviet Union in 1945; important political and economic decisions had to be approved by the Soviets.  Numerous upheavals against the authorities from 1945: (workers’ protests in Poznań in 1956; intellectuals’ protests in 1968 in numerous cities; workers’ protests in Gdańsk region in 1970; workers’ protests in numerous cities in 1976).  Historical tradition of national upheavals against Russia (1830, 1863)

40 kindling in the Romantic literature and music (Chopin, Mickiewicz, Norwid) Ethics context  Catholic Church’s involvement in the fight with communism  Significant role of the Pope John Paul II (1978); e.g. his eight-day pilgrimage and public performances in 1979 were attended by approximately 13 million people  Three values of Solidarity: truth, freedom, dignity (Stawrowski, 2010)

41