Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 1-1-2011 A Synthetic Analysis of the Polish Solidarity Movement Stephen W. Mays [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Other Political Science Commons, and the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Mays, Stephen W., "A Synthetic Analysis of the Polish Solidarity Movement" (2011). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 73. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A SYNTHETIC ANALYSIS OF THE POLISH SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT A thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Sociology by Stephen W. Mays Approved by Dr. Richard Garnett, Committee Chairman Dr. Marty Laubach Dr. Brian Hoey Marshall University Huntington, West Virginia December 2011 Table Of Contents Page Acknowledgements ................................................................................ iii Abstract .................................................................................................. v Chapter I. Introduction ................................................................................... 1 II. Methodology ................................................................................... 7 III. Historical Background ................................................................ 11 IV. Theoretical Background .............................................................. 52 V. Literature Review .......................................................................... 78 VI. Elaboration On The Proposed Factors ...................................... 87 VII. Conclusion .................................................................................. 210 Sources .................................................................................................... 215 Appendix 21 Demands Document ........................................................................ 223 Consent Form (English) ...................................................................... 225 Consent Form (Polish) ......................................................................... 229 Questionnaire (English) ....................................................................... 233 Questionnaire (Polish) ......................................................................... 238 Photos: Ethnographic Fieldwork in Gdansk ...................................... 242 ii Acknowledgements The completion of this thesis is due to a great amount of support, cooperation, assistance, and advice from many people. First I would like to thank my thesis committee chairman, Dr. Richard Garnett, for many hours of patient consultation and advising concerning every aspect of this project from start to finish. I would also like to express my thanks to Dr. Garnett for giving me a sound background in sociological theory from an historical perspective, which is, I believe, the very heart of the discipline of sociology. I want to thank thesis committee member, Dr. Marty Laubach, not only for his advice, encouragement, and support, but also for instructing me on the the sociological significance of work and religion in everyday life. Dr. Laubach's dedication to scientifically investigating these most basic sociological constructs was an inspiration that sustained my own work on this project. This thesis relies heavily on analysis of work and religion in the lives of my interviewees. My appreciation and thanks are also extended to thesis committee member, Dr. Brian Hoey, for the very practical training and experience he afforded me concerning personal interview techniques, oral history analysis, and basic ethnographic methods. These skills, the "nuts and bolts" of data collection for this thesis, were used as Dr. Hoey always recommended - with the upmost attention to the humanity and dignity of the interviewees. I thank Dr. Barbara Wejnert, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, for recommending many of the secondary sources used in this thesis, for sharing with me a profound personal insight into pro-democratic processes in Eastern Europe and the former USSR, and for advice concerning the content of the interview questions I used in this project. iii I also want to thank Mr. Andrzej Falkowski and Ms. Marta Rutkowska of Gdansk, Poland, for their invaluable assistance in arranging interviews within Stocznia Gadanska (the old Lenin Shipyard where Solidarity began) and with active members of Centrum Solidarnosci. This experience afforded me a glimpse of living history with great sociological significance. I am greatly indebted to Dr. Paula Gorszczynska, Ms. Marta Skibinska, and Ms. Aleksandra Kristiansen, all of Uniwersytet Gadanski, (The University of Gdansk), Gdansk Centre For Translation Studies. Their patience and meticulous attention to translation details is a credit to the academic craft they practice. I thank them also for enduring many hours of sub-zero wind and foot-deep snow along the Baltic Coast in late December; theirs was not an easy job for a Christmas break. The huge amount of interview data collected with their help will certainly extend into a second thesis project. Finally, I want to acknowledge and thank the people of Gdansk and members (current and former) of Solidarnosc who shared with me their life stories. As Marx said, "Men (and I'll add women too) make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please...but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past." Few people realize more vividly and more concretely the gravity of this saying than Poland's post WWII generation. As Marx "turned Hegel on his head," the Solidarity generation, "turned history on it head." This thesis tells a very small part of their story. iv Abstract The aim of this study is to arrive at a holistic understanding of how and why the Polish Solidarity Movement succeeded, against great odds, within a regime hostile to its existence. From this movement emerged Solidarnosc, the first independent labor union in the Communist Bloc. Solidarnosc evolved into a political party that succeeded in replacing the Communist Party in Poland. Seven factors are elaborated on, each contended to have facilitated Solidarnosc's success. Some factors occurred naturally (such as the structural conduciveness of Poland's industrially- based economy), some occurred fortunately (such as the political opportunity afforded by Mikhail Gorbachev's liberalizing policies), and some were deliberately constructed (such as use of samizdat communications in mobilizing the movement). This study is a synthesis of these various facilitating factors. Ethnographic description is also part of the explanation, as is inclusion of eclectic factors that do not "pigeon-hole" well into conventional social movement theory compartments. v Chapter One Introduction This study is a synthetic analysis of the Polish Revolution during the 1980s. The central problems to be addressed are explaining how the labor union, Solidarnosc, was able to initially emerge, survive illegally for seven years within a regime hostile to its existence, and eventually succeed in displacing the regime. Solidarnosc was much more than a labor union. Some analysts, such as Kubik (1994: 2), taking a very holistic approach, consider it part of broader sociological construct known as, "the Solidarity culture." For the purposes of this paper, it will be considered in terms of how it functioned as a social movement organization and acted as a central hub for a broader, overall social movement. This movement's ultimate goals were the restructuring of the social and economic order of Poland through democratization and restoration of human rights. This goal was eventually achieved; a domino-like effect then began with Poland as its source, and within two years of its realization most of Eastern Europe was democratized and the Soviet Union ceased to exist. These rapid and monumental changes altered the course of world history by displacing the authoritarian control of the Soviet Union and a system of closed socialist economies with (generally) democratic governments and capitalist economies. This restructuring directly affected perhaps one-third of the world's population and contributed to the emergence of the current global capitalist system. Although many other factors and forces converged to create the conditions necessary for this gigantic socioeconomic shift, it can be argued that the persistent collective actions of Solidarnosc and the Polish Solidarity Movement were indispensible elements in the process. 1 Three major theoretical perspectives are generally used in explaining the workings of social movements: resource mobilization theory, political opportunity theory, and issue framing theory. A synthetic analysis combines elements of these three perspectives in an effort to explain the complexities of social movements in light of material/economic realities, political/historic factors, and ideological/cultural presentation and manipulation of issues. However, this study, while considering the above mentioned perspectives, will also make reference to the older "collective behavior" perspective with emphasis on structural conduciveness and shared