Solidarity in charge
Last week saw the 11th Solidarity National Congress, which unsurprisingly was much more than just a trade union congress. It was a meeting at which it was time for the union to take stock of the effects of the last two years of co-responsibility for government. It was also a chance to lay the ground for a political revival of the center right, currently on the ropes in the opinion polls and looking increasingly likely to lose the next presidential and parliamentary elections.
The Solidarity trade union has always had a contradictory role. On the one hand it seeks to defend the short-term interests of its members, but at the same time understanding that it had a historical mission to preserve a reform process that often undermined those interests. Solidarity has oscillated between these two roles, first between 1989 and 1991, when it clearly played the role of a political umbrella for the reform process, and then until 1993 when it became increasingly critical of government policy, leading it to force through the motion of no-confidence against the government of then Prime Minister Hanna Suchocka that led to new elections and four years of post-communist rule.
In being the catalyst in the creation of Solidarity Election Action (AWS) in 1996, Solidarity sought to reclaim its position as the leading actor on the center right, as well as return to its role of supporting necessary, albeit painful, economic and social reform. Judging by last weekend's congress, despite murmurs of discontent there is little danger of the union swinging back to a less constructive role. Most notable was the response to the visit to the congress of Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, who had a hard time defending the government's reform program in front of the audience. To his credit, Buzek was unyielding, but it was unexpected to see such severe public criticism of the government from the trade union which, after all, makes up a substantial part of AWS itself. No one however expects these rumblings to turn into anything more serious before the next elections: the clear victory of Marian Krzaklewski in the elections for Solidarity trade union leader clearly showed that the union supports his strategy of constructive engagement in the government.
Of greater interest was the political deliberations of the weekend, which centered around the union's strategy for the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary elections in 2000 and 2001 respectively. Special conference guest Lech Walesa put the cat among the pigeons by not only announcing that he would stand for the presidency regardless of whatever other candidates were put up by the right, but also that he was in favor of many right-wing candidates standing against the single post-communist representative current President Aleksander Kwasniewski with the single survivor into the second round then being supported by his rivals. Many observers on the right see this as yet another electoral suicide note, possibly leading to Kwasniewski winning the election in the first round.
Instead, voices have been raised both within AWS and the junior Freedom Union (UW) coalition partner and supported by the Solidarity congress that perhaps instead it is not too late to come up with a single right-wing candidate, even perhaps supported by the UW. It is becoming clear that Krzaklewski, a careful reader of the opinion polls, would gladly have someone else take a shot at the presidency, since failure for him would be a bitter personal blow and a fateful erosion of his authority within AWS. So who might the candidate be? Step forward Maciej Plazynski, current speaker of Parliament and increasingly popular publicly for his ability to combine a "statesman" image with a sound dose of anti-communism. Time will tell whether he will be the right's sole nominee, but his stock is rising rapidly.
The other dilemma faced by Solidarity is the future of AWS itself, where currently the union has significant leverage because of its voting rights on the AWS board. For some time the union has been under pressure from the parties that make up the AWS coalition to withdraw from direct involvement, and indeed some Solidarity unionists would not be averse to jump from the sinking ship that AWS appears to be. But there is an equally strong urge to remain in charge, so the unionists agreed to withdraw on condition of AWS becoming a single party, and with the AWS Social Movement (RS AWS) party taking its voting rights. That in turn is anathema to the AWS parties, who above all want to preserve their independence.
Yet despite the constructive role of the Solidarity trade union, it remains the case that the post-communist left has united spectacularly in the form of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) party, and will back Kwasniewski as its presidential candidate. In contrast, AWS continues to be divided internally and unable to recommend a single presidential candidate. The next few months will show whether the right will continue its tradition of failure in the long term because of the dominance of short-term political interests, or overcomes its habits of the past in a last-ditch attempt to rescue its fortunes.
Marek Matraszek is the Warsaw director of CEC Government Relations. He can be e-mailed at director@cec.com.pl
