Solidarność 1980–1989: Lessons from the Fate of a Social Movement

How is it possible that the Solidarity trade union was, shortly after being founded in 1980, the largest and most explicitly social workers’ movement in Polish history – and arguably also in the history of Eastern Europe – a movement oriented toward the importance of common goods, and yet when it came to power it enacted the most neoliberal transformation of the economy possible? What happened during the 80s with the socially oriented elites of this movement? And what happened with the former Communist Party activists who became so strongly dedicated to implementing the Washington Consensus in Poland after 1989? Andzrej Leder will discuss these questions and the lessons they can teach us about social movements today.