Gdansk Shipyard Bankrupt
Polish Dockyard may be Victim of European Free Markets
The fall of European Communism started in the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk, Poland. Today, the free markets workers fought for; are dictating terms that may close the yard.
Determined to succeed, workers in Gdansk risked liberty and death to achieve a vaporous goal. Inspired by leaders like driver Anna Walentinowicz, murdered Father Jerzy Popieluszko and imprisoned organizer Lech Walesa; the workers fought for freedom. In 1995, former Polish President Walesa founded the Lech Walesa Institute whose mission is to “Consolidat[e] democracy and implement the free market economy in Poland.”
But today at midnight GMT, the European Union, the symbol of Free Markets in Europe, “demanded that Gdansk sharply cut back its capacity or…handover tens of millions of pounds…a move that could propel it into bankruptcy.” The remaining 3,000 shipyard workers, many veterans of the fight for free markers, are about to succumb to the very free markets they fought and died for.
History
In June 1980, 17,000 workers went on strike in the Lenin Shipyard over the dismissal of militant crane driver Anna Walentinowicz. By August 14th Lech Walesa was put in charge of the Interfactory Strike Committee (ISC), linking coal miners with dock workers nationwide. The move worked and on August 24th, 500,000 workers demanded the communist government implement their ‘21 postulates.’ The government quickly buckled and on August 31st 1980 signed the 'Gdansk Agreement' giving workers the right to strike and to organize freely.
Within 3 months, 25% of the national population, 10 million workers and farmers, joined the ISC which soon transformed into a group of unions called Solidarnosc (Solidarity). Western encouragement for the Poles was increased with Walesa meeting Pope John Paul II and gaining the Catholic Church’s backing of the movement. In 1981 Walesa was named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” and International Labor Organizations from Japan to Sweden invited him as a guest. All these events culminated with the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to Walesa on December 10th.
"It is the [Nobel} Committee's opinion that he stands as an inspiration and a shining example to all those who, under different conditions, fight for freedom….” Finally on July 19, 1989; Tadeusz Mazowiecki, a longtime Solidarity adviser, became the first non Communist Polish Prime Minister since World War 2.
Economy
Polish people took Lech Walesa’s goals of a free market Poland to heart. In 1990 economic shock therapy was instilled in Poland and took the financial system to a complete market economy. It joined NATO in 1999 as a full participating state and voted to join the EU in June 2003.
Poland was the largest of 10 nations to join the EU in 2004 and represented 50% of the GDP of those nations; however, the Poles still had many economical problems. High unemployment (20%) is by far the greatest of those problems.
Power
The Poles enjoyed this new freedom and market system. They began to use their political weight to get their way on things ranging from the EU budget to issues over voting rights. In EU business, lawmaker Andrew Duff said after the July 23rd 2007 meeting: "They are still looking to destroy the charter [voting rights charter], practically speaking….If this infection spreads that will mean the end of the charter."
But there is a down side in this system. Free Markets means negotiations according to the US White House, National Security Council. It appears Poland is being forced to choose between the EU voting rights issue and the Gdansk shipyard closure. Lech Walesa said the shipyard is "the mother of free Poland."
A rescue plan has been proposed but it “…need[s] to be approved by the EU….We are perfectly aware of the historic importance of the Gdansk shipyard,” said European Commission spokeswoman Amelia Torres. “What the Commission wants to see is…its long-term viability.” A viability that was never in question prior to Free Markets and hard won Freedom by Polish Laborers!
