Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-26-Speech-1-070"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20050926.13.1-070"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spokenAs | |
| lpv:translated text |
"Mr President, in the autumn of 1980 when I was 15 years old, I travelled to Poland for the first time in my life. We were a group of young Swedes cooperating with Poland’s independent movement of students and pupils. It was a youth movement that, in practice, was a part of Solidarity and of the huge and positive mobilisation that Solidarity stood for in the Polish society of the time. For me, the visit was a real eye-opener. The freedoms and rights that I, as a Swedish teenager, took for granted were things for which my Polish contemporaries had to fight hard. Poland was a society with a shortage of goods and manifest political oppression and, for most Poles, life was hard. With its demands for freedom, democracy and the right to national self-determination, Solidarity then stood for the hope of a better future. It was a progressive movement, and not only because it called for the democratisation of Polish society. As a union, it campaigned for higher wages, better pension conditions, influence in the work place for employees and better health care and child care. It was a genuinely progressive movement that was put down when, with the support of the Soviet Union, the military assumed power. In spite of military rule, there was no crushing the demands and hopes symbolised by Solidarity, however.
The fact is that, on a number of occasions, spontaneous organisation on the part of workers, together with demands for independent trade unions, have been decisive in opposing the dictatorships in those countries dominated by the Soviet Union following the war. Solidarity and the Polish opposition constituted one – and perhaps the most important – of the succession of revolts against oppression. East Berlin in 1953, Budapest in 1956, Pozna in the same year and Prague in 1968 were cases in which the democratic opposition was put down using violence. More often than not, it was workers – organised as they were and with their demands for justice and democracy – who were in the front rank of the protesters.
Today, Poland is a political democracy among other political democracies. Huge progress has been made in crucial areas since the fall of the Berlin Wall. An important factor behind this – indeed, perhaps the absolutely crucial factor – was Solidarity’s efforts in opposing the old regime. This development has led to a better future, not only for Poland but for the whole of Europe. At the same time, a lot remains to be done, considering the social demands made by Solidarity in terms of worker influence and a better standard of living.
Poland is at present a society in which many people are badly off and in which there is very high unemployment. At the same time, very few people are organised in trade unions, and employees often struggle to make their voices heard. If something is to be done about this, a strong, well-organised trade union movement is needed."@en1
|
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples