Volker Schlondorff, primarily known for "The Tin Drum", directs "Strike", a Polish docudrama set in the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk, Poland. The film follows the life of Agnieszak Kowalska, who once worked diligently for Poland's communist party. It traces her activities in the 1960s, 70s and 80s, covering a broad political period in which communist support crumbled, martial law was declared and "Solidarity" was formed, "Solidarity" being a Polish trade union (the first independent labour union in the Soviet bloc) which used non-violent methods to fight for worker rights. The union, which at its height had about ten million members, is believed to have played a part in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the collapse of so-called communism. With Poland's independence came the collapse of "Solidarity", which itself echoed a general "collapse" of trade unions all across the world.
The film takes the format of the "whistle-blower movie" ("Silkwood", "Norma Rae", "North Country", "Erin Brockovich" etc), which for some reason typically revolves around female leads. In this regard Agnieszka takes up the cause of workers, fights for denied pensions and struggles to shed light on injustice. For speaking up, Agnieszka is fired from her job, at which point she forms an underground movement and free press, which leads to a labour movement and finally evolves into Solidarity. The film ends with a corny, Spielberg-styled present-day coda.
The film's well meaning but conventional, its "workers fight back" plot been done elsewhere, better, countless times before (it's like a low-rent Fassbinder or Ken Loach). "Is your solution to let the West march in?" one character asks, hinting at some larger complexity, but these avenues aren't explored.
Poland implemented a stabilisation program in 1990 to help ease itself away from so-called communism. Over the next decade the country began removing administrative barriers that in a planned economy supposedly hindered the "best" deployment of resources, and began implementing various policies which bowed down to neoliberal economic "rationality". Rather than improvement, however, Poland saw unemployment increasing and real incomes plummeting by about 40 percent. Poverty also went up to 34 percent, which was more than double the poverty levels under Soviet rule. The amount of children in schools and higher education also fell dramatically, and the poverty gap rose from an estimated 1.4 percent of GDP to 4.8 percent. Bizarrely, personal consumption also decreased. Unsurprisingly, imports increased, national debts increased, which in turn led to public spending cuts and increases in taxes, which further hurt the working class. As the decade progressed, unemployment levels would reach the highest in the European Union. Over 45 percent of young Polish workers would be forced to emigrate in search of work. In this new, "democratic" and "free" Poland, the populace would be so disillusioned with politics that less than 50 percent turn up to general elections. Then, in 2005, Poland produced two right-wing parties determined to "westernise" the country, the nationalist Law and Justice party and the globalist Civic Platform. Law and Justice won the 2005 election and two years later, Civic Platform won the legislative election.
Poland's "narrative arc" is typical of countries which find themselves free from Empires. The Empire pulls out, left-wing parties fill the vacuum, these parties struggle, often because they're fought against by the combined power of the Catholic Church and interference from outside (who subvert efforts to build a cooperative and democratic economic order), at which point ultra right-wing governments step in, saving the day with a bevy of neoliberal policies. Meanwhile, slowly, foreign owners are buying up an increasingly privatised Poland.
Ironically, despite the collapse of state socialism, the role of the state has not diminished. Instead the nature of state intervention has changed, reconstituted in favour of a transnational capital to the detriment of labour. The nation state is being superseded, bowing to the organising principle of a larger global system. Agencies with direct links to the "national" economy have not been displaced, but are progressively subordinated to finance ministries, treasuries and central banks. The "national" has become the transmitter of policy through those agencies most closely linked to the global economy (and as such sets about creating a reserve army of labour, privatising state assets, relaxing taxes on capitalists, acting as the executive of the capitalist class, destroying savings, "enforcing" mass redundancies, brutally reducing real wage levels, welfare entitlements etc).
Things changed somewhat with the late 2000 recession. Poland, thanks largely to having its own central bank somewhat independent of the Euro Zone system, now seems to be fairing "better" than many countries in Europe. Since the mid 2000s the country has seen economic growth and has managed to keep its social security intact. It is the only country in the European Union to maintain positive GDP growth through the 2008-2009 economic downturn. According to the government, things are "looking up and will keep getting better". Statistical departments, some of them at the Warsaw school of economics, however, dispute the Polish governments tale of "progress". There are hidden, ignored, invisible counter costs. Real wages, they say, are going down and unemployment and poverty levels aren't falling, but are going up, or at best haven't changed drastically since the 90s (what's worse, up to one-third of the unemployed simply do not bother to register). High unemployment, high income inequalities, greater class divisions and growing insecurity also means that people are increasingly reluctant to risk changing jobs, thus labour mobility is falling. In a very real sense, the Solidarity initiative and the political transformation that it wrought was taken over by free-market enthusiasts who have condemned Poland to yet more problems.
7.9/10 - Too obvious. Worth one viewing.
The film takes the format of the "whistle-blower movie" ("Silkwood", "Norma Rae", "North Country", "Erin Brockovich" etc), which for some reason typically revolves around female leads. In this regard Agnieszka takes up the cause of workers, fights for denied pensions and struggles to shed light on injustice. For speaking up, Agnieszka is fired from her job, at which point she forms an underground movement and free press, which leads to a labour movement and finally evolves into Solidarity. The film ends with a corny, Spielberg-styled present-day coda.
The film's well meaning but conventional, its "workers fight back" plot been done elsewhere, better, countless times before (it's like a low-rent Fassbinder or Ken Loach). "Is your solution to let the West march in?" one character asks, hinting at some larger complexity, but these avenues aren't explored.
Poland implemented a stabilisation program in 1990 to help ease itself away from so-called communism. Over the next decade the country began removing administrative barriers that in a planned economy supposedly hindered the "best" deployment of resources, and began implementing various policies which bowed down to neoliberal economic "rationality". Rather than improvement, however, Poland saw unemployment increasing and real incomes plummeting by about 40 percent. Poverty also went up to 34 percent, which was more than double the poverty levels under Soviet rule. The amount of children in schools and higher education also fell dramatically, and the poverty gap rose from an estimated 1.4 percent of GDP to 4.8 percent. Bizarrely, personal consumption also decreased. Unsurprisingly, imports increased, national debts increased, which in turn led to public spending cuts and increases in taxes, which further hurt the working class. As the decade progressed, unemployment levels would reach the highest in the European Union. Over 45 percent of young Polish workers would be forced to emigrate in search of work. In this new, "democratic" and "free" Poland, the populace would be so disillusioned with politics that less than 50 percent turn up to general elections. Then, in 2005, Poland produced two right-wing parties determined to "westernise" the country, the nationalist Law and Justice party and the globalist Civic Platform. Law and Justice won the 2005 election and two years later, Civic Platform won the legislative election.
Poland's "narrative arc" is typical of countries which find themselves free from Empires. The Empire pulls out, left-wing parties fill the vacuum, these parties struggle, often because they're fought against by the combined power of the Catholic Church and interference from outside (who subvert efforts to build a cooperative and democratic economic order), at which point ultra right-wing governments step in, saving the day with a bevy of neoliberal policies. Meanwhile, slowly, foreign owners are buying up an increasingly privatised Poland.
Ironically, despite the collapse of state socialism, the role of the state has not diminished. Instead the nature of state intervention has changed, reconstituted in favour of a transnational capital to the detriment of labour. The nation state is being superseded, bowing to the organising principle of a larger global system. Agencies with direct links to the "national" economy have not been displaced, but are progressively subordinated to finance ministries, treasuries and central banks. The "national" has become the transmitter of policy through those agencies most closely linked to the global economy (and as such sets about creating a reserve army of labour, privatising state assets, relaxing taxes on capitalists, acting as the executive of the capitalist class, destroying savings, "enforcing" mass redundancies, brutally reducing real wage levels, welfare entitlements etc).
Things changed somewhat with the late 2000 recession. Poland, thanks largely to having its own central bank somewhat independent of the Euro Zone system, now seems to be fairing "better" than many countries in Europe. Since the mid 2000s the country has seen economic growth and has managed to keep its social security intact. It is the only country in the European Union to maintain positive GDP growth through the 2008-2009 economic downturn. According to the government, things are "looking up and will keep getting better". Statistical departments, some of them at the Warsaw school of economics, however, dispute the Polish governments tale of "progress". There are hidden, ignored, invisible counter costs. Real wages, they say, are going down and unemployment and poverty levels aren't falling, but are going up, or at best haven't changed drastically since the 90s (what's worse, up to one-third of the unemployed simply do not bother to register). High unemployment, high income inequalities, greater class divisions and growing insecurity also means that people are increasingly reluctant to risk changing jobs, thus labour mobility is falling. In a very real sense, the Solidarity initiative and the political transformation that it wrought was taken over by free-market enthusiasts who have condemned Poland to yet more problems.
7.9/10 - Too obvious. Worth one viewing.