As 1981 Begins, Eyes on Poland – Folha de S. Paulo, December 31, 1980

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

In these days when the year turns, I turn to consider the situation in Poland.

This topic is quite thought-provoking. Among the complex issues it raises, some may prove crucial to many events in the upcoming year. For instance, what exactly is the socio-economic model that the main group of discontented Poles is turning to? Would this model involve a system of small rural properties and a more or less genuine self-management of industrial and commercial enterprises by those who work in them? This is what I gathered from a newspaper article I came across.

In any case, it seems unlikely that the model of discontented Poles would be very different from this. Otherwise, this model would either allow medium-sized agricultural properties and some form of individual ownership in urban enterprises or align with communism at the opposite extreme.

In the first case, it is hard to see how the discontented Poles can keep the communist label that still applies to them and that they don’t seem willing to reject. In the second case, it is hard to see how their discontent turns into a specific program.

But if this is the new Polish model, it’s unclear how it differs from the Yugoslav regime. Therefore, it’s difficult to see what’s new about the Polish model.

Most importantly, it’s unclear why the presentation is so vague. The news coverage of the Polish case is extensive. However—at least from what I understand—it doesn’t go into much detail. In other words, they say little or almost nothing about the positive goals of the discontented.

Some may argue that popular movements, and many others, are just like that. They are confused at first and become more precise as they go. Why demand greater accuracy from Lech Walesa and his comrades in arms?

This initial inaccuracy could indeed explain the omission in the news reports. However, it raises another question. In many media outlets and across different ideological sectors of public opinion, there is noticeable, vocal “cheering” for discontented Poles. At first, John Paul II seemed to support them against the Warsaw government. Then he appeared to side with the government… and Walesa, against them. And now he seems to be shifting back to support them against the government. In any case, the “cheering” is in favor of Walesa.

The “cheering crowd” reveals the conviction among many supporters that the time has finally come for their dreams to be realized: the arrival in Poland of an essentially egalitarian regime—liberal in religious and political matters, yet strongly interventionist in economic ones. And all of it seasoned with pontifical texts, skillfully cut and pasted from documents of John XXIII and his successors. Such a regime would fulfill both the most discreet and the most emphatic hopes of the extreme Christian Democratic left.

Only this perspective explains the cheerful undertones, the festive implications, and the “cheering” of many people in favor of Walesa’s discontented Poles.

While I disagree with various shades of Christian democracy, especially its more leftist versions, I do recognize that these groups often include educated individuals who, above all, are very well informed. They are not people who “root” for mere whims or trivial ramblings.

This raises a question: What exactly do they know about Polish discontent that makes them so hopeful? How can we explain that this movement, which claims the right to remain vague, is fueling specific hopes in some ideologically defined sectors of the West?

This is the question full of possibilities that I leave with my readers at the start of this New Year. I offer you my best wishes that Our Lady will help you in 1981.