Marxism International

Barely fifteen years after the eclipse of Communism in eastern Europe, its successors have little to celebrate.   Its economies in tatters, its political class divided into a galaxy of warring sects, unsure of its new identity or indeed whether it has any identity at all other than that of beggering colony of the West, the entities known collectively as “post-Communist Europe” are in deep disarray.

Poland, whose dwindling number of non-descript neo-liberal wannabes are managing a last-gasp “celebration” of the 25th anniversary of the founding of the pro-capitalist Solidarity “labor union” this week, is the poster-boy for post-Communism’s deepening woes.   Unemployment stands at 18%, it’s health care and education systems, once among the most innovative in the countries of “actually existing socialism”, lie in ruins.   Its economy is openly run by gangsters and opportunists, many of whom occupied trusted positions when the country was ruled by the Communists (Workers Party).  Above all, there is a deep cynicism even among Poland’s capitalist and catholic press, two icons of anti-communism that should have been expected to be among Solidarity’s most enthusiastic party-goers.   

So, why celebrate at all?   For one thing, this is not a people’s celebration; rather, it is an attempt by the new class of neo-liberal market “reformers” throughout eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to put a brave face on what has been a human catastrophe.   I am speaking of the ruthless annihilation of social property which has been the salient feature of the “new Europe” and the transformation of the people’s assets into the private pissoir of a class of rapacious criminals unprecedented in the history of western civilization.   

Thus, Vaclev Havel of the Czech Republic, Michael Saakashvili of Georgia, Victor Yuschehenko of the Ukraine, all will be on hand for the festivities.   Lech Walesa, Poland’s galling ex-President and “first-rate second-rate man” (Zbigniew Brzezinski’s churlish verdict) who engineered Solidarity’s founding with cash from the Vatican and the CIA, will be there, too, as will representatives from American, French, German and British capital.

Vladimir Putin, Russia’s  dour President and ex-KGB officer will not attend.  Western-style “reformers” are loathed with an even greater ferocity in his country than they are in the rest of “liberated” eastern Europe.   He recently called the break up of the Soviet Union the “greatest calamity” of the 20th Century.   Most Russians agree.    For Putin, there is little to like in the new scheme of things.   Among the least likeable are NATO warplanes parked along Russia’s border.

But, it is the people of post-Communism who, on the whole,  have the biggest axe to grind.   Indubitably impovershed, their living standards reduced in many cases to that of the post-colonial developing world, suffering everything from declining life expectancy to astronomical crime rates to acute social dislocations, they have rapidly lost faith in the new “democratic” Europe.   Vistors to eastern Europe, especially those who have close family there, return with stories of a new nostalgia taking root, especially in the villages and rural areas.   Today, there is an increasing fondness for the memories of harsh rulers who, it is thought, at least paid lip service to the old Communist ideals of “ending exploitation of Man by Man.”   Gomulka in Poland, Albania’s Hoxha, even Romania’s Ceausescu,  are enjoying a nostalgic resurgence among those who previously chafed under their rule.   “He was at least honest,” a Russian emigre from Boston told me, speaking of Stalin, “and he cared about his people.”

One should wonder perhaps how Solidarity’s 50th birthday will be celebrated.

Or, even, if it will be “celebrated” at all.