Roman Dziadkiewicz & Jan Sowa
An Epidemic of Illusion.
The rise of neoliberalism and difficulties that face critical thinking in Poland.
"The present North-South divide between the rich and the poor countries, and the tensions it has created in the twentieth century, had its European, East-West antecedents." (Z.A.B Zeman)
In 1989 Poland experienced a drastic regime change which from todays perspective may be called a neoconservative revolution.
Any critique of the current socio-economic status quo as well as attempts to create positive alternatives has to face several basic obstacles that have their origins not only in the last few decades of history, but also in a specific cultural characteristics of Central and Eastern Europe. It is a border region. The expression "in between" defines our cultural, economic, social and historical identity. We have lived between Islam and Christianity, Europe and Asia for centuries. Our region has always been less developed than the Center but more than the Periphery. It was the area where colonial dependencies developed; along with military and economical expansion of the West these dependencies were globalized to include more remote territories. This fact was mentioned by Noam Chomsky in his book Year 501. The conquest continues; he writes as follows: The Third World, Leften Stavrianos observes, "made its first appearance in Eastern Europe," which began to provide raw materials for the growing textile and metal industries of England and Holland as far back as the 14th century (...) The process soon left "the East as perhaps Europe's first colonial territories, a Third World of the 16th century providing raw materials for the industrialists back west, a testing ground for bankers and financiers to practice what they would later perfect in more distant lands" (John Feffer).
For almost half of the 20th century Central and Eastern Europe was under the hegemony of the Soviet Union. The system that existed due to the military and political power of Soviets was an obvious negation of any idea of social justice. It was based on repression, censorship and state control over almost all aspects of life. It didn't give the country and its people any chance for growth and development. We have a strong memory of frustration and impotence associated with that time: all citizens' initiatives that aimed at changing our living conditions were blocked by state's bureaucracy and censorship combined with police and military interventions. It is true, that Polish society of that time was more equal than today, but it was so only because everybody was brought down to the same low level. We should bear in mind that this system had nothing to do with the notion of a just society that was advocated by Karl Marx, Rosa Luxembourg and their followers. It was a typical authoritarian regime that ruled with brute force and aimed at limiting civil liberties. However, the dictators of that time were making a lot of references to Marxism and were often mentioning capitalism as their principal enemy. It was, of course, a sort of hypocrisy, because the system that was introduced in Russian after 1920 and later in the entire Soviet block was a kind of state capitalism. The power and capital was concentrated in the hands of the small Party elite that stood above the law. In a way it was very similar to the present danger of centralized corporate rule.
This experience, that was shared by three generations, provokes a very strong "post-communist trauma" nowadays. It is one of the most important obstacles to any discussion, not to mention attempts to change the neoliberal status quo. Any reference to the ideals of social justice and equality is unanimously (and absurdly) associated with the former so called "communist dictatorship". Anyone who criticizes capitalism and free market is treated like a "Commie" and an ally of the former dictatorship. There is no point in talking about ideological, economical and political details; there is no point in affirming that a rejection of globalization doesn't mean promoting the old "communist" system. The binary opposition between "capitalism" and "communism" (meaning the former authoritarian rule) is ubiquitous. It is supported by virtually all the mainstream media, intellectuals and politicians of various orientations.
Another important factor in resisting any left-wing political discourses is the traditional conservatism in Polish society (sometimes compared to rural communities in United States). The Church and religion remain very important parts of the Polish identity. They do not offer any alternative to widespread consumerism. Capitalism and the free market is supported by the Church and its followers. The ideas of Liberation Theology known from South America remain completely unknown to Polish catholics. The intellectuals and some artists associated with anticommunist opposition are also in favor of capitalism and West's (especially USA) hegemony over the rest of the planet. This is the case of Adam Michnik, editor in chief of the biggest Polish daily newspaper and artists-activists belonging to punk and ska movements in the 80s. They speak in favor of Iraq occupation today. The "left" parties being currently in power (most of them originate from the former Polish United Workers Party aka the Party) don't have a lot in common with the genuine Left. The ideas of social justice, building civil society and supporting the public sector are completely strange to them. Their government declares that the main goal is GNP growth. Its legislative proposals are, among others, closing cheap diners and second hand cloths stores, used mainly by the poorest part of Polish society - unemployed, students and retired. In the same time this "leftist" government buys from United States high tech weapons worth billions of dollars, tries to bring US soldiers and military bases to our country and participates in the unlawful occupation of Iraq (contracts for Polish business gained that way are supposed to be a remedy for current economic problems in Poland). The opposition (still too weak) is being ignored or repressed.
This kind of cynicism and arrogance of bureaucrats (actively supported by big business) is possible and accepted because the transition to a market economy is widely perceived to be a major success and liberation. Capitalism, free market and Western superpowers - mainly the United States - are still regarded as the Free World, which helped us in bringing down the Soviet hegemony. The names of transnational corporations - such as McDonalds, Coca-cola or Shell - are synonyms of success and welfare. Supermarkets, luxurious cars, factories, highways and global capitalism are regarded not only as signs of prosperity, but of freedom as well. These myths are supported by widespread "ideology of success", according to which being successful equals being a mindless consumer. All those who do not follow the pattern of consumption-as-a-way-of-life are perceived as unfortunate, stupid or reactionary.
What we come to consider now is one of the most important phenomena shaping present Polish society - an illusion. The people waiting desperately for a change accepted without any criticism anything that the New Order of capitalism and neoliberalism offered along with their promises to make all dreams come true. People refuse to see that the only dreams that this system makes come true are those it itself generates. This illusion of capitalism and free market as affirmation of freedom and a way to prosperity is held by most parts of society. It is also actively promoted by marketing specialists in virtually every area of social activity. It is an illusion of catching up with the West, of thinking that in few years time we are going to live like westerners. This is one of the reasons why supermarkets are being built in any middle size Polish city - despite creating unemployment by destroying small local shops (which is a proven fact) they are loved because they create an illusion of abundance. They also create an "addiction to buying", which is dangerous, because most of the consumption is possible thanks to loans (from commercial banks or directly from the World Bank). Loans have by far overtaken accumulation of capital, both on national and individual level.
There is also an illusion of professionalism among cultural institutions. Their budgets are comparable to budgets of cultural institutions in developing world. In choosing their program they are limited by local conservative politicians and bureaucrats. In this ridiculous circumstance they try to become a part of the international art world. The result is production of art which is nothing but a cheaper substitute and imitation of current trends in Western culture. Anything that doesn't suit the homogenized mainstream of culture is marginalised. In social and political life we have virtually only substitutes - of freedom, independence, openness and democracy. The above mentioned "postcommunist trauma" has been cynically exploited by big business and its political advocates. It was used to manufacture consent for building a radical neoliberal coercion. It is important to have in mind that the first Western economic adviser to Polish government in the early 90s was Jeffrey Sachs - the Harvard economist who in the 80s "stabilized" the Bolivian economy, bringing it to a complete failure. Those neoliberal experiments would not have been so easy to carry out without the postcommunist trauma and the illusion which makes people think there is no acceptable alternative to neoliberal capitalism.
These illusions and a way to break out of them is one of the themes of our "Camel Workshop/Road Performance" project that we have been preparing for the last two years. It is supposed to be a breakthrough from a closed illusion of art towards genuine experience of the real world as well as an attempt to see how independent one can be in the realities of a developing country such as Poland. The same reason stands behind our participation in the WSF along with our presentations, meetings and "workshop of thinking". We have many questions that cannot be answered by people from the West (due to their different experience): How to work without becoming addicted to private or state sponsorship (which equals censorship)? How to communicate with an average citizen in the wake of overpowering system propaganda and ignorance of any possible dangers of neoliberal capitalism? How is it possible to build a mature and responsible civil society if people are already becoming tired of responsibility and maturity?
One of the biggest problems we will have to face in Poland in the next few years is a rapid shrinking of public sphere. Public space is more and more colonized by big business, which steals it for marketing purposes. It is a problem of public city space appropriated for advertising, but also of corporate lobbying and its influence on media, public institutions and state administration. Television, radio and press are packed with persuasive communication aimed at transforming every citizen into a mindless consumer despite any environmental and social costs. Advertisers are also active in schools and public institutions. The law is being made to suit corporate interests, not those of people and the environment. If this tendency is not stopped, the entire pubic sphere - medical services, education, culture, water and electricity distribution etc. - is going to become privatised in a few years time. Corporation have their stake in Poland - we are a country spread over 300 thousands square kilometers with almost 40 million people - a lot in European scale. If nothing is done against these negative trends, Poland can get split into a two-layer society, different from Western middle class based societies: a minority of relatively well-off mindless consumers and the rest: poor people living on or under poverty line. But with an effort Poland could move towards a participatory and open civil society. Which scenario is going to come true, depends on what we do about it.
That is a reason we are acting locally - we organize workshops, meetings and discussions. We try not to isolate our discourse in small disciplines, we look for links between culture, economy and social issues. We try to see local contexts and problems in both local and global scale. But we know there are things we cannot do on our own. We need partners to give us examples and to share experience, especially people from countries with similar social and economic reality but maybe more experience. This is the main reason why we have come to WSF. We are looking forward to future cooperation with activists, artists and thinkers from Asia, South America and Africa. We also have experience we can share. We hope the exchange will be for our mutual benefit.
