Poland's Solidarnosc Wants No Part of Romney's
Anti-Labor Politics 
by John Nichols 
The Nation 
July 30, 2012

http://www.thenation.com/blog/169160/polands-solidarity-wants-no-part-romneys-anti-labor-politics#

Mitt Romney jetted into Poland Monday, as part of a
push to win Polish-American votes in Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and other battleground
states. And how does an American presidential candidate
"do" Poland? By posing for photos with Lech Walesa, the
former Polish president who--like Ronald Reagan--was
once a union leader.

But don't think that the grip-and-grin session with
Walesa signaled that Romney, who has run a militantly
anti-union campaign (even airing television commercials
that promote so-called "right-to-work" laws and
assaults on public employees), is moving toward a more
mainstream stance as regards the rights of labor.
Walesa long ago abandoned the union movement for
politics, and like Reagan he's tended toward the right
side of the political spectrum.

Needless to say, Romney did not celebrate Walesa as a
militant trade unionist; nor did the presumptive
Republican presidential nominee recognize the
connection--as Reagan once did--between powerful
independent labor organizations and global struggles
for freedom and democracy.

So what do the heirs to the Polish labor activism of
the 1980s say? What do the hundreds of thousands of
activists who maintain the Solidarnosc (Solidarity)
union as a major force in today's Poland say?

"Solidarnosc is in no way involved in the organization
of this meeting nor had the initiative to invite Mitt
Romney to Poland," the 700,000-member union announced
Monday.

"Regretfully," added Solidarnosc international
department head Andrzej Adamczyk, "we have learned from
our friends in the American trade union central AFL-CIO
representing over 12 million workers about Mitt
Romney's support for the attacks against trade unions
and labor rights. In this respect, I wish to
express...our solidarity with American workers and
trade unions. [Solidarity] will always support the
AFL-CIO in their struggle for the right of workers to
organize and bargain collectively."

Solidarity has been outspoken in its support of recent
labor struggles in the United States, signaling clear
opposition to the anti-collective bargaining position
adopted by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and other
Romney allies.

When hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin workers filled
the streets and occupied the state Capitol to protest
Walker's agenda, a letter from Solidarity was published
in a full-page ad in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The ad read:

To Public Service Workers in the State of Wisconsin:

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

On behalf of the 700,000 members of the Polish Trade
Union NSZZ "Solidarnosc" (Solidarity) I wish to express
our solidarity and support for your struggle against
the recent assault on trade unions and trade union
rights unleashed by Governor Scott Walker.

We are witnessing yet another attempt of transferring
the costs of the economic crisis and of the failed
financial policies to working people and their
families. As much as some adjustments are necessary, we
can not and must not agree that the austerity measures
are synonymous with union-busting practices, the
elimination of bargaining rights and the reduction of
social benefits and wages.

Dear friends, please rest assured that our thoughts are
with you during your protest, as we truly do hope that
your just fight for decent working and living
conditions, for the workers' rights will be successful.

Your victory is our victory as well.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka put the pieces
together with a stinging rebuke of Romney.

"The story of the Polish resistance is one of a country
gaining strength from bottom-up organizing on behalf of
the whole country," said Trumka. "I wish Romney would
pause and learn the lessons of the Polish labor
movement's courageous resistance to communism rather
than just treat Poland as yet another photo op. Romney
needs to step back and reject the George W. Bush/Bain
Capital model of top down economics and recognize that
we are all stronger when we stand together."

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