Visit our website: HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------------------------- [Via Communist Internet... http://www.egroups.com/group/Communist-Internet ] [Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] . . ----- Original Message ----- From: Barry Stoller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2001 3:38 AM Subject: [MLL] 'Colossal defeat' expected for Solidarity AFP. 8 September 2001. Poles set to hand electoral humiliation to a divided Solidarity. WARSAW -- A dozen years after it toppled communism, Poland's Solidarity is set for a colossal defeat in elections later this month which could see it disintegrate as a political movement. When Poles vote on September 23 they are likely to install the ex-communists in power with nearly half of the popular vote, according to the latest opinion polls. Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek's Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) coalition is hovering around the eight percent needed for a coalition to win seats. It is no longer a question of winning the election, says Lech Walesa, the movement's former leader and president from 1991-1995, but "saving the honor" of Solidarity and "preventing the ex-communist left from gaining a political monopoly." While the death of Solidarity as a political force has been pronounced more than once before, Polish columnist Marek Matraszek noted recently that it now faces a particularly difficult future. Hopes were high when AWS and the liberal Freedom Union (UW), which also had roots in the Solidarity democracy movement, won elections and formed a coalition government in 1997. But much heralded medical, pension and education and administrative reforms were poorly administered, caused chaos, and led to little visible improvement in services. The roaring economy, the one big feather in the AWS cap, has stalled. Growth in the first half of 2001 was an anaemic 1.9 percent compared to 5.4 percent a year ago. Unemployment, near 16 percent, continues to rise as the children from the 1980s baby boom enter the job market. Adding insult to injury, the finance minister announced last month that the budget deficit would triple next year to 88 billion zlotys (23.3 billion euros, 20.8 billion dollars) or 11 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) unless taxes were hiked and radical cuts made to social entitlements. Walesa, running as an independent candidate, won only one percent of the vote in a presidential election last October and Aleksander Kwasniewski, a former communist, was easily re-elected in the first round with 54 percent of the vote. "What is left of Solidarity?" mused Walesa. The answer, come September 24, may be precious little. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Barry Stoller http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list ------------------------------------------------- This Discussion List is the follow-up for the old stopnato @listbot.com that has been shut down ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9spWA Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: archive@jab.org T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
