HOW TRADE UNIONS ARE A ROADBLOCK TO POLAND'S ECONOMIC RENAISSANCE

The trade union movement has played an important role in the modern history of Poland. Its activism precipitated the fall of communism. Yet, with the transition to a free-market economy gaining momentum, it turned out that Solidarity embraced a vision of a new socio-economic model. Its leaders understood it as being a variant of Franco-German welfarism rather than Anglo-Saxon liberalism. Hence, as the union movement grew in power, it started to influence economic policy along interventionist lines, which not only affected labour market performance, but also the structure of the economy and the transformation processes. In consequence, Poland began to turn increasingly dirigiste. Thus the article – pointing to analogies, toutes proportions gardées, between trade union activism in the UK (1970–85) and in Poland (1990–2005) – argues that reducing the power of Polish labour organisations is a prerequisite of free-market reform and economic advancement.