The Generation of ’89 not as exemplary as it paints itself and politicians chip in with ordinary citizens to the cause of fighting the crisis.
Presented by Slawek Szefs
GAZETA WYBORCZA focuses on the British labor market with a front page photo of a protesting refinery crew from Lindsey carrying posters reading ‘British jobs for British workers’ and ‘Put British workers first’. The demonstration has been part of a whole wave of strike actions against employing foreigners. This is another sign of discontent on the Isles due to growing unemployment caused to a certain degree by the opening of the EU labor market. The more than 2 million jobless locals are not positively inclined toward immigrant workers and that includes over 1 million Poles theoretically blocking their jobs.
RZECZPOSPOLITA alarms about Polish furniture companies being on the brink of bankruptcy. Swarzedz, one of the veteran names on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and an icon in its production sector is most probably going to fall. At the start of the week it lost over 61 percent in share value and the Swarzedz board decided to address company shareholders to consider liquidation. Other furniture producers in the country are also less than certain about their future. The primary reason is rapidly falling demand from traditional importers in Western Europe. The crisis is entering Poland through the back door.
The tabloid SUPER EXPRESS runs a serious note in its Tuesday edition with a special historical supplement devoted to the 20th anniversary of the so-called Round Table Debates, which according to popular opinion guaranteed a peaceful transition from communism to democracy in Poland. It includes an interview with the well known Polish-born American historian Richard Pipes who recalls the fall of the communist regime in Poland and other Eastern block countries in Europe. Professor Pipes, a former US presidential advisor, stresses that only Poland had a powerful enough workers movement capable of effectively disobeying pro-Soviet communist authorities. Solidarity shook the world in 1980. It was the first step initiating change, observes the expert on Russian and Central European affairs. Nine years later the communists found themselves compelled to surrender power.
DZIENNIK, in turn, takes note of a change in traits to be found characteristic of young people born at the time of the grand political and economic transformations in Poland 20 years ago. Dubbed the Generation of ’89 in a recent nationwide survey, they speak of themselves as freethinking, independent, confident and practical. The daily quotes the opinion contained in an open letter of one, more self-critical member of the above mentioned group who sees arrogance, egoism and lack of respect for elders as the dominant traits of her generation. Let’s face it, most of us are solely money oriented with no common goals and a strong inclination towards alcohol, she admits. So, what’s the real story?
The world has turned upside down, exclaims FAKT in amazement and disbelief. The tabloid quotes PM Donald Tusk who voiced the opinion that the financial burden of fighting effects of the crisis must be carried not only by ordinary citizens, but equally by politicians who decide on their fate. The government head has provided a good example to follow by slashing his monthly earnings by well over five hundred zloties to the level slightly above 17 thousand. Similar remuneration cuts have been introduced to salaries of MPs, cabinet and presidential ministers, including the head of state himself. Though it must be honestly said, the cuts are actually revoked salary hikes binding as of January, which the decision makers had granted themselves at the end of last year.