The Moderate Left vs. the Extreme Left
“Big Labor May Save New York From AOC’s Socialism: Even public-sector unions favor old-style incumbent Democrats to radical insurgents like her.” That was the headline atop an opinion piece in the
referring, of course, to the extreme leftism of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In the piece, Steven Malanga argues that New York City’s labor unions are opposing AOC because she’s too left-wing for them. And this issue matters most immediately because the nation’s largest and most influential city will elect a new mayor this year. AOC herself is not a candidate, but she will seek to help elect a like-minded comrade.
Walesa: Germany should play leading role in Europe
When the Berlin Wall came down 25 years ago, it was a special day for Lech Walesa. The workers leader and future president of Poland put his country on the road to democracy when he founded the Solidarity trade union.
There was strong opposition to Poland s communist regime at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. In 1980, it was where electrician Lech Walesa was one of the founders of the Solidarity (Solidarnosc) trade union. Before that, he had been a member of an illegal strike committee. Although Solidarity was banned when martial law was imposed in 1981, it was ultimately invited to the Round Table Talks in early 1989 that led to the end of communist rule in Poland.
Poland s Solidarnosc movement was born of the December 1970 protests
In December 1970, Polish workers rose up against a food price hike. Authorities reacted brutally, killing dozens. These experiences shaped the later Solidarnosc movement, which helped to bring down the communist regime.
It was a Monday in December, 10 days before Christmas. A week earlier, German Chancellor Willy Brandt had fallen to his knees in front of the Warsaw Ghetto memorial in the Polish capital and had then signed the Warsaw Treaty which acknowledged the Oder-Neisse line as the final German border with Poland.
The government made a sudden decision to increase food prices, which some observers say would eventually spell the end of Communist regime. Przemyslaw Ruchlewski, a historian at the European Solidarity Center in Gdansk, told DW that the country, under Communist party leader Wladyslaw Gomulka, was in a state of constant deprivation” and half of people s monthly wages was going to food.