A Peaceable Revolution
Throughout the 1980’s, a real common motion arose in Poland that ended up toppling the communist regime in that nation. Though there have been many anticommunist intellectuals writing and being learn in Poland on the time, the spark that ignited the peaceable revolution that ended Soviet rule was lit not by the educated elite however by the working class: staff on the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk launched a strike in 1980 that rapidly unfold to staff throughout industries and all through the nation. These staff shaped the Interfactory Strike Committee, which drew up an inventory of 21 calls for. Then, in a transfer harking back to the apocryphal story of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Church in Wittenberg, they wrote their calls for on picket boards and hung them from the gates of the Lenin shipyard.
The Gdańsk strike was triggered, predictably, by the federal government elevating costs in a price-controlled financial system whereas additionally denying wage will increase. To make issues worse, Lenin shipyard managers had simply fired a preferred forklift operator, Anna Walentynowicz. Her co-workers believed this was political punishment for her union organizing. “What?” You would possibly ask. “A communist government opposed to labor unions?” Sure—all through the Soviet Bloc, solely government-authorized labor unions affiliated with the ruling communist events have been permitted. One of the important thing calls for of the Interfactory Strike Committee was the power to kind impartial commerce unions.
After all, the picture of staff placing in opposition to a communist authorities was horrible optics for the Polish authorities. As well as, as a Warsaw Pact nation, Poland confronted the continual prospect of army intervention by the USSR. Nobody knew if or when Moscow would resolve to “send in the tanks” like they’d completed in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Certainly, Brezhnev and the Politburo debated the thought in 1980. Ultimately, they determined in opposition to it—partly as a result of the First Secretary of the Polish United Staff’ Get together (PZPR), Edward Gierek, feared a nationwide massacre. The primary spherical of strikes and protests in Gdańsk had attracted over 700,000 individuals, and, merely put, the Polish state feared Polish society. PZPR management opted to declare Martial Legislation as a substitute. Thus started a decade of energy struggles between the federal government and the individuals which culminated within the overthrow of the communist system in 1989.
The exceptional factor concerning the Polish transition to a market financial system was how peaceable it was. That was largely a results of the overwhelming social consensus amongst Poles of all political orientations that authorities management of the financial system wanted to be dramatically lessened. The motion that emerged from the Interfactory Strike Committee was known as “Solidarność”, or “Solidarity”, drawing on the commerce union custom of staff standing in solidarity with each other to collectively cut price for higher wages and dealing circumstances. Solidarity’s demand for impartial commerce unions was met: it did certainly develop into the primary non-communist, non-government commerce union within the Soviet Bloc.
When the strikes in Gdańsk first erupted, a slightly employed graphic designer, Jerzy Janiszewski, designed a brand for the union primarily based on graffiti that he had seen scrawled on partitions within the metropolis. He formed the letters of “Solidarity” to seem like individuals standing collectively in a crowd, and he added a Polish flag to emphasise nationwide unity. This brand “went viral”—it rapidly started for use nationwide as a logo of victory over tyranny.
The success of the Solidarity commerce union quickly impressed non-working class Poles to “stand in solidarity with Solidarity”, and on this manner it grew to become a real mass motion. Folks from all corners of Polish society got here collectively to oppose dictatorship and financial management: Whether or not left, proper, or heart, non secular or non-religious, individuals—even many precise members of the PZPR—have been so disillusioned and sad with “actually existing socialism” that, for a superb decade, different social divisions began to matter far lower than standing collectively within the battle for financial and political freedom. In 1989, the Solidarity commerce union gained the primary partially free elections within the Soviet Bloc. This inaugurated the autumn of communism in Poland and generated momentum for a lot of related actions in different Warsaw Pact international locations.
Bitcoin as Solidarity
As we speak, I see many resonances between Solidarność and the rising social motion behind Bitcoin. Like Solidarity, Bitcoin crosscuts ideological and cultural divisions. Whether or not you might be left, proper, heart, or unaligned; non secular or not; a proponent of “tradition” or of rethinking conventional social roles; and whatever the type of authorities you like (democracy, republicanism, monarchy, theocracy, celebration rule, and many others.)—Bitcoin has attraction. It is because, no matter what sort of presidency or tradition individuals desire, they often need to spend their very own cash at any time when and nevertheless they select. In addition they need that cash to maintain its worth over time, in order that they will reserve it profitably for themselves and for future generations.
For many years, governments all over the world have been chipping away at each of those human wishes: they insist on controlling how individuals spend their cash whereas devaluing it on the similar time. This destruction of the financial savings and financial freedom of total populations can solely proceed for thus lengthy earlier than individuals come collectively to say, “enough.” That’s the reason Bitcoin might be seen as a much-needed financial reformation: the separation of cash and state.
Like Solidarity, Bitcoin is a grassroots motion rising from under. It has a reputation, a brand, and open supply code which are used worldwide however will not be owned by anybody. Whereas the mainstream media pays numerous consideration to “Bitcoin billionaires”, the overwhelming majority of Bitcoin house owners are unusual individuals—principally working class—who see in it hope for a greater future: A future the place the fruits of their labor, their life financial savings, will not be frittered away by irresponsible governments engaged in schemes to devalue forex and management financial life. Extra symbolically, the 21 calls for of the Interfactory Strike Committee mirror absolutely the shortage of the one 21 million bitcoin that may ever be in existence, a quantity arduous coded into the Bitcoin protocol.
Noah’s Ark: Surviving the Flood of Cash
Throughout the rise of Solidarity, a gaggle of poets and musicians have been touring Poland, performing songs to remind those who a greater life was attainable. Their names have been Jacek Kaczmarski, Przemysław Gintrowski, and Zbigniew Łapiński. They recorded many “protest songs” whose messages needed to be fastidiously worded and hid to keep away from being censored. Nevertheless, regardless of their use of poetic metaphors and allusions to historical past, literature, artwork, and the Bible, everybody understood what they have been actually speaking about. Their songs loved immense reputation all through Poland.
I grew up listening to the songs of those three troubadours. My dad and mom, like many of their technology, have been lively within the Solidarity motion and introduced that ethic with them once they immigrated to america, the place I used to be born. A number of the trio’s songs have explicit resonance for our personal historic second and for the Bitcoin motion. In that spirit, I wished to share with you considered one of Kaczmarski, Gintrowski, and Łapinski’s nice songs, “Noah’s Ark”. It references the Biblical story of Noah, who survived an enormous, months-long flood by constructing an Ark.
One strategy to interpret the “flood” the trio sings about in “Noah’s Ark” is because the “flood” of forex that accompanies durations of hyperinflation. Governments which are politically in bother or collapsing all the time face extreme financial issues, and so they typically print dramatic quantities of cash in an effort to “boost economic activity” inside their borders. This tends to backfire, nevertheless, as the worth of the cash plummets and other people develop into more and more reluctant to make use of it. This solely compounds the political and financial woes of the regime, accelerating its demise. Because of this, durations of hyperinflation are inclined to accompany turnovers of political regimes. Once I first visited Poland in 1990, for instance, it was in the course of a hyperinflation accompanying the transition between a communist and a capitalist mode of political financial system. The nationwide forex needed to be fully re-based and reissued in an effort to restore public confidence in it.
Those that have survived “floods” of hyperinflation all over the world understand how devastating they are often. Thousands and thousands of Polish individuals misplaced their total life financial savings because of the collapse of a politically and economically non-viable system of presidency. However Kaczmarski, Gintrowski, and Łapiński’s music reminds us that the deluge is survivable—if we have now deliberate forward and if we imagine in our personal energy, as people and as a neighborhood, to navigate the storms.
Please get pleasure from their music and lyrics, which I’ve translated into English under.
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Arka Noego |
Noah’s Ark |
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W pełnym słońcu w środku lata, wśród łagodnych fal zieleni, Wre zapamiętała praca, stawiam łódź na suchej ziemi. Owad w pąku drży kwitnącym; chłop po barki brodzi w życie. Ja pracując w dzień i w nocy, mam już burty i poszycie. Budujcie Arkę przed potopem! Dobądźcie na to swych wszystkich sił! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem, Choćby tłum z waszej pracy kpił! Ocalić trzeba co najdroższe, A przecież tyle już tego jest! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem Odrzućcie dziś każdy zbędny gest. Muszę taką łódź zbudować, by w niej całe życie zmieścić. Nikt nie wierzy w moje słowa; wszyscy mają ważne wieści. Ktoś się o majątek kłóci, albo łatwy węszy żer. Zanim się ze snu obudzi, będę miał już maszt i ster! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem! Niech was nie mami głupców chór! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem! Słychać już grzmot burzowych chmur! Zostawcie kłótnie swe na potem; Wiarę przeczuciom dajcie raz! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem, Zanim w końcu pochłonie was! Każdy z was jest łodzią w której może się z potopem mierzyć Cało wyjść z burzowej chmury—musi tylko w to uwierzyć! Lecz w ulewie grzmot za grzmotem, i za późno krzyk na trwogę, I za późno usta z błotem, wypluwają mą przestrogę! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem!” Słyszę sterując w serce fal! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem!” Krzyczy ten co się przedtem śmiał! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem”— Naszych nad własnym losem łez! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem!” Na pierwszy i na ostatni chrzest! |
Within the full solar in the course of summer time, amidst mild waves of inexperienced, Verily, the enduring work: I elevate a ship on dry floor. An insect buzzes in a blooming bud; a peasant wades by way of life as much as his shoulders. I, working day and night time, have already got the starboard and the sheathing. Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! Give this your entire vitality! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood, Although the gang ridicule your work! What’s most treasured have to be salvaged, And there’s a lot of it already! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! Solid apart, immediately, each superfluous gesture. I have to construct a ship during which to suit my total life. Nobody believes my phrases; everybody has “more important” affairs. Somebody is arguing over a fortune; or he smells straightforward prey. Earlier than he wakes from sleep, I’ll have a mast and helm! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! Do not be beguiled by the choir of fools! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! You possibly can already hear the rumble of storm clouds! Depart your arguments for later; For as soon as, belief your instincts! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood, Earlier than it lastly overcomes you! Each considered one of you is a ship in which you’ll sq. off with the flood To come back out of the storm cloud entire—you simply must imagine that! However, within the downpour, lightning strike after lighting strike, And the cries of hazard come too late, Too late do lips spit out my warning with the mud! “Build an Ark before the flood!” I hear, steering into the guts of the waves! “Build an Ark before the flood!” Cries the one who beforehand laughed! “Build an Ark before the flood”— of our tears over our destiny! “Build an Ark before the flood!” For the primary and the final baptism! |
This can be a visitor put up by Natalie Smolenski. Opinions expressed are fully their very own and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.
