Resistance forms in Eastern Europe
This has been a year of strikes in Poland. From the very first days of January, 20 percent of general practitioners' practices in the country were closed due to strikes. In some areas, these GPs were the only doctors available.
On one level, the doctors were simply striking because they had been burdened with new responsibilities, without a substantial increase in their remuneration. The root cause, however, was the creeping marketization of public health care that has been going on for years. GPs have been turned into entrepreneurs, charged with running the whole practice in return for payments from public health care insurance. Many resent this new role and would rather work for a fixed salary, especially if they operate in "costly" areas with aging populations. The strike eventually ended in a moderate victory for the doctors, with an increase in funding, but it is obvious that the agreement does not resolve the underlying problems.
On January 7, a new strike was already looming. As the government announced restructuring plans for the largest state-run mining company, 100 miners in the Brzeszcze mine refused to leave the mineshaft in protest over the proposed job losses. Four mines were to be closed almost immediately, and nine others "restructured" under new administration. The strike continued until January 17 and involved thousands of people from local communities, who assembled outside of the mines, marched down their streets and on one day blocked the rail tracks leading in and out the largest of Silesian cities, Katowice. Eventually, the strike concluded in a deal where the government promised no pit closures and job losses for those working underground. Hailed as a victory for the unions, the agreement nevertheless allows for privatization, and was met with anger in Zabrze, where protesters attacked the police and attempted to occupy the mine once the deal was announced.
Throughout the strike, the media and the government attempted to present the Silesian miners as a labor aristocracy, enjoying higher pay and better welfare than the growing mass of workers precariously employed in Poland's service sector. State subsidies for mining, the argument went, mean young workers on minimum wage pay taxes so others can enjoy relatively good jobs as miners. The argument was utterly hypocritical as the government's plans involved replacing the closed mines with special economic zones, which are just another form of state subsidy to business. The public saw through the lies, and in a poll for one of the major news networks, 68 percent expressed support for the strike. The high public support was most likely the decisive factor in forcing the government into a compromise in an election year.
Read more: http://socialistworker.org/2015/03/17/resistance-forms-in-eastern-europe
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