Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution: Solidarity and the Struggle Against Communism in Poland

by Jack Bloom

Overview

In 1980 Polish workers astonished the world by winning an independent union with the right to strike deep inside the Eastern Bloc. Seeing Through the Eyes of the Polish Revolution uses 150 interviews with this struggle's leaders, their supporters, and their opponents to adroitly shows how an opposition was built and eventually forced the Stalinist government from power.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608463763
Publisher:	Haymarket Books
Publication date:	07/29/2014
Series:	Historical Materialism , #50
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	270
Sales rank:	652,068
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jack Bloom is Associate Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Associate Professor of Minority Studies and of History at Indiana UniversityNorthwest. He has published the award-winning Class, Race and the Civil Rights Movement (Indiana UniversityPress, 1987).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Patronage and Corruption in Communist Poland 17

Part 1 The Emergence of Opposition

2 The First Systemic Crisis 45

3 'Living Parallel to the System': The Solidarity Generation 67

4 A Line of Blood 81

5 An Opposition Emerges 99

6 Independent Organisations and Opposition 125

Part 2 The Solidarity Revolution

7 The Solidarity Explosion 145

8 Social Solidarity and the Victory of Solidarnosc 165

9 The Solidarity Revolution 183

10 The Solidarity Offensive 199

11 Bydgoszcz: the Turning Point 219

12 The Party at War with Itself 237

13 Approaching Open Conflict 261

Part 3 A Resurgent Opposition and the End of Communism in Poland

14 Counter-Revolution! 287

15 The Resistance 307

16 Rebuilding the Movement 323

17 'To Kill a Priest' 345

18 Negotiating the End 363

Conclusion 375

Researching the Polish Revolution 387

Glossary of Interviewees 399

References 409

Index 421