By: Gašper Blažič
Although the summer of 1980 was one of the coldest in that period for Poland, August of that year was politically hot. In the Gdańsk shipyard, a strike broke out, leading to the creation of a new trade union, called Solidarność in Polish. The immediate trigger for the protests was the dismissal of a female worker on 7 August 1980 for allegedly participating in “illegal” unions. The union leader, Lech Wałęsa, was an experienced fighter for workers’ rights and at the same time against communism, and the union thus united workers, the intellectual elite, and also the Catholic Church, growing into a broader social movement.
The communist military junta, represented by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, quickly realised that the genie was out of the bottle and that the working class had slipped out of the control of its own “vanguard”. Therefore, in December 1981 it declared martial law. The junta mobilised the army, sent tanks into the streets, and interned several thousand leaders and members of the Solidarity movement, which as a trade union was once again pushed into illegality. A curfew and strict media censorship were introduced, gatherings and strikes were banned, telephone lines were cut, and the borders were closed. Perhaps there was also fear in the background that Poland, in the spirit of the Brezhnev Doctrine, might face an intervention similar to that in Czechoslovakia in 1968, so the ruling clique wanted to deal with the emerging opposition on its own. Meanwhile, communist Poland was economically collapsing, and eventually the communists had to admit defeat and step down from power.
Events in Poland will remind many of the miners’ strikes in communist Yugoslavia. The first major one took place in 1958 in the Trbovlje coal mine, and another followed seven years later. It is no secret that units of the militia, the UDBA, and even the Yugoslav army were stationed at Trojane, prepared either to “douse the striking miners with water” or simply shoot them as treacherous rebels. This is also attested by statements from Edvard Kardelj and Ivan Maček. The intervention of party official Miha Marinko in his hometown turned into a farce, as the locals knew him as a chicken thief in his youth. Of course, these were work stoppages that were in fact organised by the mine directors themselves. Real trade unions did not exist; formally, they were socio‑political organisations – just like the League of Communists, the Socialist Alliance, the veterans’ association, and the youth organisation. After 1974, when the last Yugoslav constitution was adopted, every Basic Organisation of Associated Labor (TOZD) had its own basic union organisation, and these unions were at a higher level connected into the Union of Trade Unions of Slovenia. Since the “vanguard” already took care of the working class, the unions contributed only “little treats”: excursions, May Day celebrations, winter food packages, and cheap seaside holidays in rather Spartan accommodation units.
Well, this former trade‑union federation, which did not dare support the strike of the Litostroj workers (1987) or the train drivers (1988), today bears the name the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia. I will not write this time about the twisted meaning of words, but let me remind you how, just before Slovenia’s independence, the head of this federation, Dušan Semolič (then an MP of the socialists!), organised a protest rally in front of parliament, claiming that the (independence) government did not know what to do with itself. I always recall that footage when I read news about regime trade unionists, who always wake up when a development‑oriented government comes to power. I also picture the friendly back‑patting between regime trade unionists and the ministers of Golob’s government when they concluded their “non‑aggression pact’.
In Slovenia, therefore, we have trade unions that are not really trade unions. And for that reason, they have no right to call themselves trade unions. They do not protect workers’ rights; instead, they act as extensions of the deep state and its party branches. They defend regime privileges under the pretence of fighting for the little man. Well, perhaps they have in mind a very specific little man from Murgle …