NSZZ “Solidarność” years 1980 – 1990 as an integrated factor of Kujawsko-Pomorskie region

Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity” did not accept the disintegration of the state by dividing into 49 small provinces and districts liquidation – both in the program and operations sought to community actions. Similarly happened in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region, where “Solidarity” unionists in the public and conspiracy activities sought to create a macro-region of their trade union within the limits of the liquidated in 1975 Bydgoszcz-region. By 1989 cooperation between regions: Bydgoszcz, Toruń and Włocławek was very good. The experience of “Solidarity” can now be used in the process of integration of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region, as an idea of regional solidarity – a sense of mutual dependence and mutual responsibility for the prosperity and development of the entire region.

Opposition activity and socio-political concepts of Jan Lityński

The purpose of this article is to introduce Jan Lityński, Polish oppositionist active from late ‘60s to 1989 and to describe his beliefs and opinions about politics, society and his environment. Lityński became an oppositionist against communist government as a student at University of Warsaw and was involved in events known as “March 1968” which led to his imprisonment and made continuing his education impossible. But despite this, Lityński remained in the opposition until the collapse of the communist regime in Poland. He collaborated with the most prominent members of the opposition and wrote texts on political and social issues for various periodicals published in the illegal circulation. As a member of KOR and “Solidarność”, he lost his freedom many times but never let himself be broken or to betray his beliefs. In 1989 he took part in Polish Round Table Agreements that led to the change of the political system. This article was written based on Lityński’s publications from the 1980s and things he wrote and said years after those events. Other sources of information were interviews conducted with Lityński and statements made about him by associates from the opposition period.

The Mothers of democracy. The involvement of women in the fight for a free Poland in the 1980s

The purpose of this article is to present a cross-section of the 1980s in Poland from the perspective of female protagonists and to describe the role they played in the process of democratic changes, their involvement in the active opposition, strikes and later the Solidarity underground. The aim is to describe how they coped with everyday struggles, what roles they took on in life and highlight their contribution to the gradual liberation from the communist regime. Women took an active part in the struggle for Poland’s independence. Women described in this article manifested their opinions on politics, labor and civil rights. In presenting the activities of women’s resistance, the authors took into account gender and cultural perspectives. The article was written based on historical publications, interviews with witnesses of the aforementioned events and opposition activists themselves, as well as articles on the subject.

Otfried Hoeffe’s philosophy of political justice

The paper covers an issue of justice in the light of a new paradigm in political philosophy proposed by Otfried Hoeffe’s theory of the exchange of justice. The author analyses the impact of this approach to justice upon understanding of how could contemporary society develop its fair moral and legal grounds. It is proved that for an adequate understanding of justice is its understanding as a personal responsibility, organically related to guidance on solidarity and recognition. Their interpretations of as well attempts to join moral and material grounds of social life to overcome of injustice are in the author’s focus. It is showed that freedom and justice are enrooted in a lifeword, as well relay upon formal norms and procedures of moral and justice. It gives a methodology for understanding of O. Hoeffe’s philosophy of political justice that states freedom and justice as basic conditions of human being.

“Self-governing Republic” – the ideological signpost of “Solidarity”

In the autumn of 1981, the 1st National Congress of Delegates of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” took place, which democratically elected its authorities and adopted a modern program. The program covered all areas of life. Its basis was supposed to be workers’ self-government. The gradual implementation of the program was to lead to the democratization of the system through free elections at the regional and then national level. The introduction of martial law made it impossible to start reforms and delayed the political transformation. During the system change in 1989, during the Round Table talks, some of the provisions contained in the “Solidarity” program were used. We can acknowledge that the 1st National Congress of Solidarity Delegates played a role in the process of political and social transformation in Poland. Further implementation of the postulates was possible in a democratic system.

Cultural changes with war in the background – eliminating Russian culture from the space of Western culture as a form of solidarity with the nation and culture of Ukraine

The main axis of the article is the socio-cultural phenomena occurring since the outbreak of the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, which has caused important changes not only in Europe, but also in other regions of the world. These changes have obvious political, economic, demographic, social and less obvious cultural dimensions. The latter take various forms, among which one is particularly controversial – it is the elimination of Russian culture from the cultural space of Western and other countries, among them Poland. This stems from solidarity with the Ukrainian people and an attempt to influence the attitudes of the Russian society, who, as research indicates, endorse the Russian invasion. The boycott mainly concerns artistic culture, symbolic in terms of the works of both living and deceased artists, contemporary and classical creations, both proand anti-war artists. Against this background, a public discussion unfolds on the legitimacy of all forms of boycott and the issue of collective responsibility. The theoretical context for the consideration of these phenomena is the concept of cancel culture. Empirical illustrations, on the other hand, are the studies on the discussed phenomena based on the opinion of students of social sciences.

The article aims to investigate the system of the social market economy in Poland and Italy. It compares constitutional provisions, distinguishing national commonalities and discrepancies. They are the basis for the identification of the precepts common to all social market economies in Europe. The analysis concludes that combining economic rights with social interests is essential to establishing the social market economy.