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Poland's Ex--Communists: From Pariahs To Establishment Players, Jane Leftwich Curry

Political Science

The Polish United Workers' Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza [PZPR]) suffered what seemed to be a terminal blow in 1989. In elections rigged so that the communists and their old allies were guaranteed 65 percent of the seats in the main house of parliament, the communists did so badly that their old allies deserted them. After what appeared to be a total defeat, all the communist reformers could do was turn the government over to the men and women of Solidarity they had interned and harassed for more than a decade. Then they had to disband themselves and form a …

Beyond Symbolic Representation: A Comparison Of The Electoral Pathways And Policy Priorities Of Asian American And Latino Elected Officials, Kim Geron, James Lai

Ethnic Studies

This is an exploratory study of the impact of Latino and Asian American elected officials on their respective groups' political incorporation. The authors argue that Latino and Asian American elected officials' paths to elected office do not always fit the biracial coalition model of political incorporation for minorities, and instead suggest a reconstructed model to explain the distinctive character of Latino and Asian American group efforts toward political representation. The results of this paper are based on information gathered from two nationwide mail surveys of Latino elected officials (LEOs) and Asian American elected officials (AAEOs). The 2000 National Asian American …

Rethinking Media And Movements, Chad Raphael

Communication

Todd Gitlin’s work helped us to understand the tremendous barriers to left movements speaking freely through commercial media and the potentially destructive impacts of media imperatives on movements. Edward Morgan adds another warning: today’s organizers must overcome a media history of the 1960s that demonizes or trivializes the era’s struggles for justice. But must we also overcome some of our own thinking about how movements create change and their relationship to the media? Certainly, coverage of anti-Vietnam War organizing is one case study worth revisiting to recover an accurate past that can inform contemporary mobilizations. But there is also a …

Racially Polarized Voting And Its Effects On The Formation Of A Viable Latino-Asian Pacific Political Coalition, James Lai

Ethnic Studies

In "Paths To Political Incorporation For Latinos and Asian Pacifies in California," Steven P. Erie, Harold Brackman, and James Warren Ingram Ill (Erie et al.) examined the potentials and barriers for political incorporation of Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Pacifies in California. According to their findings, they argue that a bi-racial political coalition between Latinos and Asian Pacifies is likely based on the following factors: language and immigration issues. They stated:

Regarding a possible Latino alliance with Asian Pacifies, there appears to be a strong basis for collaboration on behalf of an immigrant rights agenda and in opposition to resurgent …

Which Way Is Right?, Jane Leftwich Curry

Political Science

"LEFT, Right, But Always Forward" was this year's election slogan for the Freedom Union, whose leaders went from anti-communist opposition to head the first noncommunist government in Poland in 1989. Today's Polish party leaders show the same lack of concern with traditional political definitions. Back when the Communist Party was voted out, the meaning of the election seemed clear to most voters: the choice was for or against continued communist control. Now, left and right have blurred and compromised. Parties focus on political theory rather than on voters' legitimate concerns about the economy. As a result, last month's elections in …

Introduction To Poland's Permanent Revolution, Jane Leftwich Curry

Political Science

The political history of Poland since World War II and the Communist takeover has been one in which crisis followed crisis. Even when there was more than a decade before the next crisis, "normalcy" was never fully "normal." Instead, the institutions and their responses were structured by the previous crisis and constantly shaded by storm clouds for the next. In 1956, 1970, and 1980, Poles successfully "voted with their feet" and ousted their leaders. In 1968 and 1976, the crises were less systemic: specific groups revolted over specific policies. As a result, even though Wladyslaw Gomulka in 1968 and Edward …

The Solidarity Crisis, 1980-81: The Near Death Of Communism, Jane Leftwich Curry

Political Science

The Solidarity trade union formed in the shipyards of Gdansk after a summer of strikes called by factory workers in response to price increases on food. At the end of August 1980, the men who had replaced Edward Gierek's elite signed an accord with the striking representatives of what came to be called Solidarity to provide increased benefits, and the right to have a free and independent trade union, to strike, and to have media that reported information more freely.

It rapidly became a national movement that forced the Communist government to make many concessions. In the next fifteen months, …

Conclusion: The Never-Ending Crises, Jane Leftwich Curry, Luba Fajfer

Political Science

Although the final demise of Communism in Poland was by far the most dramatic of the crises that punctuated Communist rule there, it was not the beginning or the end of Poland's transformation process. Virtually all the studies of transformations in Latin America and Southern Europe, as well as the developing literature on the changes in the communist world, have focused on the events and problems that just preceded the ending of one form of rule and the beginning of another. In the Polish case, at least, the transformation cannot be explained by the popular disaffection and the negotiations between …

Introduction To Marx And Modern Political Theory: From Hobbes To Contemporary Feminism, Philip J. Kain

Philosophy

I first began to study Marx some twenty-three years ago. In those days there were many things that made it easy to become interested in Marx: among them the political ferment of the late 1960s and the fact that at the University of California at San Diego, where I was a graduate student, there were several important and interesting Marxists - Fredric Jameson, Herbert Marcuse, and Stanley Moore. The latter two were my teachers in the Philosophy Department, and the latter, to whom this book is dedicated, became my dissertation director. Moreover, the spirit of Marx was in the air …

Journalists As Professionals In Theory And Reality, Jane Leftwich Curry

Political Science

Journalists and journalism in Poland were important actors and elements in the battles of Solidarity. The media they produced was a major concern for both Solidarity and the government. And, while battles went on between Solidarity and the government over issues related to the mass media, journalists fought with both sides to be allowed to produce what they felt, as professionals, was right. Some of their number used professional positions to take active roles in government and others used them to take roles in Solidarity. Still others used the journalists' association to increase professional power and autonomy and to negotiate …