A Peaceable Revolution
Throughout the 1980’s, a real fashionable motion arose in Poland that ended up toppling the communist regime in that nation. Though there have been many anticommunist intellectuals writing and being learn in Poland on the time, the spark that ignited the peaceable revolution that ended Soviet rule was lit not by the educated elite however by the working class: staff on the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk launched a strike in 1980 that rapidly unfold to staff throughout industries and all through the nation. These staff fashioned the Interfactory Strike Committee, which drew up an inventory of 21 calls for. Then, in a transfer paying homage to the apocryphal story of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the Church in Wittenberg, they wrote their calls for on picket boards and hung them from the gates of the Lenin shipyard.
The Gdańsk strike was triggered, predictably, by the federal government elevating costs in a price-controlled financial system whereas additionally denying wage will increase. To make issues worse, Lenin shipyard managers had simply fired a preferred forklift operator, Anna Walentynowicz. Her co-workers believed this was political punishment for her union organizing. “What?” You would possibly ask. “A communist authorities against labor unions?” Sure—all through the Soviet Bloc, solely government-authorized labor unions affiliated with the ruling communist events had been permitted. One of many key calls for of the Interfactory Strike Committee was the power to type unbiased commerce unions.
After all, the picture of staff placing in opposition to a communist authorities was horrible optics for the Polish authorities. As well as, as a Warsaw Pact nation, Poland confronted the continual prospect of army intervention by the USSR. Nobody knew if or when Moscow would resolve to “ship within the tanks” like they’d carried out in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. Certainly, Brezhnev and the Politburo debated the thought in 1980. Ultimately, they determined in opposition to it—partially as a result of the First Secretary of the Polish United Staff’ Occasion (PZPR), Edward Gierek, feared a nationwide massacre. The primary spherical of strikes and protests in Gdańsk had attracted over 700,000 folks, and, merely put, the Polish state feared Polish society. PZPR management opted to declare Martial Legislation as a substitute. Thus started a decade of energy struggles between the federal government and the folks which culminated within the overthrow of the communist system in 1989.
The outstanding factor concerning the Polish transition to a market financial system was how peaceable it was. That was largely a results of the overwhelming social consensus amongst Poles of all political orientations that authorities management of the financial system wanted to be dramatically lessened. The motion that emerged from the Interfactory Strike Committee was referred to as “Solidarność”, or “Solidarity”, drawing on the commerce union custom of staff standing in solidarity with each other to collectively cut price for higher wages and dealing situations. Solidarity’s demand for unbiased commerce unions was met: it did certainly turn into the primary non-communist, non-government commerce union within the Soviet Bloc.
When the strikes in Gdańsk first erupted, a slightly employed graphic designer, Jerzy Janiszewski, designed a emblem for the union primarily based on graffiti that he had seen scrawled on partitions within the metropolis. He formed the letters of “Solidarity” to appear to be folks standing collectively in a crowd, and he added a Polish flag to emphasise nationwide unity. This emblem “went viral”—it rapidly started for use nationwide as a logo of victory over tyranny.
The success of the Solidarity commerce union quickly impressed non-working class Poles to “stand in solidarity with Solidarity”, and on this approach it turned a real mass motion. Individuals from all corners of Polish society got here collectively to oppose dictatorship and financial management: Whether or not left, proper, or heart, non secular or non-religious, folks—even many precise members of the PZPR—had been so disillusioned and sad with “truly present socialism” that, for decade, different social divisions began to matter far lower than standing collectively within the combat for financial and political freedom. In 1989, the Solidarity commerce union gained the primary partially free elections within the Soviet Bloc. This inaugurated the autumn of communism in Poland and generated momentum for a lot of comparable actions in different Warsaw Pact international locations.
Bitcoin as Solidarity
Immediately, I see many resonances between Solidarność and the rising social motion behind Bitcoin. Like Solidarity, Bitcoin crosscuts ideological and cultural divisions. Whether or not you might be left, proper, heart, or unaligned; non secular or not; a proponent of “custom” or of rethinking conventional social roles; and whatever the type of authorities you favor (democracy, republicanism, monarchy, theocracy, celebration rule, and many others.)—Bitcoin has enchantment. It is because, no matter what kind of presidency or tradition folks choose, they often need to spend their very own cash each time and nonetheless they select. In addition they need that cash to maintain its worth over time, in order that they will put it aside profitably for themselves and for future generations.
For many years, governments world wide have been chipping away at each of those human needs: they insist on controlling how folks spend their cash whereas devaluing it on the similar time. This destruction of the financial savings and financial freedom of complete populations can solely proceed for thus lengthy earlier than folks come collectively to say, “sufficient.” That’s the reason Bitcoin might be seen as a much-needed financial reformation: the separation of cash and state.
Like Solidarity, Bitcoin is a grassroots motion rising from under. It has a reputation, a emblem, and open supply code which can be used worldwide however should not owned by anybody. Whereas the mainstream media pays loads of consideration to “Bitcoin billionaires”, the overwhelming majority of Bitcoin house owners are peculiar folks—principally working class—who see in it hope for a greater future: A future the place the fruits of their labor, their life financial savings, should not frittered away by irresponsible governments engaged in schemes to devalue foreign money and management financial life. Extra symbolically, the 21 calls for of the Interfactory Strike Committee mirror absolutely the shortage of the one 21 million bitcoin that can ever be in existence, a quantity arduous coded into the Bitcoin protocol.
Noah’s Ark: Surviving the Flood of Cash
Throughout the rise of Solidarity, a gaggle of poets and musicians had been touring Poland, performing songs to remind folks that a greater life was potential. Their names had been Jacek Kaczmarski, Przemysław Gintrowski, and Zbigniew Łapiński. They recorded many “protest songs” whose messages needed to be rigorously worded and hid to keep away from being censored. Nonetheless, regardless of their use of poetic metaphors and allusions to historical past, literature, artwork, and the Bible, everybody understood what they had been actually speaking about. Their songs loved immense reputation all through Poland.
I grew up listening to the songs of those three troubadours. My dad and mom, like many of their technology, had been lively within the Solidarity motion and introduced that ethic with them after they immigrated to the USA, the place I used to be born. A few of the trio’s songs have explicit resonance for our personal historic second and for the Bitcoin motion. In that spirit, I wished to share with you certainly one of Kaczmarski, Gintrowski, and Łapinski’s nice songs, “Noah’s Ark”. It references the Biblical story of Noah, who survived an enormous, months-long flood by constructing an Ark.
One approach to interpret the “flood” the trio sings about in “Noah’s Ark” is because the “flood” of foreign money that accompanies intervals of hyperinflation. Governments which can be politically in hassle or collapsing all the time face extreme financial issues, they usually typically print dramatic quantities of cash with the intention to “increase financial exercise” inside their borders. This tends to backfire, nonetheless, as the worth of the cash plummets and folks turn into more and more reluctant to make use of it. This solely compounds the political and financial woes of the regime, accelerating its demise. For that reason, intervals of hyperinflation are likely to accompany turnovers of political regimes. Once I first visited Poland in 1990, for instance, it was in the course of a hyperinflation accompanying the transition between a communist and a capitalist mode of political financial system. The nationwide foreign money needed to be totally re-based and reissued with the intention to restore public confidence in it.
Those that have survived “floods” of hyperinflation world wide know the way devastating they are often. Hundreds of thousands of Polish folks misplaced their complete life financial savings on account of the collapse of a politically and economically non-viable system of presidency. However Kaczmarski, Gintrowski, and Łapiński’s music reminds us that the deluge is survivable—if now we have deliberate forward and if we consider in our personal energy, as people and as a neighborhood, to navigate the storms.
Please take pleasure in their music and lyrics, which I’ve translated into English under.
Arka Noego | Noah’s Ark |
W pełnym słońcu w środku lata, wśród łagodnych fal zieleni, Wre zapamiętała praca, stawiam łódź na suchej ziemi. Owad w pąku drży kwitnącym; chłop po barki brodzi w życie. Ja pracując w dzień i w nocy, mam już burty i poszycie. Budujcie Arkę przed potopem! Dobądźcie na to swych wszystkich sił! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem, Choćby tłum z waszej pracy kpił! Ocalić trzeba co najdroższe, A przecież tyle już tego jest! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem Odrzućcie dziś każdy zbędny gest. Muszę taką łódź zbudować, by w niej całe życie zmieścić. Nikt nie wierzy w moje słowa; wszyscy mają ważne wieści. Ktoś się o majątek kłóci, albo łatwy węszy żer. Zanim się ze snu obudzi, będę miał już maszt i ster! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem! Niech was nie mami głupców chór! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem! Słychać już grzmot burzowych chmur! Zostawcie kłótnie swe na potem; Wiarę przeczuciom dajcie raz! Budujcie Arkę przed potopem, Zanim w końcu pochłonie was! Każdy z was jest łodzią w której może się z potopem mierzyć Cało wyjść z burzowej chmury—musi tylko w to uwierzyć! Lecz w ulewie grzmot za grzmotem, i za późno krzyk na trwogę, I za późno usta z błotem, wypluwają mą przestrogę! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem!” Słyszę sterując w serce fal! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem!” Krzyczy ten co się przedtem śmiał! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem”— Naszych nad własnym losem łez! “Budujcie Arkę przed potopem!” Na pierwszy i na ostatni chrzest! | Within the full solar in the course of summer season, amidst light waves of inexperienced, Verily, the enduring work: I increase a ship on dry floor. An insect buzzes in a blooming bud; a peasant wades by means of life as much as his shoulders. I, working day and night time, have already got the starboard and the sheathing. Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! Give this your whole power! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood, Although the gang ridicule your work! What’s most treasured should be salvaged, And there’s a lot of it already! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! Solid apart, at present, each superfluous gesture. I have to construct a ship through which to suit my complete life. Nobody believes my phrases; everybody has “extra vital” affairs. Somebody is arguing over a fortune; or he smells straightforward prey. Earlier than he wakes from sleep, I’ll have a mast and helm! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! Do not be beguiled by the choir of fools! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood! You’ll be able to already hear the rumble of storm clouds! Depart your arguments for later; For as soon as, belief your instincts! Construct an Ark earlier than the flood, Earlier than it lastly overcomes you! Each certainly one of you is a ship in which you’ll be able to sq. off with the flood To come back out of the storm cloud complete—you simply must consider that! However, within the downpour, lightning strike after lighting strike, And the cries of hazard come too late, Too late do lips spit out my warning with the mud! “Construct an Ark earlier than the flood!” I hear, steering into the center of the waves! “Construct an Ark earlier than the flood!” Cries the one who beforehand laughed! “Construct an Ark earlier than the flood”— of our tears over our destiny! “Construct an Ark earlier than the flood!” For the primary and the final baptism! |
This can be a visitor submit by Natalie Smolenski. Opinions expressed are totally their very own and don’t essentially mirror these of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Journal.