Friday, 3rd October 2008
Lech Walesa says EU is right on Polish shipyards stand
Lech Walesa, the former Polish President who put his neck on the Soviet bloc. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi.
Lech Walesa, the co-founder of the legendary Solidarnosc movement, born in the shipyards where he once worked, thinks the EU is right in demanding an end to state subsidy for Polish dockyards, a move that is likely to bring the yards to their knees.
His comments come as talks between Warsaw and the European Commission on a restructuring plan failed yet again, increasing the uncertainty over the future of Poland's historic shipyards.
Besides the economic dimension, in fact, the shipyards carry strong emotive attachment for the Poles, having been the place where the anti-communist movement took off, eventually toppling the Soviet government.
Mr Walesa, now 65, was a protagonist in that strife. Thirty odd years on, he speaks as the former President of a country firmly aligned to democracy and a member of the European Union.
"The European Union thinks that we have had enough time, that we have been delaying things. I'm sorry to say that I agree with that point of view," he said yesterday. True to his reputation as a frank politician, he adds: "I also look at myself and blame myself for this delay. I didn't work fast enough either."
Mr Walesa is here to deliver a talk - The Future Of Europe - Unity And Solidarity - on the 25th anniversary of his being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Of course, he is not happy about the possible closure of any of the yards. "I don't like the idea of the possible outcome of that stand because I myself used to work there and would like to save them. But I can understand their point of view."
The story there is similar to that of the yards in Malta and is very much linked to problems with productivity. However, Polish yards have also had to face the consequences of the regime change.
The upheaval that was ushered in by the collapse of the Soviet system actually caused the collapse of most of the country's economic potential and, with the suppliers who furnished the yards with raw materials, products and services gone, the yards were left without the parts they need.
"This is a major challenge with which we are faced," he acknowledges. "We lost markets, we lost cooperation partners and now we have been restructuring and rebuilding our economy so we need some time to rebuild our shipyards until they can stand on their feet."
But time is precisely what the EU seems unwilling to concede? Hardly a mark of solidarity, in the circumstances?
"The European Union is right in what it is doing," he insists. "It's true that we cannot go for ever giving more sums of money to one specific group of people because if you give to one group of people you have to deprive another. And, actually, it has been going on for quite a while... a surprising amount of time in which taxpayers have been paying to help the shipyards."
Despite his commitment, his endorsement of free market is not unconditional. "The capitalist system functioned more or less well when it had communism. Now that communism is gone you can see that it is a very bad system. We haven't invented the third way, because certainly the capitalism we have today is not going to be sustainable in the 21st century. The current credit crisis is a symptom of this," he points out.
There is general consensus that the free market is needed but, for the rest, the world needs to think long and hard and a reform from the roots, he adds, keenly pointing out that he is not referring to the kind of revolution he was involved in.
Bringing his Catholic roots to bear, he turns to a biblical story to amplify the point. "We are faced with a similar situation which Moses faced when he brought the Israeli people out of slavery. We also broke from the slavery of communism... from the slavery of being trapped between two antagonistic blocs and now the challenge is whether we can improve on Moses's methods because he did not really try to reform the Israeli people but he led them throughout the wilderness for 40 years and the generation that was faulty died out," he says animatedly.
"Now we don't have Moses and we don't have a wilderness big enough for the world to lead all the people through it," he adds before pointing out that he likes to visit places like Malta to find different solutions to the open-endedness of today's problems.
"Maybe you have some ideas worth looking into. In places like Malta you can come across some brilliant ideas... It is true, particularly in countries which are not listened to that often. Because the big-headed, self-confident empires neglect us, you, and other such countries."
Mr Walesa's public talk will be held at the seat of The Strickland Foundation in Villa Parisio, Lija, today at 7 p.m.
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Comments
You weren't in management by any change were you?
What you are saying implies that it took place before 1987, so that's 21 years ago.
What Government did we have since 1987 Mr Camilleri?
So don't try to blame Labour Ministers and the GWU when the Nationalist Government has been in power since 1987 (with a break of 22 months) and had done absolutely nothing to remedy the situation.
Since it did nothing it is its fault that the Shipyards ended up in that situation Mr Camilleri.
By the way, you seem to have left the Shipyards long ago, because the workers have been operating on flexibility for years and also monitored by palm readers even when going from their box racks/workshops to on board and back.
So there is no truth that workers did not do their part.
By the way, I am not trying to find excuses or apologizing or trying to misinterpret or change history.
YOU are WRONG and MISTAKEN Mr Camilleri.
I know the Shipyards much more than YOU do, Mr Camilleri
It is people who never worked at the Shipyards who should stop commenting Mr Camilleri, and that includes those who consider themselves as experts but have never touched a tool with their hands.
What you write shows that the hatred long perpetrated by the Nationalist Party against the Shipyard workers is bearing its fruit.
Even those who are without political blinkers notwithstanding their political beliefs admit that it was mismanagement and other interests that wanted the Shipyards closed that led to the unsustainable situation Mr Camilleri.
And as Derek Bennett wrote, it is not a question of whether a country decides what to do with their money, but the arrogant orders by an unelected commissioner to a Government elected by the people which makes it UNDEMOCRATIC and DICTATORIAL.
This should not be turned into a political issue. Sant Cassia scores zero when calling the workers as anti-democratic. It would be more appropriate to ask him what the management and the government's "secret" executives should be called.
If it suits Malta to subsidise the shipyards then that should a decision made by the Maltese people. This argument cuts to the very core of the anti-democratic nature of the EU. You vote for a government and it then has to obey people you have no control over - its wrong.
I am sure you are right that management was probably amateurish and contributed to the downfall of the Dockyards. As regards attempts at closure by other European privatised dockyards who wanted to close the Malta Dockyards, I doubt it, at least not in a simplistic way. If they wanted to close the M Dockyards because subsidies represented an unfair competition to them, you may be right. But that still does not explain why, when it was subsidised, the Dockyards lost money. I have no doubt that the workers are individually very decent people and hard workers, but I don't think they were led very intelligently -just as management probably contributed to the mess. I never wanted to blame the workers as such. I just wanted to point out the historical differences between the Polish and Maltese dockyards and their historical and political roles in their respective countries. That's all. The reasons for the decline of the Malta Dockyards await proper detailed historical analysis. But it is undeniable that they were losing money even in the distant Bailey dockyards past. Best wishes.
Your ‘opinion’ has very clearly been conditioned by the media machine which has been working to degrade the opinion of the general public against the Malta Shipyards to the extent that we see today. Fantastic numbers of accumulated debts have been thrown around, literally scaring the Maltese tax-payers into vociferous protest at this drain of public funds…or so it seemed.
Dear Doctor, if you want to be fair and talk about gravy trains you should mention the final cost of our ‘part-time’ hospital Mater Dei, the subsidization that goes into the tourism sector such as the failed ‘Brand Malta’ effort, the entertainment costs of some Ministries which we have read about recently, the public service sector and now it seems that the staff of the University of Malta rightfully also wish to board the train.
Your strategy has worked; the Government has effectively obliterated the shipyards; save us your comments and put the episode behind you now.
You are wrong Dr Paul.
It was only the management that mismanaged the Shipyards.
The workers always did their work on time, but there were many interests that wanted the Shipyards to close, not least among them mainland european union countries who wanted to do away with the Malta Shipyards competition.
The Gravy Train has been running through the Malta Dockyards for some 30 years. The difference between the Polish Dockyards and the Malta Dockyards is instructive: In Poland they were an anti-communist force for Democracy and Human Rights; in Malta they were highjacked by anti-democratic militants who expected the rest of society to subsidise them.
Can I join the gravy train?