Krzysztof Pilawski writes:
What strikes the reader most about Danuta Wałęsa's autobiography? The
rapid self-betterment of 2 people who were born into very poor, large
families in small, remote villages. 2 people who from childhood did
primitive physical labour....
HOUSING
Danuta Wałęsa-- a girl with only elementary education who had worked for
5 years as a farmhand-- finds herself in Gdańsk. She finds a husband
and in 1972, at the age of 23, she is a wife, mother of 2 children and
in charge of a flat which, although small, is posessed of all the
comforts of which she was deprived during her 19 years growing up in the
country. She is able to give back 14,000 złoty which her parents have
given her as a stake in the housing cooperative because the Wałęsa's
flat has been given to them by the Lenin Shipyard (in 1972 the shipyard
granted its employees 591 flats). Nowadays, a 36-metre 2-room flat is
nothing out of the ordinary because such properties ( developers call
them 'compacts' ) are in demand. One has to pay a price, however. The
current market value of the Wałęsa's old flat in the Stogi neighbourhood
is 170,000 zł. At today's prices it is out of reach for a family of
four with only a single bread-winner, especially a blue-collar
bread-winner who, like the Wałęsas, cannot rely on any parental support.
Without money, which bank is going to offer them a mortgage?
Even if they could get a mortgage, would they be able to keep up
repayments? Would they decide to have a further 6 children like the
Wałęsas? Large families can apply for social housing but it is not easy
and social housing also bears a stigma-- the family would find itself in
very low-status environment which is full of dangers and which is very
difficult to escape from.
In 1980 the Wałęsas (Danuta was 31, Lech 37) moved to a 136-metre flat
in the Zaspa neighbourhood, which was also allocated to them by the
shipyard and not bought. ( In the PRL the buying and selling of private
property was not forbidden).
MONEY
Before the birth of her first child, Danuta Wałęsa did casual work but
she had no intention of continuing to do so. In her autobiography she
states repeatedly that it was her husband's job to support the family
financially and her job to look after the children. What would an
electrician, a technical school graduate, have to earn today to support
such a large family? In December 2011, according to the Institute of
Work and Social Affiars, the minimum income needed to sustain a 5-person
family was 3,940 (exluding any mortgage or loan repayments. For a
10-person family it would surely be more or less twice this figure. What
full-time worker, even with moonlighting, brings home 7-8,000 zł a
month? (The average monthly salary is around 3,400 before tax-CK)
In the autobiographies of both Danuta and Lech Wałęsa there is no
mention of problems with paying off debts, difficulties with utility
bills, lack of money to pay for nursery school, school books or medical
fees. Danuta Wałęsa still has a sharp mind and can recall her life with
Lech down to the smallest detail yet she makes no mention of financial
problems. Shortages of food were not down to lack of money to supply and rationing problems. Despite
difficulties with the ration card system, the Wałęsa's never had to
endure hunger, cold, lack of clothes or an inability to meet their
essential needs.
It is notable hat Danuta Wałęsa states that her family enjoyed a
standard of living equal to that of the rest of the Stogi district. In
her book she says that her large family never had to rely on welfare or
benefits. In today's Poland such a situation is hard to imagine.
"Large families are the people most at risk from poverty" states the
National Bureau of Statistics in its report on poverty in Poland,
published last year. 1 in 4 families with 4 or more children live below
the poverty line, which means that they are unable to meet their basic
living requirements. Most large families ( which account for a third of
all children in Poland ) cannot make ends meet on paid work alone. They
therefore rely on welfare, free school meals and the help of private
charities. How is it possible in this situation not to give in to a
sense of hopelessness? How is it possible to maintain one's dignity,
something which the Solidarność strikers constantly talked about?
WORK
The battered and rubble-strewn post-war Poland inherited many unsolved
problems from the 2nd Republic. Amongst them was rural over-population.
Migration to the cities before the war was limited my a lack of work.
Many people migrating from the country ended up in shanty towns-- in the
Warsaw district of Żoliborż a whole city of trailers, tents and shacks
sprung up housing some 4,000 unemployed people. the first step to
improving the lot of the peasantry was the package of agricultural
reforms implemented immediately after the war, which to some extent
satisfied the hunger for land. The next step was the 'colonisation' of
the western lands, formerly belonging to Germany. The third step was the
overseeing of the economy by the state, the nationalisation of key
industries and fast-track industrial development. This solved the
problem of rural over-population and ensured social progress.
Thanks to these processes, the technical boarding school in Lipno which
Lech Wałęsa attended was founded. The future leader of Solidarność,
acting on impulse, one day went to Gdańsk managed to find a job in the
shipyards the very same day he arrived in the city. Today, even some of
his children find themselves unemployed.
FAMILY AND CHILDREN
The story of the Wałęsa children in the autobiography is moving. The
free-market reforms starting in 1989 were supposed to create an
environment of unlimited development for young Poles. At the fall of
Communism the eldest of the 8 Wałęsa children was 19, the youngest 4.
They reached adulthood one-by-one in the 1990s and the first decade of
this century. Danuta and Lech did not have any parental support, they
were self-sufficient. All of their children have relied on, and some
still rely on, financial support from their parents. None of the
children have so far managed to make any capital out of their surname,
which is a brand with global recognition. Maria Wiktoria (30) a
marketing graduate tried to do so when she opened a fashion boutique in
Manhattan, one of Gdańsk's oldest shopping centres. It fell victim to
the free market. Thanks to her surname, she appeared on 'Dancing with
the Stars' but she has struggled for years with unemployment. Magdalena
(33) opened a dance theatre which went bust. She now teaches in a public
ballet school. 2 sons, Bogdan (42) and Przemysław (38), chose a more
stable route and got jobs in the National Security Department and the
Border Security Agency. The youngest child, Brygida (27), also works in
the public sector in the Gdynia aquarium. Would they have got these jons
if they were not the children of a former president?
News of unemployed Sławomir has been circulating for more than a decade
now. In his mother's memoirs she recounts a humilating scene in the job
centre. Anna (32) got married, had 2 children and does not work.
Jarosław (36) the best-known of the children started his political
career working in his father's office. In his election campaign in 2005
he never left his father's side, in order to be in every photo.
The Poland which Lech Wałęsa fought for has not created the same
opportunities for social advancement as the Poland which Lech Wałęsa
fought against.
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