It is useless to shout the usual denunciation of Communism as an oppressive system or to characterize Wojciech Jaruzelski as the incarnation of the Devil. Solidarity was noble, humane and idealistic in the broad sense, but painfully inept in its tactictics and strategy. It failed to appreciate that there were limits to its power notably those imposed by a massive Soviet Army to the east which dictated the need for compromise. Lech Walesa should have recognized them long ago. There are voices today, even in the ranks of the Polish opposition, proclaiming that Solidarity, the trade union that tried to be everything to everybody, has lived out its day, that new forms of social innovation have to be worked out to meet new needs and new possibilities.
Some bright spots relieve the current bleak landscape.
Decades of disappointment and frustration have not engendered a reactionary frame of mind, nor whetted a desire for the apparent freedoms afforded by capitalism. Many are skeptical of trading the overt suppression of freedom they experience for the more subtle curbs of capitalism. The general crisis of capitalism has continued to deepen. The general crisis of capitalism is deepening. The sphere of its domination is shrinking inevitably, its historical doom becoming ever more obvious.