Open letter to professor David Harvey from a polish comunist

Wersja po polsku https://odrodzenie.fr/2020/01/06/list... Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: From Fordism to Neoliberalism and Beyond    • Anti-Capitalist Chronicles: From Fordism t...   Dear Professor Harvey At the beginning I would like to say that I am your fan and I admire your work in popularizing Capital. Here in Poland, as a result of the capitalist counterrevolution of 1989, unfortunately, there have been many negative phenomena. It can be seen mostly through great neoliberal brainwashing of Polish youth. As an example, I’d remind the last parliamentary election from October 2019, when the neoliberal-nationalist party ‘Confederation’ got 6 percent of the vote. But their success was mostly among young Poles under 30 whose support for Confederation exceeded 20 percent. It was the country's second best result in this age group. Capitalist propaganda is even more effective because even the intellectual elites of the former PZPR also converted to neoliberalism. The best example is Professor Leszek Balcerowicz, responsible for capitalist reforms. That is why we, the new generation of Polish communists, must start from scratch and explain the basic concepts of Marxist economics to society and your lectures help us a lot. I have been watching Democracy at Work regularly for some time now and, unfortunately, I have to say that in your latest video ‘From Fordism to Neoliberalism and Beyond’, you speak about Poland and I often disagree. What you’re saying reflects perfectly the official propaganda line of the liberal media related to the current opposition party, Civic Platform, which had ruled Poland for 8 years. I’m happy to say that in 2015 this party lost power and Donald Tusk fled from Poland to make a career in Brussels. When it comes to issues concerning freedom of press or civil liberties, the situation in Poland is no different from the one I observe in France, where I currently live. We are dealing with a general system crisis throughout the EU, we can see it through numerous protests and police repressions. With all my dislike for PiS, the Polish police are much milder while compared to the French police against the movement of yellow vests or the Spanish police against the protests in Catalonia. However, the EU elites are silent about police violence in Western European countries. And at the same time, they express solidarity with the opposition party of Donald Tusk. The Civic Platform, just like every party representing interests of big capital, is compromised by gigantic corruption, and Donald Tusk himself should be imprisoned for many corruption scandals. All this crying about destroying democracy in Poland, it’s simply criminals being afraid of punishment. Spreading tales that PiS is a national socialist party, and so the ideological heir of Mussolini and Hitler, is unfortunately a repetition of the arguments stated by thieves from the Civic Platform. This is the storytelling of the Western elites and you as a professor, that is, objectively also a member of these elites, unfortunately took over arguments of the neoliberal mafia from the Civic Platform. In terms of civil rights, PiS government is no different from similar governments in other EU countries, so I would encourage more in-depth analyzes of situation in Poland. The situation of economic policy is quite similar. We must remember that in Poland, the word ‘socialism’ or ‘the left’ is considered as the biggest insult. Neoliberal elites accuse PiS of conducting socialist or social economic policy, which of course is not true. The Polish prime minister is Mateusz Morawiecki, who was previously the head of a bank and who is a millionaire. What is also interesting is that Morawiecki worked with Tusk in the past. You really disappointed me by saying that Morawiecki is introducing socialism in Poland. Everything you said about Poland's economic policy is a mix of PiS's electoral promises and PO’s black propaganda. But this has nothing to do with reality. Morawiecki pursues a politics of servility towards corporations and he even spoke about turning Poland into one large special economic zone. Morawiecki is submissive to large American corporations, the so-called GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) and, unlike other EU countries, he doesn’t want to tax these corporations. Morawiecki gave a donation to the great bank JP Morgan. Misery in Poland is constantly increasing, which is due to high prices. It is true that PiS gives relief to the poor, but at the same time gives much more money to the rich. Plans to raise the minimum wage will little help Polish employees who have recently been forced to switch to self-employment. Poland is the European Union leader in so-called garbage market (precariat).