The War of the Worlds? The Influence of the Systemic Transformation on the Careers of the Elite of Trade Unions the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ) and the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (NSZZ “Solidarność”) from 1980–1986

the Perspective of Prosopography

Abstract

The article analysed the process of formation of the elites of the two rival projects for trade union movements during the late communist era, the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (NSZZ “Solidarność”) and the created on the basis of the Central Council of Trade Unions regimented All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions. Both created the elites which later played a role in the process of structural transformation after 1989. The article is an attempt to portray the elites of both unions formed in this important historical moment. The authors try to represent them both in the 1980s and during the period of transformation. 1989 was a timeframe which had a significant impact on the trajectories of lifes of the elites in the Third Polish Republic, which differed in the case of the elite of “Solidarność” and OPZZ. Based on this data, the authors attempted to consider these different consequences of the systemic transformation. Previously, the authors presented a group portrait of the elites of the unions understood as a group of delegates participating in the conventions concluding the first stages of existence of these organisations, namely the First National Convention of Delegates of NSZZ “Solidarność” (1981) and the Second Congress of OPZZ (1986). Even then, these groups were vastly different from each other, not only because they represented distinct ideas, interest groups, and differently defined goals, but also because they recruited people from diverse sub-groups of Polish society. Eliminating some of these immediately present differences on the statistical level, which is what the authors did in their analysis, showed that the systemic transformation – the breakthrough year 1989 – had a significant and distinct impact on the careers of the elites of the two trade unions formed in the late state socialism.