Leokadia Oręziak: Private pension funds in Poland – the risk goes to the pensioner

In mid-2013 the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, announced plans for reform of the country’s pension system. Private pension funds will no longer be allowed to buy governmental bonds, which led to the growth in the levels of public debt. The bonds they acquired earlier will be put back to the public pension system. The obligation to have a private pension fund, which was the second pillar of the pension system, will be lifted, and people will be able to shift their savings to the public insurance company. This reform has sparked much controversy and was fiercely opposed by neo-liberal economists and think-tanks. Professor Leokadia Oręziak rebuffs these criticisms and shows the devastating effects that the partial privatisation of the pensions system had on public debt in Poland.

Read the interview with Leokadia Oręziak in the Green European Journal.

Green events at the COP19

1. Energy transition - necessity or chance? Three cases: Germany, France, Poland
Thursday, 14 November

2. Citizens' energy for a good climate
Friday 15 November & Saturday 16 November

3. March for Climate and Social Justice
Saturday, 16 November

Energy transition - necessity or chance? Three cases: Germany, France, Poland

Thursday, 14 November, 2pm - 6:30pm
Warsaw, Poland, pl. Defilad (special temporary construction of the City of Warsaw)

In the face of resource depletion and advancing climate change, energy transition towards sustainable/low carbon energy is becoming a necessity. Such a transition can also be an opportunity - to increase economic competitiveness and create jobs, to improve the quality of life through a cleaner environment, etc. However, this process should be based on a large public debate, in which citizens are an equal partner in a comprehensive and transparent discussion on the future of energy and on the way of life we want to pass on to future generations.

The climate summit in Warsaw provides an opportunity to promote the energy transitions of EU pillar countries such as France and Germany.

For Germany, the abandonment of nuclear energy and the development of renewable energy are the most important. In France, the debate is ongoing, but the orchestration and ambition of the debate itself is worth promotion.  New ideas, like “circular economy," enter the debate to show that energy transition is just the beginning of profound systemic transformation that must happen in the future. Poland’s economy is based on coal, which is considered a national resource (even if more and more of the coal is imported). Poland’s transition to low-carbon energy seems to be possible mostly through energy efficiency, which we would like to promote.  We would also like to provide the Polish government the opportunity to share with the international public its ministerial vision of the energy future of Poland, in the context of climate change.

Source: http://energytransitioncop19.evenea.pl/

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Citizens' energy for a good climate
A Greens/EFA participatory conference about Poland and its future

Friday 15 November & Saturday 16 November
Palace of Culture and Science (IVth floor), Warsaw, Poland

At the next COP19, all eyes will be on Poland. Not only will the country have the chance to lead the UN climate negotiations and play a key role on the international stage, it will also have an opportunity to weight in the debate about the future of the European Union itself. For this reason, the Greens/EFA group organise a debate with both the Polish citizens and activists from around the world. Our aim is to give everybody an opportunity to express their views about the Polish, European and global choices about the future.

http://www.greens-efa.eu/citizens-energy-for-a-good-climate-10558.html

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March for Climate and Social Justice

Saturday, 16 November

This year’s international climate negotiations, the Conference of the Parties, take place in Warsaw, Poland, from 11 to 22 November. During the middle weekend, on Saturday 16th, there will be a march under the heading “Just transition and decent work”. To show the negotiators that we’re still watching and still care, to show that we will not accept false solutions and to demand an agreement that is ecologically sustainable and socially just.

The March will start in the afternoon from the Palace of Culture and Science, in the historical centre of Warsaw, and will end at the National Stadium where the negotiations take place.

To make sure we get as many people there as possible the Belgian network, Climate and Social Justice, is organizing a train to Warsaw, like we did in 2009 for the March in Copenhagen. The train will leave from Brussels Friday 15th in the afternoon and can make extra stops in Aachen, Köln, Berlin and Poznán to pick up passengers. We’ll be back Monday 18th, early in the morning.

The ticket price for a round trip will depend on the number of passengers: if there are 500 people it would be 150 euro, from 750 onwards it would be 100. There won’t be a train for less than 500 people so register now and help us make this possible! We need you to book a seat on the train and spread the word.  This won’t happen without you!

More information on: train.climatejustice.eu

Source: Pusheurope.org.

Adam Ostolski: Miners and Greens, unite!

In November 2013, we shall witness another climate conference (COP) – this time in Warsaw. It’s not hard to see the plan of Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk: it’s stopping the possibility of a global agreement that would force Poland to switch to renewable energy sources. Is there a chance that we can stop this? Yes, but only if we create a broad alliance against neoliberalism and for a just energy transition. In this endeavour, a crucial partner for ecologists could be miners.

Climate policy is the one policy area in which Donald Tusk’s right-wing government is impeccably consistent. Poland vetoed plans for a more ambitious climate policy of the European Union, is hesitant to implement the EU legislation on green energy or energy efficiency, and hampers global agreements regarding this issue. Talking climate to the Polish government is a Sisyphean task.

There is a good side to this – ecological circles seem to now understand that there is no use in trying to make the government change its mind. In effect they are starting talks with the miners. One striking example was a conference held in March 2012, called Black-Green Round Table, organised by Zielony Instytut (Green Institute) and the Trade Union of Miners in Poland (ZZG). Experts from both sides talked about Poland’s climate policy – a discussion which achieved some common points.

[read the full article in the Green European Journal]

Green New Deal in Poland: The Social Dimension

In the fifth year of the comprehensive crisis we are facing, social questions have come to the top of the political agenda and the public debate in Europe. This Green European Foundation publication, initiated by Zielony Instytut and the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Warsaw office, links the European level social policy goals to a concrete national example, Poland.

Two of the contributions to this publication ("Social Policy - An Introduction" by Ryszard Szarfenberg and "Social Policy - Green debates" by Bartłomiej Kozek) have been translated into English. They are available at the website of Green European Foundation.

Bartłomiej Kozek on the precariat's world

While Poland presents itself to the outside world as a country untouched by the economic crisis, the reality is far different for an entire generation of Polish people. Rather than face up to the structural difficulties in the job market, the Government ignores the problem and remains committed to the doctrines of the neoliberal model.

- writes Bartłomiej Kozek in the "Green European Journal", vol. 4.

[Read more]

Greens after Party Conference

The previous weekend (16 and 17 April) Polish Greens gathered in Warsaw for the fourth Party Conference. It was my third party congress since I joined the Greens, and so far the most exciting one. We made some changes in the ranks of our leadership: Dariusz Szwed has retained his position of the male co-chair, while Agnieszka Grzybek has been replaced by Małgorzata Tkacz-Janik as the female co-chair of the party. But what is the most important, we had occasion to discuss and update our political programme. What it means to be "Green" in today's Poland? What sort of alternative to the dominant Civic Platform -- and to the political scene in general -- are we dreaming of? We have always been an anti-neoliberal party, but what it precisely means in 2010, seven years after our party's establishment?

After the conference, some are speaking of a "social turn" in our politics, while others claim we simply made our long-held principles more detailed. Anyway, there is a sense of breakthrough. At the conference we adopted four documents: on electoral law, on social policy, on public health, and on education. It is now much clearer what do we stand for in these domains, what sort of electoral reform do we propose in order to reopen Poland's political landscape, and what our vision of social justice is like.

In electoral law we stand for the opening of political scene for new parties and movements by lowering thresholds, as well as introducing restrictions on commercial electoral campaigns. We also support better representation of women in politics and lowering of the voting age in local elections to 16.

In social policy, public health & education we stand for the vision of public services strongly opposed to their commodification and privatisation. Especially health and education should be treated as human rights, and not commodities. We want better protection of women's rights in employment, health, and education policy. We support employment policy based on jobs creation, and not only on the "activation" of the unemployed. We want to foster better work-life balance in order to support public health and create better conditions for gender equality within family. We stand for policies that would diminish social and economic inequalities between people.

Sounds great, ain't it? What we still lack, however, is the power to translate it into binding laws and policies. But no worry, next local elections will be soon.

Dariusz Szwed and Małgorzata Tkacz-Janik, co-chairs


Ewa Charkiewicz and Paweł Fischer-Kotowski


Johann Bros


Adam Ostolski


Bartłomiej Kozek


Bartłomiej Kozek, Irena Kołodziej and Aleksandra Kretkowska


Hanna Gill-Piątek and Wojtek Kłosowski, voting


photo by: Maciej "Psych" Smykowski

Gender policy or gender politics?

Five years down the road of EU enlargement, the dominant mood is one of disappointment. Is this simply a crisis of leadership (some have even begun speaking of a backlash) in the European Union? Or are we perhaps dealing with a broader phenomenon sometimes referred to as "gender fatigue"? What may be at stake here is the exhaustion of a certain strategy of pushing for women’s rights – a strategy whose present embodiment is in the "gender mainstreaming" policy. We might also ask whether we are facing three separate challenges here, or three aspects of the same impasse – in European political institutions, in social attitudes, and inside women’s organization? If the backlash in the EU, gender fatigue in the workplace and disaffection with gender mainstreaming within the women’s movement are three separate independent phenomena, then the recipe for our problems would be to continue doing what we have done all along, only more effectively. If, however, we are dealing with various aspects of a single crisis, then we need to ask about its root causes.

In the article The European Union, Gender Politics and Social Change in a collection Gender in the EU (pp. 30-32) published by the Heinrich Bőll Stiftung, I am trying to trace the consequences of the replacing of feminist politics with "gender policy". What is the true meaning of the recent exchange of politics for policy? What happens, when we leave behind struggle for change, and try to negotiate the administration of change instead? Will we be able to restore the momentum of social movements, and their utopian power? These questions are pertinent not only for feminist struggle, but for the environmental and other struggles as well.

Adam Ostolski

Free to care

I have just read my previous posts and I realized that I may sound a bit morose. Actually, I am not pessimistic at all. There are some signs of hope around, and especially within the Greens.

Oddly enough, the Green Party came out of these elections internally strengthened. The coalition was by no means a dream team, and especially the Liberals were dragging us all down most of the time. So we decided as Greens to go on with a campaign of our own. We campaigned against Barroso and for the "European dream." This helped us to take a more critical stance on European policies. When we were preparing for the campaign, we had to define for what sort of Europe we stand.

We found it is all about four basic liberties: freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It was on behalf of those freedoms that the Allies combatted Fascism in World War II. Of course, we live in a different world now than we did 60 years ago. Nowadays, freedom of expression would be meaningless without the right to free internet, for example, and freedom from fear implies strong protection from social dumping and fighting against climate change, etc. etc. That is why we need Green politics, to redefine what all these freedoms actually mean today.

Next Autumn we are going to have municipal & presidential elections. We have been already thinking how do these freedoms translate into local policies.

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On Friday, we had surprise guests in our Warsaw office: José Antonio Vergara from Chile and Mireille Grosjean form Switzerland, two Green comrades who came to Poland for the Universala Kongreso de Esperanto in Białystok. It is amazing how close is the relationship between Green ideals and Esperanto, as a language build aroud the idea of peace and equality of people regardless of their nationality. And on the principle of hope, essential to any progressive politics.

I am deeply honoured to get acquainted with José Antonio, who was an activist of the opposition under the Pinochet regime. I imagine how much personal courage it required. And I admire that he continues to struggle now for what he struggled then. It is another sort of courage, that we -- Greens, Socialists, Esperantists etc. -- need in our postpolitical era: the courage to care.

Adam Ostolski