Class and Work in Post-Socialism: Transforming the Spaces of Labour

Under socialism, work and workers were valued and celebrated not only through the spectacular promotion of hero workers and Days of, for example, the Steelworkers, but also through continuing investment in the everyday material and discursive prestige of workers. Over the years of Communist Party rule in east central Europe, workers saw their income and status rise to overtake that of the intelligentsia. Moreover, class status determined not only income and conditions within the workplace, but also access to resources and opportunities in communities. The workplace stood at the centre of a network of social, cultural and service provision. However, the working class was, without doubt, fragmented, with workers in large, strategic, heavy industries (such as coal mining, energy production and steelworking) valued more highly than workers in light industry and smaller enterprises; that these latter sectors were often dominated by women, and in some countries, minority ethnic workers, reinforced the division of the working class. Workers’ leaders were often co-opted into state structures and trade unions were incorporated into the network of political institutions which ensured the reproduction of the regime. In later years, however, the relationship between workers and the state began to break down as opposition movements, often founded on an alliance between workers and the intelligentsia, challenged the legitimacy of the Communist Party to rule in the name of the working class. These opposition movements grew, in Poland most particularly, to eventually lead to the collapse of communism in 1989. Since 1989, the countries of east central Europe have been characterised by economies marked by the loss of work and the end of employment security and by political systems which venerate the market and entrepreneurialism, denigrate the achievements of earlier generations of workers and downplay the value of social policy for marginalised social groups. The traditional left-right continuum of party politics makes little sense in a system in which post-communist parties, parties emerging from workers’ opposition movements (such as Solidarity), unions, peasant parties and other organisations all find themselves adopting a peculiar mix of conservative and progressive policies and union leaders use their connections and social capital to secure lucrative positions on the management boards of privatised enterprises. Trade unions are declining, the political representation of the working class is fragmented, ‘common cause’ is increasingly difficult to identify and the opposition isn’t clear. The collapse of social networks, destroyed often by the costs of transformation, is reflected in a wearing away of collective action and a celebration (or, more often, begrudging acceptance) of individualism. At the same time new patterns of exclusion are emerging in the region as gender and ethnicity become significant markers of poverty and marginalisation. Based on a review of the literature and on empirical work with working class communities in Poland, this paper explores the shifts in the meanings and experiences of class and work following the collapse of communism, exploring the transformation of the spaces of labour, from workplaces to trade unions, homes and communities and asks what particular legacies socialism has left for the working class in east central Europe.

Presented to Working-Class Studies: Intersections with Race, Gender, and Sexuality, The Sixth Biennial Conference of the Center for Working-Class Studies, Youngstown University, 14th-17th May 2003

A copy of the slides for this presentation is available here.