Year of courage and miracles Many global commemorations Our event at Purdue examined: *Brutal massacre of student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square;
*Collapse of Soviet-style
dictatorships in Eastern Europe *End of Apartheid regime in South Africa
Milan Kundera, “The struggle of man against power is the struggle of truth against forgetting” – Book of
Prague, Czech Republic: 5 June 2019 Anti-PM Andrej Babiš; Anti-Corruption
Budapest, Hungary: 2 June 2019
Anti-PM Viktor Orbán; for academic freedom
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01756-9
Tom Brokaw at the Berlin Wall, NBC news, November 10, 1989: *“Not hammers & sickles,
but hammers & chisels!”
*“Young people take down this wall, bit by bit.”
*“Action Program for free elections and a democratic coalition government.”
*“Reunited right on top of that harsh symbol of division.”
"In Poland it took 10 years, in Hungary 10
months, in East Germany 10 weeks: perhaps in
Czechoslovakia it will take 10 days!"
-Timothy Garton Ash
The Magic Lantern
Image from demonstration on Václavské náměstí (Wencelslas Square) in Prague, November 1989
Cold War = The last
obstacle to
globalization
Key factors:
1) Economy
2) Gorbachev
3) Dissent
Costs of maintaining empire, USSR
control over East Bloc
Costs of Cold War rivalry: arms
race, space race, wars, sphere
subsidies
Desperate need for economic
reform: still the same focus on
heavy industry
State planning: tight control over
agriculture, consumer goods
Gorbachev succeeded
Chernenkov in 1985 as
youngest general secretary
Replaced heavy industry model
Introduced Perestroika
(“restructuring”) and glasnost
(“openness”)
1989 troop withdrawal from
Afghanistan
Stated that USSR would not
militarily intervene to support
Eastern European Regimes
Waves of dissent increased in
intensity: key role of Poland‟s
Solidarity (Solidarność) Movement
Solidarity led by Lech Wałȩsa from
Gdańsk‟s Lenin Shipyard
Mass trade union, social, political
movement: ½ Polish adults were members at Solidarity‟s height
Solidarity stripped party (CP) of
purpose, legitimacy
Workers had to go outside of the
Strike wave 1988-9; threat of civil war Party begins direct talks with Solidarity
(founded 17 September 1980)
Roundtable talks begin February 6th 1989
– Walesa led non-government groups
Steps toward peaceful power dismantling *Solidarity re-legalized April 5th
elections 5 June 1989: New govt created
under Mazowiecki, first non-communist leader in the region, summer 1989
Reforms began in party itself - “controlled reforms” for „happiest barracks in the camp”
Hungarians travelled visa-free to
Austria from 1988
Laws Dec 1988-early 1989:
freedoms restored
*Jan 1989: govt states that 1956 was “a
popular uprising against existing state power”
Roundtable talks began in May
Reburial of Imre Nagy in June Kadar
died July 6 – new government!
Hungarian soldiers open the border with Austria September 10, 1989 – Border breached between East and West
Then: Sept. 11, 1989 125,000 East
Germans cross into Austria via
Hungary
East Germans waiting at West
German embassies in Prague &
Warsaw
Gorbachev visits GDR in October
– pressures Honecker to reform
Leipzig-centered demonstrations
November 9 – Wall Falls
Elections March 1990 – majority
for reunification
Changes took place within 2 weeks
from November 17th
Militia brutally attacked student
demo November 17 triggered more anti-govt demos
Nov 21st: govt talks with Civic Forum
(Czech) & Public Against Violence (Slovak)
Nov 24th government resigned
Nov 16 demos on Wenceslas Square Dec 4th massive demonstration – 5 WTO
countries condemn 1968 invasion
Dec 10 – Husak resigns
Dec 29 – Vaclav Havel elected
Cold War West
Western policy was to wear down
USSR with arms race
While providing economic
support to Bloc
But interested in stability – did not
want opposition
Did not challenge Cold War
division of Europe
Post-Cold War West
Challenges to US as global superpower:
disintegration of Yugoslavia; Rwandan genocide
West choose realpolitik over protection of
rights; but US brokered Dayton Accords for Bosnia
Focus on collective security needs: NATO
expansion, EU expansion
US strategic interest in Eastern Europe
ended with George W. Bush; “New Europe” support for 2003 invasion of Iraq
How important is Europe? In the 1990s, returning to political, cultural centrality
last obstacle to globalization removed
Building Post-Communist pluralistic democracies! Free Press! Free Elections!
Independent Judiciary! Constitutional Checks and Balances! Economic Liberalism! Open and Honest Criticisms of the US (especially race & class issues)!
End of the Soviet threat; Western Triumphalism
Return to history, return of history: lots of looking backward: what happened?? Nostalgia for Golden Eras; reclaiming national identities
Was the Cold War “unnatural” “foreign” “ahistorical” “excisable”? Were we too optimistic?
Key transformation: From planned economy to market economy
*Triumph not of democracy, but of market capitalism (Mazower, Dark Continent) Misha Glenny: economic development key to success or failure of radical
nationalism in the region
Governments favored: radical free market; “shock therapy”
*Balcerowicz Plan: western firms come to eastern markets with generous tax
breaks & ability to repatriate profits western goods pour into eastern markets
Prague, Warsaw, Budapest especially transformed into “western” cities (including
crime)
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary favor harsh transformation to market economy Western dumping ground?
European Integration?
From economic to political & military, social & cultural
acceptance?
Importance of “Central Europe” - cornerstone Growing split between “westerners” and
“traditionalists”
Ethno-cultural nationalism, free-market policies,
economic protectionism
“Winners” = young, educated people
Finance and Trade –
growth of economic interconnection
Migration – linked to
political relations, economic concerns, urbanization,
refugees, changing demographics
Culture – new media,
sports, music
Communications –
technological revolution, www to Internet, smart phones
All tied to security issues – especially after 9/11
Globalists
Economic liberalization will in the long run promote affluent societies and stable democratic institutions and promote universal a human rights
agenda
Anti-globalists
Globalization has shaped a new
imperial economic regime
International economic institutions
(IMF, WTO, G8) support the self-interest of the wealthiest states
Globalization creates a new great
divide that undermines labor rights, worsens the plight of refugees and
immigrants, and promotes
environmental degradation
Globalization means outsourcing, loss
of national identity, and undermines state security
It is up to us to be responsible for our
democracy, our rights, and our duties;
Respect for human rights and human
dignity is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace;
Stability based on oppression is an
illusion;
Change can happen gradually, and then
suddenly (like in 1989);
Small steps can have big results; We are all in this together.
