Aleksander Smolar - Citizens Movement of Democratic Action (65/201)

To listen to more of Aleksander Smolar’s stories, go to the playlist:    • Aleksander Smolar (Political scientist)  

Aleksander Smolar (b. 1940) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of the Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. [Listener: Vitek Tracz]

TRANSCRIPT: As well as being in the government, I participated in party politics even though I didn’t belong to any party... this was the first party you could say, the liberal intelligentsia which had its origins in the democratic opposition. It had the awkward title of ROAD, Ruch Obywatelski ROAD. Ruch Obywatelski Akcja Demokratyczna [Citizens Movement Democratic Action], a dreadful name, ROAD. I think that – I don’t remember the story but I’m guessing that somebody liked the fact that it spelled the word ‘road’. Never mind. In any case, it was a very nice movement, but because of its make-up and profile, which was pure intelligentsia, it was condemned to failure. It expanded later thanks to Tadeusz Mazowiecki who wanted to claim that part of the political spectrum, and so there followed a union with the democratic right. It was a small formation where one of the leading personalities was Aleksander Hall who was one of Tadeusz Mazowiecki’s ministers responsible for parliamentary contacts, if I remember rightly. He was one of the most interesting people in that group which wasn’t always that exciting. And... plus the actual members of that party who had enrolled on account of Tadeusz Mazowiecki. It was a party which had a slightly broader remit and later underwent a successive transformation by joining up with the liberals. The Freedom Union was formed. To this day many people accuse me of being behind its creation... of this union with the liberals. It’s true that I did have some part in this and I also played a role in removing Tadeusz Mazowiecki as party leader. It was a painful experience for me, but in some sense inevitable. He was a statesman and was someone who in Polish is referred to as a państwowiec which means someone who thinks in terms of his country.