Say-So

The KDT (Kupieckie Domy Towarowe) or in loose translation - Merchants’ Shopping Center in the heart of Warsaw is history. Its closure registered in international headlines due to a formidable resistance of the tenant merchants against the incoming bailiffs and private guard. Polish media described the events as a “battle of a magnitude unseen since 1989″. Indeed, the images of the struggle were reminiscent of the heydays of Solidarity back when it was still a trade union free of political aspirations. The retailers of KDT barricaded themselves inside the halls and fought to preserve 2000 jobs the loss of which is estimated to impact 8000 people.

Mainstream news sources delivered a brief and sensationalistic account of the recent chain of events. Tear gas, stone throwing, water blasts and beatings caused injuries to roughly 100 people. The leaders of KDT partnership had been negotiating with the city regarding their status as occupants of prime real estate for years. As a result of last round of failed talks, current mayor of Warsaw (the post is also commonly known as the presidency of the city) - Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz - refused to renew the lease in January 2009. The occupants of KDT ran their business illegally since, and were informed of the time and date of eviction. Warsaw’s municipal government claims that the tenants unlawfully refused to vacate the building. The organizers of the opposition will be criminally charged and held accountable for property damage.

Sympathizers on the side of the city portray the merchants as obstructionist, self centered and greedy, their lengthy, assertive negotiations as seeking special consideration. The KDT hall, which was a makeshift shopping center and not a “bazaar” as it is too often called, was constructed in 2001 to replace an open air market of free standing metal stands popularly nicknamed “jaws”. Made of sheets of corrugated metal it was always intended to be a temporary solution until the permanent shopping center was built in its stead. Ten years ago that temporary shelter, (while its aesthetic was questioned) was considered to be a face lift, certainly an improvement over the free standing stalls. It is now thought of as an eyesore by the increasing numbers of the ever more sophisticated Varsovians.

What took place on the streets of Warsaw, and what many fail to recognize and appropriately name - is sadly a story seen many times before all around the globe - the dispossession of poorly organized segments of population by a neoliberal government looking out for the interests of big business. The impressive resistance mounted by the merchants is a testimony to their weakness, not strength. Their unique situation comprised of a combination of cultural diversity entirely new in Polish society along with their ambiguous class definition made it difficult to align themselves politically and seek protective backing. That same set of circumstances made them vulnerable to exploitation by self serving politicians. It is that lack of political representation that drove the KDT partnership towards desperate and violent measures according to Agata Czarnacka author of an opinion published at the left wing political commentary website krytykapolityczna.pl. Hers is a knowledgeable and compassionate account of everything not mentioned anywhere else about the KDT Warsaw crisis. The essay titled “Bloody Riots Among the Middle Class” deserves a full translation, here I hope to do her justice by summing up some of her more poignant points. (original in Polish).

Ms. Czarnacka recounts that back in 1999 when the KDT partnership was founded under the Civic Platform mandated Warsaw presidency - an average KDT merchant was a model CP voter, a hard working, entrepreneurial, self-made individualist. Under the rival Law and Justice mayorship in 2005, promises of a 30 year lease and a newly built proper locale were made no doubt in order to woo the relevant voters in the face of looming elections. The merchants’ egos were stroked, and expectations set high. When Ms. Gronkiewicz-Waltz became the mayor in 2006, she was faced with significant degree of posturing and tactical vying for most advantageous outcome by the KDT representatives - a result of prior negotiations under a different government. As recently as a few months ago, in summer 2009, the merchants were being courted by both the Democratic Left Alliance and by the Democratic Party.

Most interestingly, the author brings to light the curiously nationalist image that the KDT has forged, branding itself as a “Polish place to shop” in direct opposition to the supposedly Jewish Golden Terraces across the street. This postulated image is all the more jarring if one has indeed had the opportunity to visit or shop at KDT. It was by far more ethnically diverse than the average cross section of the Polish population, with many merchants having come from the middle east or the far east. The Asian, and the most numerous among them - the Vietnamese diaspora, are generally marginalized in the Polish society to the point of invisibility.

Add to the mix the unclear and ill defined class standing and unsurprisingly the situation becomes noxious. The article mentions that the neoliberal practices in Poland forced significant chunks of population into self employment and created a new sector of society which could typically be defined as middle class entrepreneurs but without the backbone capital usually associated with it. The ambivalent character of the new Polish proletariat disallows the application of Western social conventions, since according to Ms. Czarnacka the “working class” (which serves as a counterpart to the “middle class”), has been eliminated from existence. To which, I will add alas - in theory perhaps, but not in practice.

When Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz assumed the city presidency, the plans for the prime spot occupied by the KDT changed and along with it, turned the fortune of the lessee retailers. A shopping area is still part of the proposal for the development of the greater stretch of Parade Square, but its crown jewel will be a Museum of Modern Arts. On the first glance it is a lofty idea and a fitting design for exploitation of the most desirable real estate in the country. It is also a skillful public relations measure convincing the public that the presence of provincial merchants trading with cheap Asian goods is a tarnishing anathema to the image of Warsaw as a thriving European capital.

It is mid 2009 and the KDT has been liquidated. The construction of the museum and the adjacent shopping center will not start till 2011, if at all. It is worthwhile mentioning that the merchants have collected and payed 16 million PLN for the 700 stands and now vacant KDT hall. Adding insult to injury, the city of Warsaw made the new proposed retail area “available” to the KDT merchants - at a rental market price (140 EU/m2 per month). To put things in perspective, presently, the EUR-PLN exchange is 1-4, while minimum wage is less than 1300 PLN monthly. Since, very predictably (and I dare to say premeditatedly) it was well beyond reach of the KDT partnership, the city earmarked alternative locations to which the retailers could move. All of them turned out to be on the peripheries of the city. Under pressure from the KDT negotiators, the city representatives offered up a few central areas one of which, near Okopowa street was finally agreed upon, for the price of 41 mln PLN. Embittered merchants claim that the agreement never came to fruition because the city negotiators at the last minute raised the price to 65 mln PLN. Moreover, the city boasted offering 200 merchant stands without auction on first come first served basis for those who voluntarily renounced their KDT spots. On closer scrutiny - 200 spots when 700 are needed - is not a gesture of rapprochement but a divisive tactic aiming to split and weaken the KDT opposition.

Despite the facts seriously calling into question the attitude and the goodwill of the city in respect to KDT, the Polish public opinion is divided. To some, the disobeying of law, rioting and disorder are in themselves transgressions worthy of condemnation. The expurgation by the city of “bazaar” vendors is fully supported. The KDT merchants were considered to have had plenty of notice. They ought to have taken care of themselves and secured alternative sources of income. They are fully to blame for their own demise.

Others, criticize the nationalist tendencies and the demagogic tactics (such as presence of children in the barricaded hall) used by the organizers of the KDT, their unwillingness to compromise, the misdirection of efforts away from securing employment and instead focusing on achieving political victory (original article in Polish). Ironically, alongside the supporters of the municipal government, this view holds the KDT leaders unilaterally responsible for the riots, violence and personal injuries.

The majority holds a compromising view - splitting the blame and accusing both parties of absence of goodwill and inability to reach an agreement. It is seemingly a sensible stance going amiss on one crucial point - that of inequitable negotiations and all too evident class oppression.

Only a minority sided with the victims of Tuesday’s eviction. They chanted and marched, protested, waved flags and taunted the police which was called in on behalf of the city to help overpower the unexpectedly strong opposition. The singing of the national anthem, the chanting of the name of “Solidarity” and banners with nationalist slogans were evocative of the great struggle for freedom of the 1980s. The methods used in protests clearly have not changed in the last 20 years, but Poland has. According to a 2002 census roughly 1.23% declared “other” as nationality (ie. other than Polish, Silesian, German, Belorussian, Ukrainian, Roma etc.) and 2.03% did not declare any. Who are the 1.25 mln people living in Poland who choose to call themselves “other” or not to identify themselves at all? Where were the racial minorities who also had a stake in the fight over KDT during riots? How do they feel about slogans such as “KDT - good because it is Polish”?

The populist Law and Justice party a close rival of the Civic Platform in the past, is already feeding off Ms. Gronkiewicz-Waltz’s failure to handle the crisis. Naturally, their criticism is politically motivated and reactionary. It is conceivable however that they will be able to recapture the imagination of the Polish electorate in the face of increasingly more visible fallout of liberal economics. The lack of sensitivity that Poles exhibit towards minorities may turn, under heavy nationalistic rule into something much, much, worse.