Polish communist party members themselves joined the opposition en masse

Evidence

Poles repeatedly poured out onto the streets in protest in 1956, 1968, 1970, and 1976. In the most dramatic, and most sustained, opposition movement against communist rule, they founded and then joined en masse the independent trade union Solidarity, which claimed 10 million members, or over a third of the adult population, during 1980–1. In what was both a historical irony and evidence of the party’s laxity, over 35% of the Polish communist party members joined Solidarity, while 45% expressed pro- Solidarity sentiment in public opinion surveys. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 255

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for the reader’s divergence question: professed party loyalty did not predict opposition — over a third of card-carrying communists joined Solidarity, anticipating the post-1989 finding that formal membership predicts little about post-transition allegiance. — connects to: Polish communists tacitly tolerated members practicing religion and opposing the party — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 259; Over a third of Polish communist party members themselves joined the anti-regime Solidarity movement. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 255; Polish party members openly practiced religion and joined the opposition by the 1970s. — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past: The…, 259 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Polish communists tacitly tolerated members practicing religion and opposing the party #corroborates (0.80) — Anna M. Grzymala-Busse, Redeeming The Communist Past, 259