Working People's Movement

The Working People's Movement (Polish: Ruch Ludzi Pracy, RLP), also known as the Movement for the Working People, or the Movement of Polish Working People, is a left-wing political party and trade union in Poland. It was founded on 10 October 1989 by trade unionists of All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions (OPZZ) to serve as the political wing of OPZZ. Initially founded as a "political front", it became a political party on 16 December 1990 and was registered on 18 January 1991. It became one of the 30 founding organizations of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) in 1991, and from 1991 to 2001, RLP held 11 seats in the Sejm as part of SLD. In 1999, the RLP broke away from SLD because it opposed the decision of the SLD to transform from a coalition to a centralized political party, as it wanted to maintain its identity. From 1999 to 2000, the party's MPs formed a parliamentary group together with the Polish Socialist Party, but this was dissolved in 2000 over policy disagreements. The RLP did not participate in the 2001 election and thus lost its 11 seats. It then became a loose political association, and its members joined the far-left Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland. RLP campaigned for the leader of Self-Defence, Andrzej Lepper, in the 2005 presidential election, and ran on its electoral lists in the 2005 and 2007 parliamentary elections, with Szymański, the leader of the RLP, winning a seat in 2005. The RLP was reactivated on 26 May 2012.

The party is a part of the Polish post-communist radical left. Its goal is to "protect the working people and their material, political and social interests". The ideology of the Working People's Movement mixes many currents - it is a union of left-wing trade unions, makes populist appeals based on public discontent towards the Balcerowicz Plan and reality of capitalist Poland, and considers itself a part of the left-wing tradition of the Catholic Church, which is expressed by elements of Catholic moralism in the party. On one hand, the Working People's Movement seeks to take over the legacy of the fallen ruling communist party, the Polish United Workers' Party, but on the other hand it denounces it as "a workers' party in name only". The RLP presents a democratic socialist vision, calling for a socialization and parcellization of the Polish economy into four unique portions - 20% is to be owned by the state and follow state socialist principles, another 20% is to form the "communal sector" based on workers' cooperatives, 40% is to be given to a "public sector" based on "stock cooperatives" where both the owners and the workers would own a fixed share in stocks, and the remaining 20% is to comprise a private sector of small businesses only.