Abstrakt: | Multiculturalism on the background of a conflict
– the Silesians: a nation? A nationality? An ethnic group?
The dispute over whether there exists a Silesian nation, Silesian nationality
or whether Silesians are an ethnic group, has flared up in Poland, but
mainly in the Silesian Voivodeship, on a surprisingly large scale. This rather
fresh controversy, growing since the turn of the 80s and 90s of the last century,
i.e. since the beginning of the transformation processes in Poland,
takes place in public discussions and in the media, and its finale – in the
courts. Some believe that the basis is the Silesians’ disappointment with the
way the region has been transformed, through a destructive rather than
creative restructuring, through closure of coal mines and steel mills, all of
which has resulted in citizens’ impoverishment, in sudden outbreak of unemployment,
and in the lack of any program or strategy for the region.
The 1990s saw the appearance of an idea of recognizing the Silesian national
distinctiveness, founded on a wave of renaissance of Silesian cultural
identity. Loud became demands of reviving the idea of autonomy of the
Silesian province, and the fight for recognition of Silesian nationality as
a different social and political entity. The Silesians, convinced of the marginalization
of indigenous people as well as of injustices and wrongs inflicted
by the Polish authorities after World War II, in various ways, including
the political and judicial ones, are attempting to gain the status of a national
minority or, as in recent times, an ethnic one. It is hard not to agree with
the thesis that these efforts fit in with the idea of multiculturalism, which –
being an indicator of the level of democratization of all spheres of life – has
accelerated the revival of regional identity in a large part of the population
of Silesia and provided them with the ideological basis to articulate their
needs, expectations and aspirations. |