Exploitation of Eastern European migrant workers

Due to the dismantlement of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc, we were told we were now going to live in the best of all worlds. As we were led to believe the mythology of the West being paradise on Earth where the stores are full of goods and everybody is wealthy. Everything was thought to be of great quality and efficacy, beautiful and functional, rational and meaningful. The propaganda was so powerful that even some westerners ate it up, like Fukuyama who announced ‘the end of history’ and the eternal prevalence of ‘liberal democracy.’ Well, things ended up not going quite so well.
30 years into the restoration of the capitalist system, we can acutely see that most of the former ‘people’s republics’ were thrown into a civilizational disaster. The West colonized us and guaranteed that no development in the region of Eastern Europe was carried out other than supplemental and subordinate assistance to western industry and economy.
In recent years, the circumstances in Western Europe, as well as the United States and Canada, have deteriorated drastically, to the point that the tide started turning. More and more migrant workers from Eastern Europe are traveling back to their countries of origin, regardless of the ongoing disaster there. It seems like the neoliberal destruction in the West has brought about a decline there that makes it intolerable.
In this context the special guest of our live show On the Barricades on Jan. 24 at 6:30 p.m. CET was the Polish leftist political commentator, YouTuber, and migrant worker in France, Michał Nowicki.
Watch the entire conversation on our YouTube channel and don’t forget to subscribe to and like the video. This will help us make our analysis more popular, and more people will have the chance to get familiar with the political, social and economic problems in Eastern Europe.

Photo: Michał Nowicki (left), Maria Cernat and Boyan Stanislawski (source: The Barricade)
The Barricade is an independent platform, which is supported financially by its readers. Become one of them! If you have enjoyed reading this article, support The Barricade’s existence! We need you! See how you can help – here!