Word: unionizers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Neither in Poland nor in Kampuchea could these dramatic reversals have been made without the sponsorship of Gorbachev. They follow a string of precedents set by the Soviet Union: its first contested elections in 71 years; withdrawal from Afghanistan; constructive mediation in southern Africa; offers of significant cuts in the Warsaw Pact's conventional-force structure in Europe; and even, despite reports of an unwelcome sale of jet bombers to Libya, suggestions of a generally more helpful approach to the Middle East...
...message everywhere is the same. The Soviet Union is scaling back its cold war commitments overseas in favor of a more pragmatic, diplomatic -- and potentially more successful -- drive to expand its influence abroad. The Soviets are moving in more subtle ways than of old to position themselves advantageously. The retrenchment from overt aggression, said a top adviser to President George Bush last week, discloses "a foreign policy of necessity designed to provide breathing space." But this necessity has bred a virtue: the plaudits for Moscow's policy shifts have led to an overall advance of the Gorbachev cause overseas...
True, Gorbachev's temperamental preference is for the practical. But not even Gorbachev would be so eager to reduce expensive commitments beyond his borders if his country were not in such desperate straits. Though a military superpower, the Soviet Union is struggling economically. To make perestroika succeed, Gorbachev cannot afford to squander huge sums of money and material on foreign adventures...
...change in Moscow, it would be difficult to imagine the events of last week. There could hardly be more dramatic evidence of a break with the old thinking than the recent events in Poland. Solidarity leader Lech Walesa signing an agreement, smiling even, with Polish Communist officials. The union grew out of economic despair in 1980 and was crushed the next year by the imposition of martial law, one of the last ironfisted displays of Brezhnev-style authority...
...Soviet Union, the practical advantage of permitting such political experiments must be balanced against the threat they pose. Poland will test to the limits Moscow's professed willingness to let each country design its own version of socialism...