Wielokulturowość z konfliktem w tle – Ślązacy: naród? Narodowość? Grupa etniczna?

Abstract

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.