Plombier polonaise

Today Nilla and I defied the warm spring weather and went inside to see five short theatre plays inspired by an article series written by Maciej Zaremba in 2005. The articles addressed our own Swedish version of the “Plombier polonaise” debate, which followed a blockade enforced by the unions against Latvian construction workers in Stockholm.

As I remember reading Zaremba’s articles with great interest, I was of course excited about this new artistic interpretation. And I must say it turned out pretty well, though somewhat uneven in quality between the different plays.

Clearly, the underlying political theme is as important as ever.

As the debate has evolved, there are a few things in particular that I find disturbing. First, how come Swedish middle-class kids are allowed to work, for instance, in London, earning a relatively low salary (well protected by their parents if anything serious were to happen), while we consider it “social tourism” if a Lithuanian girl wants to do the same in Stockholm? Second, what would really be the alternative to allowing money and jobs to flow to the new member countries in Central and Eastern Europe? To simply keep these countries in poverty? Of course not. By moving industrial production (like the vacuum cleaner factory in Västervik, which has recently been relocated to Hungary), new jobs are created in these countries, which eventually raise living standards and in turn increase demand for Swedish goods further up the value chain (such as pharmaceuticals from AstraZeneca or mobile phones designed in Sweden).

Of course, we as a country are much better off selling such high-tech products than vacuum cleaners. The problem is one of distribution. While the shareholders of Ericsson may benefit tremendously from this process of globalisation, the same does not necessarily apply to the workers in that specific Västervik factory. And it is here that we, as egalitarian liberals, should engage in the debate and show why distributive justice requires us to offer new hope to those disadvantaged by increased economic globalisation. Through measures such as a generous student loan system or free dental care, funded by progressive taxation, that hope can be provided without awakening the spectre of paternalism.

It is time to move beyond the idea that international competition is a zero-sum game.