281/365: Screen printing

I have to recycle an older picture for this week, sorry. I haven't had a chance to update my flickr stream since tango night.

This is a screenprinting machine set up during an event celebrating the murals painted in Lodz during the socialist republic. Most of them are already faded, gone, or the buildings they were on have been torn down.

The street party took place by the most famous of the Lodz advertising murals, a butterfly, the symbol of a strange socialist enterprise called 'Pewex', a mangled acronym for National Interior Export.

The name itself makes no sense at all- how can you have Interior Export? Well, for instance, when your country produces certain goods which the locals are not allowed to purchase. This was quite common in socialist and communist states. Export-only vodka, for instance.

You could buy these forbidden goods legally in Pewex shops, however, alongside a small selection of Western goods, such as electronics, brand cigarettes, chocolate, Coca-cola, authentic blue jeans, Barbie dolls, Legos...even toilet paper.  All of those things are readily available today, but used to be the utmost luxury in a socialist republic. The trick was, Pewex stores did not take Polish currency- you had to pay in dollars, or with special cheques. But owning dollars was problematic- the amount you were allowed to posess was strictly controlled by the government, and while dollars could buy you luxuries, owning the currency could also bring the dreaded Security Service down on your back. Where did you get this money? Are you spying for the West?

For the government, one of the purposes of the existence of Pewex was to drain foreign currencies from the citizens, as well as diplomats and tourists- exchange between Polish and Western currencies was also a procedure micro-managed by the government. You couldn't just go to the bank and buy dollars or francs- the government had to approve each and every transaction.

Such a strange time it was, twenty odd years ago. The people who came to the street party would be my age, and would have grown up seeing Poland drastically change. The newer kids, the nineties generation, they are already finding it difficult to understand. They grew up to meet a world where store shelves are always full, and any individual with money in their pocket can buy whatever they want, whenever they want. No restrictions, no waiting lists, no limited choices.

So it's important to preserve the memory of the People's Republic. Not to glorify it, but to make sure we know how much we have gained.