Food and politics are closely connected: that comes as a surprise to nobody. Certain iconic foods (or drinks) have a special place in our collective imagination. Some may be identified with a nation or a social class, others become symbol of economic dynamics that are often the object of stinging critique.
As I start my summer fieldwork on the revaluation of regional and traditional foods in Poland, it feels like I am peeling off layers after layer of a culture that at first blush might come across as relatively readable, but that is actually rich, complex, and full of elements that require research and reflection. The country has shared a post-socialist transition with other neighbors that were for years under the Soviet influence, but it had developed its own dynamics, as a result of its peculiar history.
Erased from the political map of Europe in the eighteenth century and split among the Russian, Prussian, and Austro-Hungarian empires, Poland resurged as a nation in 1918, only to be occupied by the Nazis and the Soviet Union in 1939, and to become part of the Socialist Block after World War II. It now boasts one of the highest rates of economic growth in Europe, and the new-found wealth (although quite unequally distributed among the population) has allowed a new and fast-developing culinary scene to emerge, that ranges from affordable kebabs to sophisticated sushi and, increasingly, elevated versions of local dishes and ingredients, which are the subject of my research here.
Many mainstays of global fast-food are now part of Polish everyday life, with Cola-Cola looming large. Although most consumers would have no hesitation in buying it, the drink was, at one time in history, controversial. My co-researcher and unwitting cultural interpreter, Mateusz Halawa, unearthed for me an interesting poem from 1950 and provided interesting information and visual material (like the picture above of a 1977 party) about the history of the drink in Poland.
A Song about Coca-Cola
It was good for you to drink Coca-Cola.
You sucked our sugar cane,
you ate our rice fields,
you chewed rubber, gold, platinum,
it was good for you to drink Coca-Cola.
We, who drank from swampy wells,
today we drink the water of hope,
bravery, whose source is in people,
we drink water in the mountains of Korea,
we who drank from swampy wells.
After Coca-Cola, blissfully, pink,
for a couple of American cents,
you dreamed our atomic death,
five American continents.
After Coca-Cola, blissfully, pink!
We, wo drink the water of hope,
we know where our will spreads today:
you left China, you are leaving Korea,
we will disrupt your dream of Coca-Cola,
we, who drink the water of hope.
For those who read Polish, the original text is at the end of this post.
The text was composed in 1950 by the poet Adam Ważyk, in Nails to Truman (Gwoździe do Trumana), a collection issued by the Ministry of National Defense Poland. The title is a pun in Polish, as trumna means coffin. A Jewish artist whose birth name was Ajzyk Wagman, after being a member of the Polish communist party and a visible representative of socialist realism in literature, he slowly shifted his political position, ending up critiquing Polish socialism as a dehumanizing force. For instance, in his A Poem for Adults (Poemat dla dorosłych), written in 1955 (two years after the death of Stalin), he pointed out how Stalinist propaganda was concealing the the reality of workers’ daily life.
It is not surprising that the poem, a cultural product of the the Cold War, focuses on the American drink, connecting it with troublesome images of atomic death, slavery, and economic colonization. (Another poet, Jan Brzechwa, wrote in the poem sardonically titled “Voice of America”: “Boast about your chewing gum, boast about your coca-cola / Some people prefer coca-cola to freedom…”) Writing during the Korean War, Ważyk reflects on Coca-Cola as a symbol of US imperial power and exploitation of the masses. After all, it was the beverage that had managed to find a solid place in military supplies, becoming available to soldiers wherever they were.
Food and politics are closely connected: that comes as a surprise to nobody. Certain iconic foods (or drinks) have a special place in our collective imagination. Some may be identified with a nation or a region, triggering sentiments of pride and belonging that at times can exclude or demean others. Of course, they can become stereotypes: think about spaghetti with tomato sauce for Italians, kimchi for Koreans, or tacos for Mexicans. Others, like ortolans or white truffles, reflect class and refinement. Conversely, dishes frequently connoted as less distinguished, such as mac and cheese or BBQ in the US, have been embraced as comfort food, expressing working-class pride and anti-elitism. However, some common items like hamburgers and Cola-Cola, have turned into recognizable markers of the industrialized globalization of the food systems, and as such are objects of critique in terms of health impact, elimination of local particularities, and standardization of taste across places and communities.
As Poland celebrates 30 years from its first free elections, brought about by the Solidarność union movement, it is interesting to observe the culinary trajectory of the country. Coca-Cola provides a useful periodization: stigmatized as the quintessential capitalist product in the early Stalinist 1950s, allowed into the Poznań International Fair as one of the signals of the post-Stalinist “thaw” in 1957, then available to the chosen few who had access to hard currency until the new first secretary Gierek ushered the era of consumer socialism with mass production of Coca-Cola (and its competitor, Pepsi) in mid-1970s.
https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kiosk/list-z-zachodu-w-butelce/kp2zz
The leading poet-songwriter of this time, Agnieszka Osiecka, even became a copywriter to mark the occasion, coming up with the slogan “Coca-Cola to jest to” (“Coca-Cola this is it!”). Embraced as a consumable signifier of openness to the world, it has been normalized into an everyday drink since the 1990s with commercials showing both traditional Polish festivities like Wigilia, or Christmas Eve, as well as aspirational everyday meals of the emerging middle class. Now it is increasingly considered unfavorably by the growing urban foodie culture and magazines decrying the rise of children obesity. I wonder, however, how many still remember the spirit of the 1950s. Ważyk’s poem works as a useful reminder of a past that has left hidden, but not for that less enduring, traces.
Piosenka o Coca-Cola
Dobrze wam było pić Coca-Cola.
Ssaliście naszą cukrową trzcinę,
zjadali nasze ryżowe pola,
żuliście kauczuk, złoto, platynę,
dobrze wam było pić Coca-Cola.
My, co z bagnistych piliśmy studzien,
dzisiaj pijemy wodę nadziei,
męstwo, którego źródło jest w ludzie,
pijemy wodę w górach Korei,
my, co z bagnistych piliśmy studzien.
Po Coca-Cola błogo, różowo
za parę centów amerykańskich
śniliście naszą śmierć atomową,
pięć kontynentów amerykańskich.
Po Coca-Cola błogo, różowo!
My, co pijemy wodę nadziei,
wiemy, gdzie sięga dziś nasza wola:
wyszliście z Chin, wyjdziecie z Korei,
my wam przerwiemy sen Coca-Cola,
my, co pijemy wodę nadziei.