[4] The ideology of the Working People's Movement mixes many currents - it is a union of left-wing trade unions,[11] makes populist appeals based on public discontent towards the Balcerowicz Plan and reality of capitalist Poland,[13] and considers itself a part of the left-wing tradition of the Catholic Church,[12] which is expressed by elements of Catholic moralism in the party.
[20] Alfred Miodowicz was heavily critical of the Polish communist authorities in the late 1980s, calling the economic program implemented by it a failure and fundamentally flawed.
[4] The party's organization was formulated to reflect that of a trade union - from 19 November 1989 until 16 December 1990, it was led by a Coordination Council with Ewa Spychalska as the chairwoman and Paweł Gieorgica as the secretary.
The National Council had 65 members, and each left-wing organization joining the party was guaranteed to receive at least a single seat.
[4] The RLP was temporarily headed by professor Roman Broszkiewicz, who was replaced a year later by the long-time chairman of the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions, Alfred Miodowicz.
In 1995, the party was headed for several months by Member of Parliament Wit Majewski and, from the autumn of the same year, by Lech Szymańczyk.
The organisers also included a group of academics from the Academy of Social Sciences, which was affiliated with the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party.
[4] In the 1990 Polish presidential election, RLP endorsed Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz of the Social Democracy of the Republic of Poland, calling him "a man whom the people of the left can unite around".
[4] The Working People's Movement became one of the founding members of the Democratic Left Alliance, which at that time was a coalition of around 30 parties, trade unions and associations.
In the Sejm of the Republic of Poland of the first three terms, the party was represented by Barbara Hyla-Makowska, Teresa Jasztal, Jacek Kasprzyk, Bogdan Krysiewicz, Janusz Lemański, Wit Majewski, Kazimierz Milner, Regina Pawłowska, Ewa Spychalska, Lech Szymańczyk and Jan Szymański.
[18] However, in 2000, the parliamentary group broke apart because RLP opposed the way the leader of the Polish Socialist Party, Piotr Ikonowicz, voted on issues.
[26] According to Mateusz Piskorski, the Working People's Movement never stopped existing, but it "eventually developed into a loose association" after leaving SLD in 1999.
[7] The party was reported as still existing in the 2007 edition of the Political Handbook of Europe, and remaining cloosely associated with the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions and Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland.
Democratic Left Alliance also became supported of market-liberal policies, which was criticized by Polish trade unions and provoked further split with the labor movement.
RLP stated that "capitalism is forced on the working class" and called for reforming state-owned industries into worker cooperatives rather than privatization.
It accused the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR) of no longer representing interests of working people, and it also denounced Solidarity, referred to as a ‘parasolidarity’.
RLP opposes the reprivatisation of the ‘assets of the entire nation’ and protests against the ‘unemployment capitalism’ of Poland, accusing it of causing dependence of the Polish economy on the West and the burdening of the ‘world of work’ with the costs of recovering from the crisis.
[10] The adherence to Catholic moralism was also shown by the fact that in 2000, the Working People's Movement supported an unsuccessful motion to ban "soft" pornography, and condemned MPs for foul language.
[18] Through its populist rhetoric, the party also makes appeals to those disappointed with the consequences of socialist Poland collapsing, and impoverished by the new capitalist policies.
The RLP wrote: ‘We expected a comprehensive, truly ‘ours’ programme that would inspire us all to implement it, to build our own dream Home, truly free, without poverty and evil.
It makes calls to "protect endangered livelihoods and the socialist idea of work",[23] and seeks to take over the legacy of the former ruling communist party.
[19] It has a communist past, and expresses both acceptance and support for the Polish socialism before the 1980s reforms undertaken by the reformist wing of the PZPR.
[38] It stresses the need to "democratise the political system and respect the interests of wage labourers, as well as to maintain, strengthen and expand historically hard-fought workers' rights" and is placed amongst the former socialist and trade unionist wings of the communist party.
[11] Despite its close ties and aspirations to represent the fallen PZPR, the RLP also embraced democratic socialist sentiments in its ideology.
"[36] The RLP presents a complex vision of Polish socialist economy, calling for "socialization of the state enterprises and their parcelling out".