THE famed Solidarity banner—an icon of Poland’s struggle against communism—has returned to the streets again of late, carried by thousands of union members demanding change. But unlike 30 years ago, when protesters wanted an end to the one-party Communist state, they now have the country’s centre-right government firmly in their sights.

Starting on September 11th, Warsaw saw four consecutive days of union-organised protests, culminating in one of the largest marches in Poland in recent years. Jan Guz, leader of the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions, warned that if the government failed to draw the right conclusions from the demonstrations “we will block the country”.

For years Poland has been praised for transforming its economy from Communist basket-case to one of the strongest in Europe. But the troubles of the euro zone finally caught up with it this year, reducing growth over the year to March to 0.5%. The unemployment rate hovers around 13%; in places such as Skarzysko-Kamienna, a dusty town south of Warsaw, the rate is twice that.

The anaemic economy helped Solidarity to call its members onto the Warsaw streets but there are other gripes, too. Union leaders demand the scrapping of recent amendments to the labour code introducing “junk contracts”, which give an employer greater flexibility but come with little or no job security or employment rights. They have also set the dismissal of Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, the labour minister, as a condition for resuming negotiations with the government. Other grievances include the government’s raising of the retirement age to 67, school closures and the apparent failure of the state to stop young Poles from emigrating.

All this has piled pressure on Donald Tusk, the prime minister. His party, Civic Platform (PO), has already had to contend with a bout of infighting and resignations that left his coalition with a wafer-thin majority of just two in parliament. Many voters seem to be weary of a government that has been in office for six years.

Opinion polls have put PO behind its arch rival, Law and Justice, the main opposition party. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Law and Justice leader, has been quick to capitalise on the protests claiming that “this is not a country hospitable to all citizens; it is not a real democracy”.

Salvation for Mr Tusk might be on the way. Economic forecasts have started to perk up. Poland’s central bank and the IMF expect the economy to grow by 1.1% this year. Retail sales and industrial production have improved. This prompted Mr Tusk to declare: “I have bad news for pessimists. There will be no recession or stagnation in Poland.”

The government has announced a restructuring of the state’s pension funds that will involve the cancellation of a substantial amount of government debt (see Buttonwood). This will have a cosmetic effect on the debt-to-GDP ratio and the budget deficit, which might give the government more scope to borrow money that it could spend on projects to spur economic growth. But if the public perceive the reform as undermining the value of their pensions, it will only stir further anger.