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The article in the Biuletyn Informacyjny

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The greatest diploma I've ever received
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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I arrived in Warsaw, I came home and there was a press conference straight away which the girls had organised for us, and that night I jumped out of the window, said goodbye to Gajka and took the old route to Gdańsk. The old route means any old how just to get to Działdowo because I was afraid to take the route where they could catch me the way they always caught me. From Działdowo, I caught a train to Tczewo, at Tczewo I caught the morning train, the one that everyone used to get to work, and got off at Gdańsk Wrzeszcz. That was the way I always went. It was funny because without realising it, I landed up in the exact spot where they had their meeting place because they had a place where they'de meet up on a side street off Limanowska Street. But I didn't go there, I went to a pay phone and rang Gwiazda's factory where by chance Gwiazda happened to be, and Lis. We met up in a flat in Sopot. As always, this was all covert: Lech, Anka, Joasia Gwiazda, Andrzej, Bogdan Lis, Bogdan Borusewicz of course and I. So we started thinking about this whole thing and wondering what to do and how to do it. They said straight away that at the next general meeting, I was going to be made an adviser, and I got given a certificate saying I was working with the Committee, at the time it was still called the Strike Committee, that I had worked with it, that I had worked with the strike and therefore I was protected by such and such an article of the authorities. I was so proud of this. It was the greatest diploma I'd ever received.

Przyjechałem do Warszawy, przyjechałem do domu prosto na konferencję prasową, którą nam dziewczyny zorganizowały i w nocy wyskoczyłem przez okno, pożegnałem się z Gajką i pojechałem starą... .Starym szlakiem do Gdańska. Starym szlakiem to znaczy na łapu capu, byle jak do Działdowa, bo ja się bałem jechać głównym traktem, że mnie zwiną. Tak jak zawsze się bałem, że mnie zwiną. W Działdowie wsiadałem w pociąg do Tczewa, w Tczewie wsiadałem w poranny, tym... ten, którym ludzie do pracy jeżdżą i jechałem do Gdańska Wrzeszcza. Zawsze tak jechałem. A najzabawniejsze, nie wiedząc o tym, wjechałem prosto na miejsce lokalu, bo oni wtedy na tej bocznej tam Limanowskiego chyba ulicy mieli lokal. Ale nie poszedłem do tego, poszedłem do automatu i zadzwoniłem do tego zakładu pracy Gwiazdy, która była przypadkiem... był w jej przypadku Gwiazda, Lis. Spotkaliśmy się w takim jednym mieszkaniu w Sopocie. Jak po dawnemu, wszystko tajnie: Lech, Anka, Joasia Gwiazdowa, Andrzej, Bogdan Lis, Bogdan Borusewicz oczywiście i ja. No i zaczęliśmy się zastanawiać, co z tym całym fantem robić i jak to robić. Że oni powiedzieli od razu: "Zaraz, teraz na najbliższym prezydium robimy ciebie doradcą". No i najbliższe prezydium uchwaliło, że zostanę doradcą i dostałem taki papier że jestem współpracownikiem Komitetu, to się jeszcze nazywało Strajkowego, działałem, współdziałam, działam ze strajkiem i w związku z tym chroni mnie taki i taki artykuł, wszystkie władze tam. Z tego byłem tak dumny. Był to największy dyplom, jaki kiedykolwiek w życiu dostałem.

The late Polish activist, Jacek Kuroń (1934-2004), had an influential but turbulent political career, helping transform the political landscape of Poland. He was expelled from the communist party, arrested and incarcerated. He was also instrumental in setting up the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and later became a Minister of Labour and Social Policy.

Listeners: Marcel Łoziński Jacek Petrycki

Film director Marcel Łoziński was born in Paris in 1940. He graduated from the Film Directing Department of the National School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź in 1971. In 1994, he was nominated for an American Academy Award and a European Film Academy Award for the documentary, 89 mm from Europe. Since 1995, he has been a member of the American Academy of Motion Picture Art and Science awarding Oscars. He lectured at the FEMIS film school and the School of Polish Culture of Warsaw University. He ran documentary film workshops in Marseilles. Marcel Łoziński currently lectures at Andrzej Wajda’s Master School for Film Directors. He also runs the Dragon Forum, a European documentary film workshop.

Cinematographer Jacek Petrycki was born in Poznań, Poland in 1948. He has worked extensively in Poland and throughout the world. His credits include, for Agniezka Holland, Provincial Actors (1979), Europe, Europe (1990), Shot in the Heart (2001) and Julie Walking Home (2002), for Krysztof Kieslowski numerous short films including Camera Buff (1980) and No End (1985). Other credits include Journey to the Sun (1998), directed by Jesim Ustaoglu, which won the Golden Camera 300 award at the International Film Camera Festival, Shooters (2000) and The Valley (1999), both directed by Dan Reed, Unforgiving (1993) and Betrayed (1995) by Clive Gordon both of which won the BAFTA for best factual photography. Jacek Petrycki is also a teacher and a filmmaker.

Tags: Warsaw, Gdańsk, Działdowo, Tczewo, Wrzeszcze, Limanowska Street, Strike Committee, Gajka Kuroń, Andrzej Gwiazda, Joanna Gwiazda, Bogdan Lis, Bogdan Borusewicz

Duration: 1 minute, 46 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008