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Negotiations for square brackets

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Most important events of Poland's post-war history
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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Each of those years in which something was happening, beginning with 1956, are all bearing fruit today. Of course, 1956 changed a great deal in this country, but mainly it taught us that unless society is organised, whatever success we have will be superficial and momentary. The year 1968 was massively significant. It tore away whole generations, whole classes of students were lost to the communists for good, creating a significant pool of people who were permanently active after that. 1970 also did nothing but teach us that if we're not organised, we won't achieve a thing, and if the workers march separately from the intelligentsia, and the rural workers march separately, then we'll never have any impact on that power that we are constantly up against. This lodged in people's minds and to this day it is paying dividends.

Wszystkie te lata w których coś się działo od ‘56 roku poczynając, wszystkie w jakiś sposób dzisiaj owocują. ‘56 rok, no, oczywiście wiele zmienił w kraju, ale głównie nas nauczył tego, że bez zorganizowania się społeczeństwa sukces będzie pozorny i chwilowy.

No, kolosalne znaczenie miał rok ‘68. On wyrwał całe pokolenia, wiele roczników studenckich odebrał komunistom już raz na zawsze i stworzył dosyć dużą kadrę ludzi, którzy później już bez przerwy byli aktywni. No, ‘70 rok pozostawił znowu tylko naukę – naukę tego, że właśnie bez organizowania się niczego się nie osiągnie i że jeżeli robotnicy będą szli osobno, a inteligencja, chłopi osobno, to nigdy z tą potęgą z którą mamy ciągle do czynienia, nic... niewiele uzyskamy. I to utkwiło w ludzkiej świadomości, do dzisiejszego dnia procentuje.

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was one of Poland's best known political activists. He was also a writer and a literary critic. As a soldier in the Home Army (Armia Krajowa), he fought in the Warsaw Uprising. In 1976, following worker protests, he co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). His active opposition to Poland's communist authorities led to his arrest and imprisonment on several occasions. In 1987, he re-established and headed the Polish Socialist Party. Two years later, he was elected to the Polish Senate. He died in 1991 while still in office. For his significant work, Lipski was honoured with the Cross of the Valorous (Krzyż Walecznych), posthumously with the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1991) and with the highest Polish decoration, the Order of the White Eagle (2006).

Listeners: Jacek Petrycki Marcel Łoziński

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.

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.

Tags: society, workers, intelligentsia

Duration: 1 minute, 42 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 15 March 2011