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NEXT STORY

Solidarity replaces KOR

RELATED STORIES

Uncontrolled industrial actions
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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Powodowało to zrozumiałe odruchy niezadowolenia, strajki, które często były z punktu widzenia „Solidarności” strajkami dzikimi, to znaczy takimi o których władze „Solidarności” dowiadywały się ostatnie w ogóle, że gdzieś ktoś strajkuje. Z każdym miesiącem było widać, że coraz trudniej zapanować nad takim ogromnym, wielomilionowym ruchem, gdzie ludzkie postulaty wynikające z... z tego, że przez dziesiątki lat różne podstawowe potrzeby ludzkie nie były zaspakajane. No co można było powiedzieć tym ludziom, gdy uważali, że w sprawach przeważnie, nie zawsze, ale przeważnie słusznych, chcą przez strajk spowodować polepszenie tego czy owego. Doszło do takich sytuacji w których władze „Solidarności” coraz bardziej zaczęły tłumić te strajki, obawiając się tego, że nie zapanują nad sytuacją i że stanie się to dziedziną rozbujałych prowokacji ze strony władzy próbującej ten ruch kompromitować. Takich wypadków było dosyć dużo, takich strajków, co do których jesteśmy przekonani, że ludzie strajkowali oczywiście w dobrej wierze, ale że początkiem tego strajku była prowokacja. No, najdrastyczniejszy przykład to... nie pamiętam, jak się nazywała ta kopalnia, gdzie po prostu nieznani sprawcy zagazowali wejście do kopalni przy pomocy gazów bojowych. No i... a kopalnia i cały tam... ten... miasto odpowiedziało na to strajkiem. No, to była taka już prymitywna i ostra prowokacja. Ale innego rodzaju prowokacji było też co niemiara. Wszystko to miało na celu stworzenie tej sytuacji, która w sposób też naturalny... istniała – trudność zapanowania nad tym, a jeżeli trudność zapanowania, to była obawa, że to wszystko przerodzi się w zupełny chaos. Pamiętam taką sytuację, że na przykład Jacek Kuroń, wysłany przez Wałęsę do Żyrardowa, gdzie jest duża... gdzie są duże fabryki włókiennicze, pojechał z zamiarem wytłumaczenia tamtym działaczom, że strajkować nie można, że nie jest to moment, że utrudniają różnego rodzaju manewry związkowi, jak zobaczył na własne oczy w jakich warunkach tamte kobiety pracują, za jaką płacę i w jak okropnych warunkach sanitarnych, higienicznych, bezpieczeństwa pracy i jak niewiele żądają w gruncie rzeczy w stosunku do tej okropnej sytuacji - to zrezygnował z zamiaru wybijania z głowy. Powiedział: „Nie, ten... nikt, kto ma chociaż odrobinę sumienia, nie może w tej sytuacji powiedzieć ludziom: 'Nie strajkujcie'”.

This gave rise to understandable dissatisfaction, strikes which from the point of view of Solidarity were wild strikes, meaning that the Solidarity leadership were the last ones to find out that someone somewhere was on strike. With each passing month, it was obvious that it was becoming increasingly difficult to control such a vast movement which had several million members and where the demands of the people resulted from the fact that for decades basic human needs hadn't been met. What could we say to these people who believed, usually but not always justifiably, that by going on strike they could improve one or two things? It reached the point where the leadership of Solidarity began to suppress these strikes out of concern that they wouldn't be able to control the situation and that it would turn into an area of unbridled provocation by the authorities who would try to compromise this movement. There were quite a few cases like that, where we were sure that although people were going on strike in good faith, the strike started out as provocation. The most drastic case of this was in a mine, the name of which I can't remember, where some unidentified people gassed the entrance to the mine using flammable gas. The mine and the entire town responded by going on strike. This was a very primitive and extreme form of provocation. But there were other kinds of provocation as well, in abundance. It was all aiming to create a situation which was occurring naturally anyway, where it would be hard to keep everything under control, and if it was hard to keep control then there was the threat that everything would descend into absolute chaos. I remember a situation where Jacek Kuroń had been sent by Wałęsa to Żyrardów where there are large textile factories. He went there with the intention of explaining to the activists that they shouldn't be on strike, that this wasn't the right moment for a strike, that it was making all kinds of union manoeuvres very difficult, but when he saw with his own eyes the conditions in which those women were working, how low their pay was and how unsanitary, unhygienic and unsafe the conditions were in which they were working, and how relatively little they were asking for in relation to that terrible situation, he gave up his plan to dissuade then from striking. He said that nobody who had even an iota of conscience could say to them under those circumstances that they shouldn't be on strike.

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: 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: Solidarity, Żyrardów, Lech Wałęsa, Jacek Kuroń

Duration: 3 minutes, 8 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 14 March 2011