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The truth about the strikes in 1981

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Our concept of self-government
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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This is how our concept of self-government was born and which later, I think it was Geremek who gave it the name the Self-governing Republic, although this wasn't an idea elicited from ideological principles. It was simply a necessity, it was the only... Solidarność wasn't supposed to govern. So a new movement had to be created to govern: self-government, a movement of worker's self-government, a movement of local self-government which would build a social system and rebuild a ruined country. But this, too, was an offer tendered to the authorities. No matter how fiercely we put it, a self-government couldn't be set up with a government. We made this offer. We initiated a movement of self-government and once again, the government reduced the meat ration by one kg, and the authorities were constantly accusing us of a lack of good will, we proposed the idea of eight free Saturdays. We would work eight free Saturdays. We addressed the whole nation but it was clear that this was irrelevant in other factories. But it did matter in mining. Eight free Saturdays, eight coal outputs could effectively change everything although it was dangerous because the miners kept saying, you can't mine on a Saturday, but they weren't opposed to working on a Saturday. That was a lie put about by the authorities that there was a battle with the miners over the free Saturdays. People were ready to work they just didn't want to mine because if coal is mined on a Saturday, then people have to go to work on a Sunday because there's a whole host of other things that follow on like shoring up and building new gangways. In Gierek's days - and this is why there was a drop in the amount of coal that was mined when Solidarność first became active - in Gierek's days, coal was mined seven days a week. In addition, that kind of exploitation of people has to result in misfortune, industrial accidents, sickness, over-work. And that's why the miner's Solidarność, the miners didn't want to agree to mine on a Saturday. We said, though, this is how things are, winter's coming, we're challenging you to these eight free Saturdays but we'll oversee how much will be mined during those Saturdays. The National Committee passed this with the reservation that the miners would need to be convinced of it. So as I've already mentioned, we used to visit these coal mines and we talked with all the miners. There was a lot of stress while this was going on but in the end, the miners would say - alright, if Solidarność is summoning us to mine the coal, then we'll do it. Fine. If Solidarność is calling us to do it, then we will. We achieved this and then the authorities made another move which made it impossible to mine the coal. Just by this one example, it was obvious that they didn't want to build bridges but rather they wanted to bring about such a state of anarchy that they would be able to attack us. The same was obvious in the events of March when Rulewski got beaten up with his friends in the WRN building. That was when General Jaruzelski appealed for 100 days of calm. The beating coming at that time was an obvious challenge to the union because in the case of a broad, democratic movement, in which all the decisions were taken at grass-roots level, the management didn't have a hope.

I tak zrodziła się nasza koncepcja samorządowa, którą później, chyba Geremek tak wspaniale nazwał Rzeczpospolita Samorządna, ale nie była to idea wyprowadzona z ich zasad ideologicznych. Była to po prostu konieczność, był to jedyny... Rządzić "Solidarność" nie może. Trzeba więc powoływać nowy ruch do rządzenia – samorząd, ruch samorządów pracowniczych, ruch samorządów lokalnych, które będą budować system społeczny i odbudowywać zrujnowany kraj. Ale to też jest oferta do władzy. Bez względu na to, jak ostro byśmy nie mówili, samorządu bez rządu się nie zrobi. Myśmy z tą ofertą wyszli, myśmy tu zainicjowali ruch samorządów, a ponieważ znowu obcięto kilo mięsa i władza wciąż nam zarzucała brak dobrej woli, wystąpiliśmy z inicjatywą ośmiu wolnych sobót. Przepracowania ośmiu wolnych sobót. Zwróciliśmy się do całego kraju, ale było jasne, że to w innych zakładach nie ma znaczenia. Ma znaczenie w górnictwie. Osiem wolnych sobót, osiem wydobyć w węglu mogło istotnie zmienić sytuację, choć było niebezpieczne, bo górnicy cały czas mówili: nie wolno wydobywać w sobotę. Oni nie byli przeciwnikami pracy w sobotę. Ta wojna o soboty górnicze to kłamstwo ze strony władzy. Ludzie chcieli pracować w soboty, tylko nie chcieli wydobywać. Bo jeżeli się wydobywa w soboty, to pracować trzeba w niedzielę, bo trzeba prowadzić cały szereg prac konserwatorskich, budowy nowych chodników. I w czasach gierkowskich, dlatego potem ten spadek wydobycia węgla na początku "Solidarności" wziął się stąd, że w czasach gierkowskich wydobywano siedem dni w tygodniu. A poza tym ta eksploatacja ludzi jest... musi prowadzić do nieszczęść, wypadków przy pracy, chorób, zużycia i w ogóle. I dlatego "Solidarność" górnicza... górnicy nie chcieli się zgodzić na wydobywanie w soboty. Powiedzieliśmy trudno, sytuacja jest taka, zbliża się zima, rzucamy te osiem sobót, ale my nadzorujemy nad tym, co się wydobędzie w ciągu tych ośmiu wolnych sobót. No, ale żeby to się... uchwaliła to Komisja Krajowa z zastrzeżeniem, że trzeba o tym przekonać górników. Więc jak to już tutaj zresztą mówiłem, jeździliśmy po kopalniach i rozmawialiśmy ze wszystkimi górnikami. W olbrzymim napięciu się to odbywało, ale górnicy w rezultacie mówili: "Dobrze, jeżeli Solidarność wzywa do wydobycia, to my będziemy wydobywać". Osiągnęliśmy to i władze znowu wykonały operację, która sprawiła, że wydobywać się nie da. Już na tym przykładzie było widać wyraźnie, że im nie chodzi o naprawienie, tylko o doprowadzenie do takiego stanu anarchii, w którym będą nam mogli skoczyć do gardła. To samo zresztą widać było w przypadku marcowej – w wypadkach marcowych. W pobiciu w budynku WRN-u Rulewskiego i jego kolegów. To było w tym momencie, kiedy generał Jaruzelski apelował o sto dni spokoju. Pobicie w tym momencie, jasne było, że jest absolutnym wyzwaniem dla związku i że w warunkach szerokiego, demokratycznego ruchu, w którym wszystkie inicjatywy są oddolne, to właściwie kierownictwo związku nie miało szans.

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: 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: Party, Solidarność, National Committee, WRN, Bronisław Geremek, Edward Gierek, Jan Rulewski, Wojciech Jaruzelski

Duration: 3 minutes, 48 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008