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The collapse of Po prostu

RELATED STORIES

'Free Cardinal Wyszyński': Catholicism and democracy
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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Ale wracam jeszcze do...do Goździka. Tam był taki moment w czasie jednego z wieców w którym widziałem ten jego właśnie talent wiecowy. W pewnym momencie zostało tam rzucone hasło: „Uwolnić prymasa Wyszyńskiego”. Hasło, które na przykład dla mnie, no było zupełnie oczywiste. Jak można człowieka więzić nie wiadomo po co i dlaczego, to nie chodziło już mi tylko o to, że jest to prymas Wyszyński, ale...ale w ogóle jakieś drańskie bezprawie. Na sali doszło niemalże do awantury, dlatego że tam cała masa tych właśnie ogarniętych amokiem w swoim czasie ZMP-owców, jeszcze im nie wyparowało, nie wszystkim ten amok wyparował i zaczęły się sprzeciwy, nie tyle co do samego uwolnienia, tylko co do bardzo nieszczęśliwego sformułowania proponowanej przez jednego z działaczy katolickich rezolucji, która się zaczynała, no rzeczywiście nie najlepiej: „Ponieważ Polska jest krajem katolickim”. No skądinąd ja uważam, że Polska jest w tym sensie krajem katolickim, że rzeczywiście większość Polaków to są katolicy, wierzący katolicy, ale czy to dlatego trzeba uwolnić... uwolnić... Wyszyńskiego? A gdyby Polska nie była krajem katolickim, to on powinien siedzieć? No to jest jakiś nonsens i paranoja. I to się toczyło w ten sposób, że zanosiło się na rozbicie wiecu, jeżeli nie na bójkę nawet. I w ... i w pewnym momencie, kiedy wszystkim już ręce opadają i w żaden sposób się z tego nie wybrnie, podchodzi do mikrofonu Goździk, sala wtedy milknie, bo już Goździk, już zdobył sobie ten mir i było wiadomo, że jeżeli on coś powie, no to... to warto tego posłuchać. I Goździk zaczął w sposób tak prosty i oczywisty, że aż dziwne, że godzinę tam się kotłowało i nikomu to nie przyszło do głowy, nikt przed nim nie próbował tego powiedzieć. Goździk powiedział w ten... w ten sposób – on proponuje rezolucję: „Ponieważ Polska chce być krajem demokratycznym w którym nie można więzić człowieka bez postawienia mu konkretnych zarzutów i skazania go wyrokiem sądowym, przeto...” i tam tego i tak dalej. Ja oczywiście cytuję na pewno niedosłownie, bardzo niedokładnie, ale sens tego był taki. Ja sobie wtedy pomyślałem: „Ten człowiek rzeczywiście ma głowę, umie trafić do ludzi, wie jak wybrnąć z takiej sytuacji”. Miałem wielkie, wielkie nadzieje, że to jednak będzie jakiś przyszły przywódca dużej klasy. No okazało się, że jakoś się wypalił.

But I want to come back to Goździk. There was a moment during one of the rallies where I saw his talent. At some point, somebody shouted out, ‘Free Cardinal Wyszyński!’ which to me was entirely obvious. How can anyone be imprisoned for who knows what and why? The issue wasn't because this was Cardinal Wyszyński but because it was unlawful villainy. There was uproar in the room because there was a whole bunch of ZMP [Związek Młodzieży Polskiej (Union of Polish Youth)] members who were still gripped by that madness which they hadn't got over yet, and there was a great deal of argument, not so much over the issue of freeing but over the unfortunate wording of the resolution, suggested by one of the Catholic activists. It started off, probably not in the best way, with the words, ‘Since Poland is a Catholic country’. Well, although I believe Poland is a Catholic country in the sense that the majority of Poles are Catholics – practising Catholics – is that really why Wyszyński should be released? Were Poland not a Catholic country, would that mean that he ought to stay in prison? That's just paranoid nonsense. And that's how it carried on, and it looked like the rally was going to break up or disintegrate into a punch-up. And then, just as people were beginning to look helplessly on and could see no way out, Goździk went up to the microphone. Everyone fell silent, because Goździk commanded respect and everyone knew that if he was going to say something, it would be worth listening to, and he began to speak in such simple and obvious terms that it was odd that for an hour everything had been in such turmoil and that it hadn't occurred to anyone to say what was being said until then. This was what Goździk said, he put forward this resolution: ‘Since Poland wants to be a democratic country where it is forbidden to imprison a person without charging him and giving him a sentenced passed down in a court of law, therefore...’ and so on. Of course, I'm not quoting verbatim, probably very inaccurately, but that was the gist of it. That's when I thought, this man really does have a lot of sense, he knows how to get through to people, he knows how to get out of a situation like that. I had huge, huge hopes that he would be a top class leader in the future but it seems that he burned himself out.

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: ZMP:Union of Polish Youth, Poland, Catholics, Lechosław Gożdzik, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński

Duration: 3 minutes, 14 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 10 March 2011