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Prosperity under Gierek

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The strength of our organisation
Jacek Kuroń Social activist
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I mustn't forget to say how very important this kind of activity was in that context, how powerful it was. This small group of people managed to achieve so much. They were beaten, locked up in prison, expelled from university and still they managed to do so much. Later, once KOR was functioning, we will see just how very important the work of these people was but I want to go back again to the issue of Czechoslovakia. It seemed that everyone had been locked up. We never stopped providing a very extensive self-help system. All of this was running very efficiently and that's how it led to KOR. Extensive self-help for all the prisoners, their families. At the same time that Karol and I were locked up, an organisation called Ruch was exposed. It had been set up shortly after '68 and was imprisoned at the beginning of '71. It was based on the model of the AK, an underground organisation. The only people who know about it are those who later read about it in books. They didn't know how to organise any self-help system. This type of organisation had seemed so good, a very well concealed organisation following a precise military structure turned out to be unsuited to this system. Whereas ours which was practically overt where everybody knew everyone else was exceptionally resilient because it's very hard to destroy, access or infiltrate a group built on social bonds. Besides, it can't be done because if someone's wife gets locked up, there's still the husband, three friends, the friend of a friend and then another friend, and so there's always someone around. This, of course, has its faults because this kind of community has a tendency to isolate itself, and that's something that came back to bite us. The government spread accusations against us saying we were like the mafia. We were susceptible to these accusations because there were people there who had trouble joining the group because even if this sort of community wants to be open, its natural tendency is to make initiation harder; membership becomes an obstacle which prevents unity.

I żeby nie zapomnieć, a tu trzeba powiedzieć o... o wielkim znaczeniu tej formy działania takiej środowiskiem. O sile tej formy działania, bo przecież to niewielkie środowisko zdołało tyle zrobić. Bite, wsadzane do więzień, wyrzucane z uczelni zdołało tyle zrobić przecież. To się okaże przecież zaraz przy KOR-ze jak strasznie ważne było to dzieło tego środowiska, ale jeszcze raz głos w sprawie Czechosłowacji. Już zdawało się – wszystkich wsadzono. Myśmy ani na chwilę nie przerwali bardzo szerokiej samopomocy. To się wszystko... to miało robić świetnie, stąd jego droga do KOR-u. Szerokiej samopomocy: wszystkim więźniom, rodzinom więzionych. W tym czasie, kiedy my siedzieliśmy w więzieniu z Karolem, wpadła organizacja RUCH, która powstała krótko po sześćdziesiątym ósmym roku i została wsadzona na początku siedemdziesiątego pierwszego i ona była zbudowana na modelu AK-owskim – podziemnej organizacji. Właściwie wiedzą o niej tylko ci, co przeczytali później w książkach. I nie umieli oni zorganizować w ogóle samopomocy. Ten typ organizacji zdawałoby się taki korzystny, takiej organizacji dobrze zakonspirowanej  o precyzyjnej strukturze wojskowej, powiedzmy sobie, okazuje się do tego systemu nieprzystosowany. Natomiast nasz prawie jawny – wszyscy wszystkich znają – jest niesłychanie trwały, bo środowiska opartego na więzi towarzyskiej strasznie trudno skruszyć, dotrzeć tam, wprowadzić kapusia. I poza tym rozbić się nie da, bo jak wsadzają żonę, to pozostaje mąż, trzech przyjaciół, przyjaciele przyjaciela i jeszcze przyjaciele i zawsze jest ktoś wkoło. Choć ma to oczywiście swoją wadę niewątpliwą, bo takie środowisko jest... ma taką skłonność do samoizolacji i to też się na nas mściło, bo rozpowszechniane przez władze przeciw nam te takie o mafijność zarzuty trafiały na tyle podatny grunt, że byli ludzie, którzy się tam po prostu mieli kłopoty z dopchaniem, bo nawet jak takie środowisko się chce otworzyć, to taka naturalna tendencja grupy do podnoszenia progu inicjacji, przyłączenia, przystąpienia jest tutaj, działa przeciw temu połączeniu.

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: Czechoslovakia, Committee for the Defence of the Republic, Ruch, AK

Duration: 2 minutes, 27 seconds

Date story recorded: 1987

Date story went live: 12 June 2008