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KOR initiates a mission to help the workers

RELATED STORIES

End of Gierek's era of prosperity
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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Wydarzenia w Radomiu i Ursusie w ’76 roku to był objaw, że ludzie na własnej skórze zaczynają już zauważać, iż ta prosperity gierkowska się kończy i można powiedzieć, że przyczyna wydawałaby się błaha tego, ale świadczyła ona o tym, co w głębi ludzi drążyło i gdy wyszli na... gdy wyszli na ulicę, zostali bardzo brutalnie spacyfikowani. No, ścieżki zdrowia, przez które ich przepuszczano – między szpalerem milicjantów uzbrojonych w pałki przeciąga się człowieka, którego się tłucze bez przerwy, były bardzo poważne okaleczenia, ludzie na długi czas stracili zdrowie, masa aresztowań, aresztowań często zupełnie przypadkowych; wcale nie jest powiedziane, że ci, których aresztowano, to byli ci, którzy najwięcej zdziałali. Wyroki, procesy, które były naigrywaniem się z prawa. Wiem coś o tym, bo jeździłem wtedy do Radomia, byłem na bardzo wielu procesach – naigrywanie się z prawa. Wyroki... najwyższy wyrok był dziesięć lat więzienia. I jednocześnie straszliwy terror w mieście. Jeszcze parę dni po wydarzeniach tych, po wielkich demonstracjach na ulicy, jeszcze zdarzały się takie wypadki jak z robotnikiem Brożyną, którego milicjanci zatłukli pałkami na ulicy, nie wiadomo właściwie dlaczego, był to spokojny człowiek, może był lekko pod gazem, ale w każdym razie nie był agresywny, nikogo nie zaczepiał.

The events in Radom and in Ursus in ‘76 were a symptom which showed that, because of what they were experiencing, the people were beginning to notice that the prosperity of the Gierek years was coming to an end. We could say that the reason for this was trifling but it still showed what was troubling people deep down, and when they took to the streets, they were brutally repressed. There was ‘the constitutional walk’ that people were made to take: they were dragged through two ranks of policemen armed with truncheons who would beat the victim mercilessly. Many people were very seriously injured and took a very long time to recover from their injuries; there were a massive number of arrests often of people who just happened to be present. There was nothing to say that the people who were arrested were those who were most active. Sentences and trials took place which made a mockery of the law. I know something about this because I used to go to Radom then. I attended a great many trials, they made a mockery of the law. The sentences... the longest sentence was a 10-year prison sentence, and at the same time, there was an awful fear in the city. Several days after these events were all over, after the massive street demonstrations, there were still incidents like the one with Brożyna, a worker whom the police beat to death in the street and nobody really knew why as he was a peaceful man, perhaps he was a bit tipsy but he definitely wasn't aggressive and wasn't giving anyone any trouble.

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: Radom, Ursus, Edward Gierek, Jan Bożyna

Duration: 2 minutes, 9 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 14 March 2011