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Activities of KOR

RELATED STORIES

Repression and fear
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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The committee was formed towards the end of September. This would have happened sooner if it hadn't been for the fact that I wasn't persuasive enough with the people who met at Professor Lipiński's. In short, had Jacek Kuroń been there, this committee would probably have been formed several weeks earlier. But it was finally formed at the end of September, which marked the start of very tedious work, we had two principles: there would be no trial in Poland relating to the events of June unattended by our observers, and the second principle was that none of the families of people who'd been arrested would be left without help. It was also our ambition to achieve something else: that there wouldn't be a single person in Poland who'd been dismissed from his job who wouldn't be receiving benefits. As it turned out, this last ambition proved unworkable, we weren't able to take in the whole of Poland and in the end it was limited to Radom and Ursus, Płock, and in a few other cities there were a couple of people that we managed to reach but this third point was only partially realised. As I've already mentioned, there was legal and medical help. The trips to Ursus for the trials initially always ended with 48 hours in the police cell. However, after some time this was overcome by sending older members or KOR [Komitet Obrony Robotników (Workers' Defence Committee)] workers to observe the trials, and these people the authorities hesitated to arrest which overcame that situation and then fewer people were arrested but something else began instead: people who were exceptionally active, for instance someone like Mirek Chojecki, well, several times they were beaten up, thankfully, never so badly that they were hospitalised although once, the situation was very serious. So incarceration for 48 hours, beatings, we all began to have our houses searched every few days which also led to 48-hour arrests. This didn't affect the eldest members and KOR workers. There were endless threatening phone calls; the threats were usually very crude and calculated to get an idea who would be more vulnerable and who less. The people who were less easily upset were usually left alone after a while. However, our friend from KOR, Halina Mikołajska, who, as it turned out, was very vulnerable… at one point, all their attacks were concentrated on her and they wanted to break her mentally, and I have to say she came very close to having a mental breakdown. It didn't get to the point where the worst happened, to the worst kind of breakdown that leads to a person taking their own life or ends with them being admitted to a psychiatric ward, but nevertheless, she had an exceptionally difficult life.

Komitet powstał w końcu września, on by powstał wcześniej, gdyby nie to, że ja miałem za małą siłę przekonywania dla osób, które się zbierały u profesora Lipińskiego i krótko mówiąc, gdyby był Jacek Kuroń to by parę tygodni wcześniej prawdopodobnie ten Komitet powstał; no, ale wreszcie powstał w końcu września i zaczęła się bardzo żmudna praca polegająca głównie na tym, że nie ma... że mieliśmy dwie zasady: nie ma procesów w Polsce o wydarzenia czerwcowe, gdzie nie ma naszych obserwatorów. A druga zasada: nie ma człowieka aresztowanego, którego rodzina by nie otrzymywała pomocy. Naszą ambicją również było jeszcze coś więcej: żeby nie było człowieka w Polsce wyrzuconego z pracy, który nie dostaje zapomogi. To ostatnie było, jak się okazało, nie do zrealizowania, nie byliśmy w stanie ogarnąć całej Polski, w gruncie rzeczy sprowadziło się to do Radomia i Ursusa, Płocka, w paru różnych miastach było po parę takich... parę takich osób do których dotarliśmy, ale ten trzeci postulat został zrealizowany w małym stopniu. No i jak już mówiłem, pomoc prawna i pomoc lekarska. Wyjazd na proces do Ursusa z początku kończył się zawsze przesiedzeniem 48 godzin. Po pewnym czasie jednak, kiedy to zostało przełamane w ten sposób, że jako obserwatorzy pojechali godni i starsi członkowie bądź współpracownicy KOR-u, zawahano się z ich aresztowaniem i to przełamało ten... tę pewną sytuację, już po tym mniej aresztowano; natomiast zaczęło się co innego, że ludzi szczególnie aktywnych, w tym jak na przykład Mirek Chojecki, no, parokrotnie się zdarzało, że został pobity, nigdy na szczęście tak, żeby to się skończyło szpitalem, ale raz nawet była to groźna bardzo sytuacja. Więc zatrzymywania na 48 godzin, bicie, wszyscy zaczęliśmy mieć co parę dni rewizje domowe, które też były połączone z zatrzymywaniem na 48 godzin, nie tyczyło to najstarszych członków i współpracowników KOR-u. Nieustanne telefony z pogróżkami, pogróżkami przeważnie bardzo chamskimi i... i trochę nastawionymi na to, żeby się orientować, kto reaguje bardziej nerwowo, kto mniej nerwowo. Kto reagował mniej nerwowo, ten po pewnym czasie miał spokój. Natomiast na przykład nasza koleżanka z KOR-u Halina Mikołajska, która okazało się, że bardzo nerwowo reaguje, to właściwie można... bo w pewnym momencie cały ogień się na niej skoncentrował, chciano ją załamać psychicznie i właściwie była bliska nawet tego, trzeba powiedzieć. Do najgorszych jakichś rzeczy nie doszło, żeby właśnie, do... do takiego załamania, które powoduje to, że człowiek popełnia samobójstwo czy musi iść do zakładu dla nerwowo chorych, ale niemniej jednak ona miała szczególnie ciężkie życie.

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: KOR, Poland, Radom, Ursus, Płock, Workers Defence Committee, Edward Lipiński, Jacek Kuroń, Mirosław Gojecki, Halina Mikołajska

Duration: 3 minutes, 34 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 14 March 2011