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NEXT STORY

Creation of Solidarity

RELATED STORIES

Persecution of KOR's members by the authorities
Jan Józef Lipski Social activist
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I władza nam to uniemożliwiła dopiero w połowie sierpnia, co było zdumiewające. Dopiero w połowie sierpnia zaczęły się aresztowania, nazywało się to, że to zatrzymanie na 48 godzin, co jest taką prawnie w Polsce...taką mniej drastyczną formą, nie trzeba udziału prokuratora, nie przedstawia się zarzutów; tylko że pan prokurator generalny wymyślił bardzo dobry sposób, który potem w czasach „Solidarności’ próbował nawet... nawet kolportował pismem urzędowym do agend sobie podległych, że... że jeżeli się zatrzymuje 48 godzin i się trzyma powiedzmy w komendzie na ulicy X, a potem się przewiezie do komendy na ulicy Y to to jest nowe 48 godzin, nowe zatrzymanie na 48 godzin. Z początku nawet próbowano wypuszczać z komendy i przed drzwiami aresztować, ale kiedy Wujec uciekł przy takiej... przy takich przenosinach, nagle im uciekł to doszli do wniosku, że jednak już nie, nie będą się już nawet bawić z tym, żeby wypuszczać za drzwi komisariatu. No i niestety, zablokowane telefony, coraz więcej ludzi aresztowanych i ta robota zaczęła się już coraz bardziej sypać. Jeszcze ci będący na wolności jeszcze próbowali nawiązywać te nici jakiegoś kontaktu, porozumienia, jeszcze to kulało, krótko szło, już po 20-tym ta robota stanęła. No ta robota stanęła, ale już właściwie swoje zrobiliśmy. Korespondenci zagraniczni siedzieli w Gdańsku, wszystkie informacje spływały teraz do Gdańska i żadna siła ludzka nie mogła tego pohamować i właściwie można powiedzieć, że mogliśmy sobie już odpoczywać w aresztach. Mnie zresztą aresztowano w ostatnie 48 godzin przed porozumieniami gdańskimi, przez swoją nieostrożność dałem się złapać, bo nie mieszkałem wtedy w domu. Dałem się złapać na Dworcu Centralnym, gdzie przechodziłem, tam zdaje się myślano, że chcę jechać do Gdańska. No i wiedzieliśmy tutaj tylko jedno, że wszystko będzie zależało od tego, czy robotnicy uprą się przy swoim czy nie i czy władza zdecyduje się na użycie środków ostatecznych, bo nie mieliśmy wątpliwości, że bez środków ostatecznych tego się nie zahamuje; a środki ostateczne to znaczy wkroczyć z czołgami do stoczni, strzelając, bombardując i tak dalej, że to jest... będzie... byłby jedyny sposób. Na szczęście władza doszła do wniosku, że nie należy tego zrobić, że następstwa tego są w ogóle nieprzewidywalne dla kogokolwiek, a robotnicy doszli do wniosku, że nie skapitulują. Był taki moment, kiedy o mało co już nie skapitulowali, ale wtedy tam jakaś grupa przywódcza poderwała do kontynuacji strajku. No i tak doszło aż do porozumień sierpniowych. Dla nas, prawdę mówiąc, dla KOR-owców niespodzianką było to, że nagle...że to już – to było właściwie niespodzianką; ale że coś takiego w pewnym momencie nastąpi, że my pracujemy, żeby coś takiego było, no to... to było dla nas oczywiste zawsze.

The authorities only prevented us from doing this in mid-August, which was amazing. It wasn't until mid-August that they began to arrest us. It was referred to as detaining us for 48 hours which is a less drastic legal form in Poland because there's no need to involve a prosecutor, no charges are made except that the prosecutor general came up with a very good way which later in the times of Solidarity, he even tried to pass this on via an official publication to agents who were answerable to him, saying that if someone was detained for 48 hours at a police station on street X but was then transported to a station on street Y, that would count as the next 48 hours so they could be detained for a further 48 hours. Initially, they even tried releasing a person from the station and then arresting them again as soon as they had walked out of the door, but when Wujec suddenly escaped during one of these transfers, they decided they wouldn't mess around by letting people get further than the door of the police station. Unfortunately, the phones were cut off, a growing number of people were arrested and our work started to fall apart. Those who were still free attempted to restore the threads of some sort of contact, understanding and this limped along for a bit but ground to a halt after the 20th. The work ground to a halt but by then, we'd done what we wanted to do. The foreign correspondents were based in Gdańsk, all information was now flowing into Gdańsk and no human power could prevent this so you could say that we could now rest in our detention cells. I was arrested in the last 48 hours before the Gdańsk agreements; I was caught through my own carelessness, I wasn't living at home at that time. I got caught in Dworzec Centralny where I think they imagined I wanted to go to Gdańsk. By then there was only one thing we knew, that everything depends on whether the workers will stand by their demands or not, and whether the authorities will decide to resort to ultimate means because we had no doubt that only ultimate means could stop this and ultimate means implied tanks rolling into the shipyard, shooting, bombings and so on, that this was the only way. Fortunately, the authorities came to the conclusion that there was no need for this, that the consequences would be unforeseeable while the workers decided that they wouldn't give in although there was a moment when they very nearly did give in but then some group that was in command roused them to continue with the strike. And this carried on until the August agreements. To be honest, for us from KOR [Komitet Obrony Robotników (Workers' Defence Committee)] it came as a surprise that this was happening now, this is what surprised us although it was always obvious to us that something like this would happen and that's what we were working for.

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: 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: Poland, Solidarity, Gdańsk, KOR, Workers Defence Committee, Henryk Wujec

Duration: 3 minutes, 30 seconds

Date story recorded: October 1989

Date story went live: 14 March 2011