California Close-Up; Solidarity: The Fight for Free Trade Unions

This is California Public Radio. Hello, I'm Jim Kwei. This week, California Close-Up takes you far from the Golden State, to Poland, where the achievements of the trade union Solidarity have attracted the world's attention for over a year now. Solidarity recently held its first National Congress and began to chart not only its own future, but that of Poland. Producers Jane Rosenthal and Richard Spielman were there, and they brought back this report on Solidarity's past and its future aspirations. [MUSIC] What we wanted to do is, well, what we achieved more or less that this we to freetrade unions in Poland. [Song in Polish] [Song in Polish] [HELENA LUCZYWO]: We were sure that if the workers did not get organized, If the Polish society, as such, did not get organized, it will

never achieve anything. And, and the whole country would be, would be run in such a way as it was, I mean, based on lies, inefficiency and oppression. [MUSIC] [Song in Polish] [Song in Polish] [HELENA LUCZYWO]: We worked for free trade unions, but we never, we never had expected such a success. It's incredible. [Song in Polish] [Song in Polish] [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Incredible changes have occurred in Poland since the strike broke out in the Lenin shipyards in Gdansk over a year ago and culminated in Solidarity's first national Congress held in that same city early in October. Solidarity can now count 10 million members, almost every working person in Poland, including one third of the Polish Communist Party.

It is an organization second in popularity only to the Polish Catholic Church. When solidarity activist Halina Vocivo joined the opposition in 1976 to protest the government's repressive actions against factory workers in [Polish town] Rodham. such a strike and such a Congress seemed like a remote dream. But Poles are now experiencing more political and personal freedom than ever before. For the past year in Poland, this cultural change has been called "The Renewal." But by the time Solidarity held its Congress this term, a change to "The Revolution." According to Vichivo, the success achieved by Solidarity in Poland was possible because of historical and economic factors not present in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, countries whose revolts prompted Soviet intervention. [HELENA LUCZYWO]: At first, I think the tradition of the Polish people, the tradition of fighting for national independence, and due to this tradition, we kept our church, for example, we kept our private agriculture, private peasantry way while the causes did not

succeed in Poland. So first tradition and the role of church, which which has stayed the independent force in Poland and which has always defended opposition movements. The second factor, I think, eh, was the special features of the Polish economy under Gerrick. That is the inefficiency of this economy played for the opposition because it increased the unrest of people. And the third thing is, I think, well, Gerrick's policy towards it, towards the opposition. His his fear to persecute us "uh" because of the relations with the West. And that is that, I think. Mainly the tradition, the tradition of workers of workers revolts. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: A workers' uprising in Poland directly preceded the Hungarian revolt in 1956, and a radical student movement in 1968 erupted in widespread demonstrations for civil liberties. Solidarity Press spokesman Jianos Onishigave, which was a student

at Warsaw University in 1968 when strikes broke out again in 1970. He and many other members of the political opposition realized that workers and intellectuals would have to unite if any changes were to come about in Poland. [JANUSZ ONYSKIEWICZ]: For a long time, we were desperately seeking some contacts with the workers, and we realized that even in 1968 we desperately tried to break through to the to the factories. But people we were sending they were immediately arrested and because we couldn't really manage to make any contacts with the workers, which we saw hopelessly lost. In 1970, the workers organized the so-called food riots in Gdansk along the coastline. But then intellectuals were completely defeated, so nothing could be done. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: All of these outbreaks were met with severe repression. But it was the strike in 1970, in which hundreds of workers and innocent bystanders were killed by government guns and tanks, which remained a bitter memory to Polish workers

striking in Gdansk, ten years later. [Polish song] [Polish song [Polish song] [Polish song] [JANE ROSENTHAL]: It was not until six years later that links could be created between workers and radical intellectuals. In 1976, during strikes in factory towns near Warsaw, a workers defense committee known as KOR and an underground press were formed, a network which was to sustain the strike in the Lenin shipyards, four years later. four years later. [JANUSZ ONYSKIEWICZ]: In 1976, we finally saw the chance because the workers were on the move, obviously, and intellectuals were united more or less. So that was the, well, the time was simply ripe to make this this connection and this contacts.

And we did it and grasped it. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: The first mention of free trade unions in Poland occurred in a newspaper Helena Luczywo edited called Robotnik or The Worker. This newspaper, widely circulated in Gdansk, was instrumental in uniting workers with members of the political opposition. The success of Solidarity's 1980 strike is due to this coalition. Publishing the newspaper was risky and Vocivo. was subject to petty harassment, repression, and censorship. [HELENA LUCZYWO]: Well, it was not the Soviet Union, fortunately, so we were not sent to camps, and it was impossible for the government even to imprison us for a long time, because when they tried the counter action -- in form of leaflets campaign, in form of the churches, protest was too strong. So the persecution was constant searches of flats. I mean, we had over 25, I think, plus dismissals from jobs. I was, I was dismissed from my job, and so was my husband. And they even tried to throw my daughter out of kindergarten.

Perhaps from outside, it looks very romantic, but I wouldn't say that it was that heroic. I think most people treated it in a natural way. I mean, I think to a certain extent it may sound paradoxical, but people in the opposition were in a better situation than those who had to hide their feelings and who had to lie to keep their jobs and who lived in this kind of schizophrenia all the time, saying different things at home and different things at work. So I think our situation was, from a certain point of view, even luxurious, because we could say what, what we wanted, we're kind of on the other side. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Throughout the strike, Luczywo's newspaper counseled the workers. "Don't burn Party headquarters," she wrote. "Form strike committees." The workers followed Robotnik's advice, and these strike committees formed the nucleus of the new industrial trade union, Solidarity. Hard-won experience from the failures in 1970 and 1976 enabled

the workers to act in a disciplined and organized fashion in 1980. But as Janusz Onyskiewicz explains, there was another reason why the 1980 action was different. [JANUSZ ONYSKIEWICZ]: I think that the workers now are entirely different than '56 or even 1970. There is a new generation of workers which are skilled, which, which have usually their secondary education. Even some of them are, you know, students who, for one reason or another failed, so the, the gap, intellectual gap, is much smaller. There is also another, there is also a generation element. Well, you see in Poland, every generation had a go, at one stage or another. This generation simply didn't have and didn't try, yet, they were not -- they didn't have any bitter experience from the war. They were not tired. They were not worn out as old generation. They simply realized that the concept of human rights and civil liberties was not totally alien to them.

That's why it was possible to make the link. It was possible for the workers to realize that certain living standards are obviously linked with the with the way the country is run, is being governed. And that's why there was a success in 1980, in August. [POLISH SONG] [POLISH SONG] [UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN]: You know, just last year we were near Gdansk, and when we knew about it, I was extremely excited of what was going on. And we didn't realize how it was going to end, and whether they were going to win or not. [POLISH SONG] [CHEERING] [POLISH SONG] [POLISH VOICEOVER]

[POLISH VOICEOVER] [POLISH VOICEOVER] [CHEERING] [POLISH VOICEOVER] [CHEERING] [POLISH SONG] [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Solidarity did win. The government was forced to sign the Gdansk accord, granting the right to form free and independent trade unions. The implications were clear to all Poles. Suddenly, it seemed possible that the party's hold on all aspects of economic, political, and cultural life might be loosening. Kristina ?Tremcheska? is a young housewife from Warsaw. [KRISTINA ?TREMCHESKA?]: I had this feeling of -- that it started. Something is happening. Something is going on, that people are not afraid to say what they think and what they have to say

about their complaints. And they want to...they want to achieve something. When we were going home to Warsaw, it was on the 18th of August, and we were passing on the train in front of the shipyards. And we saw the workers sitting on the walls -- we saw all the flags, and we were very excited about that. I remember that I called my daughter from the compartment, and say, "Now, look! You must remember this for the end of your life! Just look and and, and remember it -- that they are really doing something, and something will have to come out of it." [POLISH SONG] [POLISH SONG] [POLISH SONG] [JANE ROSENTHAL]: The Party continued a campaign to intimidate the new union, and in March 1981, the Solidarity activist Jan Rulewski was badly beaten at a town hall meeting in Bydgoszcz.

A tape of the beating made by police was copied by Solidarity, and within 24 hours, the tape was played on P.A. systems in every factory in Poland. Shocked workers heard the sounds of Rulewski and others beaten by police as they sang the Polish national anthem. In order to avert general strike, the Party was forced to grant major concessions to Solidarity -- among them, the recognition of rural Solidarity, and the right to publish an opposition newspaper with minimal censorship. Solidarity suddenly became a stronger force in society than the Party. One observer said later, "There are screams which shatter glass. Jan Rulewski's screams shattered a power structure." [AUDIO CLIP OF BYDGOSZCZ TAPE] [JANUSZ ONYSKIEWICZ]: You must remember how it happened, and rather, in what situation it happened. We declared, more or less, that we are not going to to arrange major strikes unless we are threatened.

[JANE ROSENTHAL]: Janusz Onyskiewicz. [JANUSZ ONYSKIEWICZ]: But in the same time, we, we were flooded by informations that our activists in the countryside are harassed. They are arrested by the police. Some of them were beaten, but activists on sort of a very local, local level, in factories. So there was certain, certain tension already. People were asking us, "Why don't you do something about it? They are going to destroy you, gradually, by intimidating people." And suddenly, you know, this beating in Bydgoszcz, beating of the leading figures in our movement, happened. So we simply thought -- and we had we had every right to do so -- that that's sort of a apex of the whole campaign. And if we don't react to it, next day, the whole action will intensify, and finally, we'll be simply beaten. [KRZYSZTOF JASIEWICZ]: The meaning of freedom for Poles is really high.

[JANE ROSENTHAL]: Krzysztof Jasiewicz, Professor of Sociology at the Polish Academy of Sciences. [KRZYSZTOF JASIEWICZ]: So, the Bydgoszcz case, it was perceived by...not only by the nation, the people outside the Party, but by the members of the Party, as an action against the freedom. They were against this action, because it is against the Polish political tradition, so that violence is something what cannot be used -- never can be used -- by Pole against another Pole. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Bydgoszcz proved that Communist Party hardliners no longer had the automatic support of rank and file Party members. Jasiewicz believes their power is broken forever. The country will never again tolerate the old hardline practices, he claims, no matter how bad economic conditions become. But extreme shortages of food, and even basic consumer goods like soap and toothpaste, have made standing in line in front of shops a way of life more than ever before.

Housewife and mother, Kristina ?Tramchenska? [KRISTINA ?TRAMCHENSKA?]: I stand up in the queue. If there are no queues, I don't even go in because it means that there is nothing in the shop and that it's not worth entering it. And it is very often that I don't know what they are selling. I just stand in the queue in the line and anything there is, I buy. So I stand in one queue for some time, then in the second queue, then in the third queue. And in this way I make my shopping, which usually takes four hours. My child who is 2 years and a half, has to stand together with me. I take her to my arms and I, you know, I go out from the shop and it's not, it's not only me -- it's all other women. The shop is full of children running around, fighting, crying, eating. This is, this is the biggest problem. This upsets me the most, because the children are really brought up in shops now. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: In the past, the government has tried to convince Poles that the shortages they are

facing are caused by Solidarity. But Helena Luczywo doubts that Poles are buying the government's arguments. [HELENA LUCZYWO]: They must remember that strikes account only for eight hours of non-working time in the last year, while stoppages are mainly caused by the shortage of raw materials and so on, so forth. Solidarność, of course, is to a certain extent responsible, because Solidarność makes this system impossible to work anymore. I mean, there is no system now. I mean, there is no...the authoritarian system has ceased to exist, and no orders work anymore, and no new system has been created. And this is what Solidarność is responsible for, and that's why we are working to create the new system. Now, Solidarność can only kind of check the government, while new forces are necessary, which will create something new here, because there is the political void. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: In a climate of increasing political and economic chaos, observers question whether

Solidarity can control its 10 million members. The union now faces the difficult task of compromising with an unpopular government on such sensitive issues as agreeing to let food prices increase and to suspend strikes. Janusz Onyskiewicz. [JANUSZ ONYSKIEWICZ]: Solidarity is a fighting movement, but you always fight somebody or some organization. We were obviously fighting the authorities, we were fighting the state as it was. But it was from the very beginning quite clear to us that, you know, our fight is a fight with limited goals. We wanted to achieve certain situation, but we didn't want to take over. We didn't want to destroy the state or the ruling party. So now we are in a situation when we already built a formidable, really, fighting machine. And that's quite clear, we can block almost any move of the government. But, unfortunately, we are not able -- yet -- to force the government to do the things which we think are right. If sometime, if we even do that, then the problem is how

to convince people that what the government is actually doing is, if not correct, then it is not that bad that it could be a base for some discussion and after some amendments can could be accepted. In other terms, the gulf of the credibility is so big between society and the government, that we are even afraid that if the time comes, then we will have to...to somehow support the government in certain moves. This support will be considered by our members as almost a treason. So that's a problem, and obviously we are approaching this important point. [HELENA LUCZYWO]: The economic reform that Poland needs must be the overall reform. So it's necessary that the Polish parliament becomes a Polish parliament, not something which does not represent anyone. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Solidarity, which gained prominence and popular support by opposing the government, must now play a role within the government.

Helena Luczywo believes this points to something like a parliamentary democracy. [HELENA LUCZYWO]: The Party has had to accept a lot of things that it seemed impossible for it to accept, so I think it will also have to accept the Solidarność stand on self government in a much broader sense -- that is self management, not only on the level of factories, but also in the state itself. So I think that further changes will be necessary. And even if the Party does not want to accept it, I think it will have to. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Luczywo's optimism that Solidarity can play an important role in governing Poland is due, in part, to the tremendous cultural changes of the last year. A democracy requires citizens able and willing to govern. Luczywo thinks that kind of citizenry now exists in Poland because of several important changes in the Poles themselves. [HELENA LUCZYWO]: I think that the most important thing was just the fact that people got...got straight. I would say that they didn't have to lie anymore, that they

regained their dignity due to this. And I think it is the most important change, because the economic situation has changed for the worse. And the second important change, I think, is that there is some hope now, while the...and the people feel that they can influence what's going on -- that they, that they can do something. That they have become decision makers, a lot of them, while before, they were just deprived of any powers to, to take and to make any decisions. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Helena Mikolajska is one of the leading Polish actresses. Like many dissidents, she was blacklisted in the last decade for her activity in the opposition. This year, she attended Solidarity's first national Congress as a delegate from Warsaw. She says that though she cannot foresee the changes ahead for Poland, they will be profound ones. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [JANE ROSENTHAL TRANSLATING FOR HELENA MIKOLAJSKA]: I think that as the economy becomes decentralized, spiritual life will also

become more and more decentralized, and that people will no longer be afraid to think freely. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [JANE ROSENTHAL TRANSLATING FOR HELENA MIKOLAJSKA]: Our mass media presents us in a very bad light. It says we are lazy, not reliable, and that we lack self discipline. But can you imagine any other society that could work normally under such dreadful conditions of everyday life? People stand in line for hours, day and night, and then they go to work. In my opinion, this is proof that we are strong and resistant. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [JANE ROSENTHAL TRANSLATING FOR HELENA MIKOLAJSKA]: We can endure all this, because for the first time, we feel free to say what we think. We have hope that we can hope, and now we can express those hopes. All this is so precious to us, that we are willing to pay for it with the high price of patience, because now, for the first time, we have too much to lose. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [CZESLAW MILOSZ]: Of course, there is a close connection between the action of workers

in August 1980 and Charter -- and all the structure built up by the authorities suddenly crumbled. This applies to the publishing, and this applies also to the universities. You should know that for the first time after many, many years, we have chancellors named, the rectors of universities -- elected. And truly elected, and not nominated by the authorities. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: Czesław Miłosz won the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature. Here's an exiled poet living in the United States. His poetry, long banned in Poland, is now no longer censored. Earlier this year, he made an emotional return visit to his native country, where he witnessed firsthand Solidarity's effect on the Polish people. He spoke with me from Harvard University, where he is a visiting scholar. [CZESLAW MILOSZ]: My...my feeling is that this independent movement of trade unions, which counts around

10 million people, is such a force that any government is put on the fence to take it into consideration, and that we are on our way towards finding a new formula of social life. Though Miłosz may live in the United States, his popularity and influence in Poland have been enormous. Helena Mikolajska supported herself while officially blacklisted and unable to work by reciting the forbidden poems of Czesław Miłosz. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [CZESLAW MILOSZ]: I know her story. She has been intimidated for a long time by telephones from the security police and from threatening her for her activities. But she is...

she just went on, and Mikolajska was one of those who used to go around and recite my poems. [JANE ROSENTHAL]: On the steps outside of Olivia Stadium, where Solidarity's first national Congress was in session, I asked Mikolajska if she would recite one of Miłosz's poems. By the time she finished, two dozen delegates were listening quietly. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [CZESLAW MILOSZ]: This is a poem of mine, the fragments of which are on the monument to the memory of people killed in 1970. Well, you see, people were shot at from tanks, and people quietly going to work, also, they were victims, and they, they fell. So that was a sort of deep-felt

injustice, and a feeling of naked oppression. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [CZESLAW MILOSZ]: You, who harmed a simple man, laughing at his misfortune, do not feel secure. A poet remembers. You can kill him -- a new one will be born. [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [HELENA MIKOLAJSKA SPEAKING POLISH] [MAN SINGING IN POLISH] [HELENA LUCZYWO]: The first part of the revolution has been completed, now -- that is the abandonment of

the old system. And we are in the middle of the revolution. And what we must do now is to create a new one, to what we hope for, this kind of parliamentary democracy modeled on the Western democracies, more or less, and plus the status of Finland, geopolitically -- that is military and foreign political dependance on the Soviet Union, plus a large range of internal independence. [MAN SINGING IN POLISH] [JIM KWEI]: This report on Poland was produced by Jane Rosenthal and Richard Spielman. For California Close Up, I'm Jim Kwei. California Close Up is produced by California Public Radio for the Association of California Public Radio Stations.

Funds come from the California Public Broadcasting Commission and the California Council for the Humanities. This is California Public Radio.