BREAD & FREEDOM
Stalinist fanaticism never gained as much influence in Poland as in neighboring countries, and soon after Stalin’s death in 1953 it all but disappeared. The powers of the secret police declined, and some concessions were made to popular demands. The press was liberalized and Polish cultural values were resuscitated.
In June 1956 a massive industrial strike demanding ‘bread and freedom’ broke out in Poznań. The action was put down by force and soon afterward Władysław Gomułka, a former political prisoner of the Stalin era, was appointed first secretary of the Party. At first, he commanded popular support, but later in his term he displayed an increasingly rigid and authoritarian attitude, putting pressure on the Church and intensifying persecution of the intelligentsia. It was ultimately an economic crisis, however, that brought about his downfall; when he announced official price increases in 1970, a wave of mass strikes erupted in Gdańsk, Gdynia and Szczecin. Again, the protests were crushed by force, resulting in 44 deaths. The Party, to save face, ejected Gomułka from office and replaced him with Edward Gierek.
Another attempt to raise prices in 1976 incited labor protests, and again workers walked off the job, this time in Radom and Warsaw. Caught in a downward spiral, Gierek took out more foreign loans, but, to earn hard currency with which to pay the interest, he was forced to divert consumer goods away from the domestic market and sell them abroad. By 1980 the external debt stood at US$21 billion and the economy had slumped disastrously.
By then, the opposition had grown into a significant force, backed by numerous advisers from the intellectual circles. When, in July 1980, the government again announced food-price increases, the outcome was predictable: fervent and well-organized strikes and riots spread like wildfire throughout the country. In August, they paralyzed major ports, the Silesian coal mines and the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk.
In 1978 the archbishop of Krakow Karol Wojtyla became the pope. He was a vocal advocate for human rights and used his influence to effect political change. He died in Italy in 2005. During his first visit to Poland an estimated 13 million people saw Pope John Paul II in person, and he left them with the gift of hope. For the first time, they felt there was a real opportunity to change their lives through peaceful means. Suddenly the Polish people realized how they outnumbered those who supposedly were in the majority and in charge of the country. The Solidarity movement was about to be born.
Unlike most previous popular protests, the 1980 strikes were nonviolent; the strikers did not take to the streets, but stayed in their factories. On 31 August 1980, after long, drawn-out negotiations in the Lenin Shipyard, the government signed the Gdańsk Agreement. It forced the ruling party to accept most of the strikers’ demands, including the workers’ right to organize independent trade unions, and to strike. In return, workers agreed to adhere to the constitution and to accept the Party’s power as supreme.
Workers’ delegations from around the country convened and founded Solidarity (Solidarność), a nationwide independent and self-governing trade union. Lech Wałęsa, who led the Gdańsk strike, was elected chair.
It wasn’t long before Solidarity’s rippling effect caused waves within the government. Gierek was replaced by Stanisław Kania, who in turn lost out to General Wojciech Jaruzelski in October 1981. However, the trade union’s greatest influence was on Polish society. After 35 years of restraint, the Poles launched themselves into a spontaneous and chaotic sort of democracy. Wide-ranging debates over the process of reform were led by Solidarity, and the independent press flourished. Such taboo historical subjects as the Stalin-Hitler pact and the Katyń massacre could, for the first time, be openly discussed.
Not surprisingly, the 10 million Solidarity members represented a wide range of attitudes, from confrontational to conciliatory.
The government, however, under pressure from both the Soviets and local hardliners, was loath to introduce any significant reforms and systematically rejected Solidarity’s proposals. This only led to further discontent and, in the absence of other legal options, more strikes. Amid fruitless wrangling, the economic crisis grew more severe. After the unsuccessful talks of November 1981 between the government, Solidarity and the Church, social tensions increased and led to a political stalemate.