Solidarity

Although Gdansk is 1,000 years old, perhaps it is most famous for what occurred here during the 1970s and 80s: the Solidarity Movement, which led to the fall of Communism. And also it's most famous resident and leader: Lech Walesa.

It is remarkable that our children have no idea what Communism or the Soviet Union is. These are just words to them, unlike when we were kids. I am not sure they will ever comprehend, but seeing Solidarity today and the Berlin Wall next month might help.

Most of what occurred during the Solidarity Movement and Lech Walesa occurred a few tram stops from our house. There are several memorials and a nice museum to honor those workers that stood up to the Communist government and those who lost their lives doing it. Today was Solidarity Day for the Gartlands.

Although many of the Eastern Bloc countries had uprisings and strikes, the Solidarity Movement in Gdansk was one of the strongest, and was the first domino in the fall of the Soviet Union.

Here is a quick chronology of what we saw and showed the kids.

Russia took over Poland in 1945. It was never a happy marriage. Actually, whereas Franklin D. Roosevelt is a hero in most of America, he is not definitely not considered that in Poland. He is blamed for giving Poland to Stalin and Russia during the Yalta Conference. History is funny, Americans see the Yalta Conference as the “good finality” of WWII, but the Poles see it as the beginning of their 50 year Communist nightmare. They hate Yalta.

Anyway, in December 1970 the workers at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk began to strike against the Communist Government to protest rising food prices and other social problems. The Communist Government responded to the strikes by calling out the military, who brought in tanks, machine guns and troops to forcibly quell the strikes.

It is unknown how many ship workers were killed. Their bodies were taken and buried in the forest by the military during the middle of the night. A large monument of three crosses with anchors sits outside the Lenin Shipyard (now known as the Gdansk shipyard). People still place memorial candles in front of the monument. There were at least 30 burning today. The military won in 1970, and the workers eventually went back to work at the shipyards.

In 1976, there was another strike at the shipyards, and although minimal violence occurred, lots of people lost their jobs and were arrested.

In 1978, John Paul II was elected pope, and this seems to have given the shipyard workers hope that they could improve their lives. He is a strong catalyst in this story.

In the late 1970s and 1980s conditions in Gdansk (and the rest of Poland) were very poor. In the museum, they have a “typical” grocery store set up as it might have looked during that time. People were given ration cards to buy meat, milk and toilet paper. People had to stand in line for hours to get into the store and use their ration cards. Many times the store inventory would be gone by they time their turn arrived. During my orientation last month, I met a person who talked about when he was a kid (he is my age), and he and his brothers and sisters use to take 2 hour turns standing in line waiting to get into the store. When is was about their turn, they would send for their Grandmother who would come down and do the actual buying with the ration card. This was a weekly chore.

In 1980 a bigger strike occurred at the shipyards in Gdansk. This time the workers refused to leave and locked themselves in the docks behind iron gate (Lisa and kids are pictured standing in from of the actual gates). The demands of workers were simple- more food, easier time to get an apartment (at that time all the apartments were owned by the State and you had to apply to get one- many times this process took five years), better wages and votes on their working conditions.

A Trade Union was set-up and called Solidarity. Its union leader was one of the electricians named Lech Walesa (who was marginally educated, but had a passionate personality).

The strikes spread from Gdansk to most of the other cities in Poland. The Communist Government had big trouble on their hands, as tens of thousands were now involved.

After a long strike and the Communists not wanting a repeat of what occurred in 1970s- they agreed to several of the strikers demands (a big victory for the workers). Solidarity signed an agreement with the Communist Government. Lech Walesa personally signed the agreement with a pen that had a picture of John Paul II on it (the pen is in the museum, as is the agreement).

The agreement lasted for 16 months, then the Communists wanted out of it. They declared Martial Law in all of Poland. The tanks came back. Curfews were set, phones were tapped, and lots of arrests were made (including Lech Walesa).

Martial Law lasted about two years in Poland. Civil liberties were almost non-existent during this time. We tried to explain to our kids this would have been occurring right when we were their ages. We asked them to imagine going to school and seeing tanks patrolling the streets.

Over the next seven years, Solidarity got stronger and the Soviet Union got weaker. In 1989, the Soviets finally gave into the Solidarity Movement and allowed free elections (this was basically the end of the Communist era in Poland).

In 1990, Walesa was democratically elected President of Poland- and the rest is history. It all happened at the Gdansk Shipyards. All of this actually occurred several months before the Berlin Wall fell. Poles believe it was them who started the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It is hard to explain repression of this kind to the kids, but I hope they can get some appreciation of how great living in an open democracy can be. We all fight over right vs left in America- which are actually quite small differences compared to what Solidarity was fighting against Communism.