CW Solidarity DBQ (Eliana)

Source: Interfactory Strike Committee, “21 Demands,” a political platform written on wooden boards and hung on the gates of the Gdansk shipyard, August 18, 1980.

Our demands are:

1. Acceptance of free trade unions independent of the communist party. ...
2. A guarantee of the right to strike and of the security of strikers. ...
3. Compliance with the constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the press, and publication. ...
4. Guaranteed automatic increases in pay on the basis of increases in prices and the decline in real income.
5. A full supply of food products for the domestic market, with exports limited to surpluses. ...
6. The selection of management personnel on the basis of qualifications, not party membership. Privileges of the secret police, regular police, and party apparatus to be eliminated.

Source: Polish communist party, instructions distributed to schoolteachers in advance of a visit by Pope John Paul II, the first Polish pope, March 1979.

You should convey to your students that the pope is our enemy, because he celebrates mass for [political dissidents]. Due to his uncommon skills and great sense of humor, he is dangerous because he charms everybody, especially journalists. Besides, he goes for cheap gestures in his relations with the crowd. For instance, he puts on a folksy hat, shakes all hands, kisses children, etc. His behavior is modeled on American presidential campaigns.

Source: Editorial in the official Polish communist party newspaper People’s Tribune, October 1956.

In these exciting and uncommon times* the Polish working class has clearly made its voice heard. This class leads the nation not by someone’s appointment or decree, but by virtue of its position in society. ... It is evident that the leading role of the [communist] Party has been tangibly confirmed. The Party has been united as never before with the working class which gave it birth, with the peasant masses, with the student youth, with the progressive intelligentsia, and with the Polish People’s Army. The Party is united with the nation.

*a reference to the June 1956 workers’ strike in the city of Poznan, the first large-scale protest against communist rule in Poland; several dozen workers were killed in the government’s suppression of the strike

Source: Resolution of the bishops of the Catholic Church in Poland, September 1976.

The government should fully respect civic rights, conduct a real dialogue with society, and take account of society’s wants when making decisions that affect the whole nation. We therefore ask the state authorities to stop all repression of workers involved in the antigovernment protests [of June 1976]. Those workers who have been dismissed must be reinstated and their social and professional positions restored. They should receive compensation for their losses, while those sentenced should be pardoned.

Source: Open letter signed by several prominent Polish intellectuals and read on Polish-language radio stations broadcast from Western Europe, June 1976.

We declare our solidarity with the workers of Poland who have gone on strike. ... In the system of government presently prevailing in our country, the only form in which people can express their real attitudes is through outbursts of social discontent, outbursts which are dangerous in their consequences. ... Without the establishment of a system of real representation of workers it is not possible to study effectively the needs and aspirations of our society. In their present form the official trade unions do not fulfill this role. Recent events have again confirmed how completely fictitious the [official] unions are.

Source: General Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish communist party leader, memoir published 1992.

It was as if we in the Party were hypnotized by our conviction that the central figures of Solidarity could do as they wished. We exaggerated their ability to direct and manipulate their organization. But in fact, such a powerful social and political movement radicalizes and gathers momentum on its own. It carries its leaders more than the leaders lead it.