„Wy róbcie swoje, a my swoje”. Załogi górnicze województwa katowickiego w drodze do pluralizmu związkowego (wrzesień 1988 – kwiecień 1989)
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Authors
Date
2010
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Muzeum Górnictwa Węglowego w Zabrzu
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Abstract
The fight for the pluralism of unions in Poland in the 80’s of the XX c. was filled with many dra-matic moments. The workers of the Katowice Province, especially miners, played an essential role in this battle. Important were: strikes in defence of “Solidarność”, lives of the 9 miners sacrificed in De-cember ‘81 and strikes in 14 Silesian mines in August ‘88 demanding the legalization of “Solidarność’”. The last one contributed to the initiation of the initiative of “The Round Table” (“Okrągły Stół”). In September 1988 the direction of the changes was not sealed. The resistance of the communist party apparatus towards the agreement with “Solidarność” was very strong. It exerted an influence upon the indecisive stand of the executive committee of PZPR (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza - The Polish United Workers’ Party). As a result, the obligations taken upon the party to call off the strikes were not fulfiled by the authorities. The issues of restoring strike leaders to their job were protracted, repression and harassment were practiced. However, the leaders of the party underestimated the de-termination of the new generation of the union leaders. In a majority they were young people with strong, radical and anti-communist views, who, without having been discouraged by the obstacles, rebuilt the structures of “Solidarność” and were able to establish contact with the miners’ staff and to raise problems important for this staff, wining favour with the Church for their fight. A bone of the political contention in the Katowice Province within the 3 post-strike months was restoring the dis-missed miners to their jobs. Demonstrations on the streets, rallies in mines, petitions, trials, hunger strikes - they did not allow the authorities to forget that they deal with a determined, but also orga-nized opponent. Open temporary works committees of “Solidarność” were established in mines. The payment of the benefits lost for participating in the strike by an illegal union was a phenomenon. On the side of the authorities there was extensive criticism, but not much action. They counted on the reaction of the supreme authorities and police repressions. A more active group in the ruling camp constituted only the official trade union activists, who were facing the competition in the plants and were more and more cricital of their political patrons. Repressions practiced by the authorities were not very effective. As it turned out, the leaders of “Solidarność” enjoyed considerable influence in mines and, undoubtedly, they were able to cause another wave of strikes, which was quite possible in view of the worsening economic situation. The tutmuluous post-strike months showed that without the legalization of “Solidarność” the restoration of peace in the Silesian mines was impossible.
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Citation
Jurkiewicz, J. (2010). „Wy róbcie swoje, a my swoje”. Załogi górnicze województwa katowickiego w drodze do pluralizmu związkowego (wrzesień 1988 – kwiecień 1989). Górnik Polski. Zeszyty Naukowe Muzeum Górnictwa Węglowego, 4, 153-185.