Conflicts in the People's Republic of Poland

Conflicts in the People’s Republic of Poland Conflicts in the People’s Republic of Poland Lesson plan (Polish) Lesson plan (English) Conflicts in the People’s Republic of Poland Source: licencja: CC 0. Link to the lesson Before you start you should know Conflicts are natural and cannot be avoided. They occur in every society because there are always groups of people with conflicting interests. Sometimes conflicts are necessary to bring the desired changes to a society. You will learn You will know all the most important conflicts between the society and the communist authorities in the People’s Republic of Poland. You will understand the reasons of the protests and demonstrations. You will be able to explain how the subsequent protests and events led to a fall of communism in Poland. Nagranie dostępne na portalu epodreczniki.pl nagranie abstraktu Exercise 1 Do you remember what the polical situaon in Poland before 1989 was? Read the text carefully and fill in the gaps. the cizens' opinion, democracy, Polish People's Republic, communist, voters, the people, deaths, Greek In 1989, in Poland, there was a polical transformaon – the ................................................ system gave way to ................................................. In democrac states, the authories must take ................................................ into account. This is a fundamental principle of democracy – from ................................................ the name of the polical system means "power of ................................................". The rulers must remember that cizens are ................................................ and if their opinions are not considered, they can withdraw their support for the government at the earliest opportunity. However, this was not always the case in Poland. Before the ................................................ was replaced by the Republic of Poland in 1989, the communist authories repeatedly suppressed by force the protests and demonstraons of the society dissasfied with the government. The use of force against cizens oen led to dramac consequences, including ................................................ of the protesters. Before 1989 Poland was not a democratic state, and in undemocratic states conflicts are not solved, but suppressed by force. The authorities sent militia and army against defenceless people. June 1956 The first big social rebellion in the times of the Polish People’s Republic was the protest of workers at the Cegielski Factories (then named “Joseph Stalin Metal Works”) in Poznań. The workers were dissatisfied with their low incomes, high production standards, increasing food prices, and huge expenditure on arms. On 28 June, 1956 they began their march towards the city centre, and workers of other factories joined in on the way. A parade of around 100 000 people sang religious songs and chanted “We demand bread”, “Down with communism”, “We want God”, etc. The demonstrators took over the buildings of the municipal authorities and the Communist Party’s local headquarters, as well as the prison – this was where the protesters found some weapons. A bloody battle began. Initially the workers gained advantage – they were shooting at the Ministry of Public Security building, and burned down several dozen tanks (by throwing gasoline bottles at the tanks), but they were quickly pacified by over 10 000 soldiers, who reached Poznań, assisted by 300 tanks, armored cars, and other sorts of weapons. During the street fighting and the Manifestaon on Armii Czerwonej Street pacification around 75 people died (the exact (currently Święty Marcin) in Poznań number has not been determined to this Source: domena publiczna. today), and, depending on the source, 500 to 800 people were injured. The next day, Prime Minister Józef Cyrankiewicz gave a radio speech, in which he threatened: “any provocateur or a madman, who dares to raise his hand on people’s government can be assured that the people’s government will chop that hand off”. Historians claim that “Pozań June” led to political changes in Poland. In October 1956 – Władysław Gomułka was chosen to be a new leader of the communist party, a lot of political prisoners were released, including Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński. March 1968 In March 1968 the authorities banned the performance of “Dziady” by Adam Mickiewicz (written in 1824) directed by Kazimierz Dejmek at the National Theatre in Warsaw on the grounds that it contained Russophobic and “anti‐Soviet” references, which were received with applause by the audience. After the last performance, students marched from the theatre to the monument of Mickiewicz demanding more performances and the abolition of censorship. In many Polish cities, students began to collect signatures on a petition to the Sejm, protesting against the ban. After a few days, some of the participants of the demonstration were detained, and two students were expelled from the university. When on 8 March 1968 the students organised a rally in the courtyard of the University of Warsaw to defend the repressed and their colleagues the militia brutally dispersed the protesters and another several dozen young people, including Jacek Kuroń and Karol Modzelewski were arrested. In the following days, similar rallies took place at many universities throughout Poland. Everywhere the protesters demanded the same: responsibility for the brutal militia actions, restrictions of censorship, and respect for freedom of speech. At the University of Warsaw and the Technical University of Warsaw an occupation strike began, but after threats of dissolution of the universities, it ended after only three days. The rebels, however, remained lonely, failed to persuade the workers of large factories to join them in protests. The authorities brutally cracked down on the protesters – on several campuses, entire faculties were closed, thousands of students were sent to military service. The authorities of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PUWP, the communist party, which was effectively in power at the time) claimed it was people of Jewish origin who inspired the incidents. A lot of people had to leave the country as a result of the anti‐Semitic campaign. The experience of March 1968 was one of the most important factors shaping the opposition of the 1980s. Wrocław students demanded the release of their arrested colleagues during the May Day parade Source: IPN, marzec1968.pl, tylko do użytku edukacyjnego. December 1970 On 14 December 1970, a strike broke out in the Gdańsk Shipyard, triggered by increases in prices of basic necessity goods, especially food, that were announced two days earlier. The strike inspired a wave of protests and demonstrations in the streets, which covered most of the Coast. The most tragic events took place in Gdynia, where on 17 December the army, without any kind of warning opened fire on workers going to work. Dozens of them died. There were violent clashes between several thousand workers and militia and army units. There were also riots in Szczecin, where the shipyard workers burned the communist party’s local headquarters building down. On 18 December all the largest production plants in Gdańsk, Gdynia, Słupsk, Elbląg and Szczecin were already on strike. The symbol of these events was the death of a young worker – Zbyszek Godlewski, who died shot with a machine gun. His friends laid his body on a door and carried it to the building of the Municipal National Council. Soon after the massacre, an engineer Krzysztof Dowgiałło wrote “Ballad of Janek Wiśniewski”. He did not know the real name of the fallen man, so he chose a popular first and last name in Poland. The poem turned into a song by Kazik Staszewski, became the theme of the movie “Black Thursday” directed by Antoni Krauze. The movie tells the story of Protests in December 1970 in Gdynia: the body of the tragic events of December 1970. Zbyszek Godlewski carried by demonstrators Source: domena publiczna. This time the workers’ protests led to the change of the leadership, and Edward Gierek became the first secretary of the PUWP. In his tv speech, he promised to improve the material situation of society. He blamed the protests on the “enemies of socialism” (not the workers!), and thus, he explained, the decisive response was needed from the authorities. Historians call the next ten years (until the creation of the “Solidarity” movement) “Gierek’s decade”. June 1976 On 25 June 1976, tens of thousands of people in almost a hundred workplaces began strikes and street demonstrations. The direct cause of the protests was a drastic price increase of food products announced in the Sejm by Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz (meat and fish – 69%, dairy products – 64%, rice – 150%, sugar – 90%). The following day in Radom, Ursus and Płock the demonstrations ended with clashes with the militia and ZOMO (Motorized Reserves of the Citizens’ Militia). The authorities withdrew from the price hikes but decided to intimidate the protesters, and brutal repressions began. The detained workers were passed through the so‐called “healing paths”, i.e. a row of militia officers beating them with their clubs. In show trials, people were sentenced to long‐term imprisonment and heavy fines. Strike in ZM "Ursus" Source: IPN, www.czerwiec76.ipn.gov.pl, tylko do użytku edukacyjnego. After these events the Workers’ Defense Committee was formed, a public opposition organisation that provided legal and financial assistance to the oppressed participants of the protests in Ursus, Radom, and Płock. The activities of the Workers’ Defense Committee made the changes in 1980 possible. August 1980 The Economic crisis and public dissatisfaction with the realities of the communist state kept growing in the second half of the seventies. The election of a Pole, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, as a Pope in October 1978, and his pilgrimage to his homeland in June 1979 awakened the public’s hopes for change. A year later strikes broke out, which changed the course of history and were the beginning of the end of communism in Europe. The direct cause of the protests in August 1980 was again the price rises that triggered strikes in the largest production plants in Poland.

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