Spring in Summer Strikes, Austerity and Solidarity in Poland (July – August 1980) Graham Harris School of History, University of East Anglia Degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. ABSTRACT This thesis provides a new account of the strikes in Poland between July and August 1980 that led to the formation of Solidarność (Solidarity), the first ‘independent, self-governing trade union’ to exist under Communism. Although primarily focussed on the role of civil resistance in Poland, as the first stand-alone account of the strikes to appear in English since the mid-1980s, this thesis has a number of innovations. Firstly, it provides a day-by-day account of the August strikes which seeks to emphasise the immediacy, uncertainty and complexity of events from the perspective of both domestic and international actors. Secondly, with the existing literature dominated by the superpower responses, it integrates Eastern Bloc and West European responses into events. Thirdly, the previously unexplored role of Poland’s negotiations with Western commercial banks during the summer is also discussed. These along with Poland’s economic ‘crisis’ are seen as being of equal importance to the non-violent ‘breakthrough’ achieved by Polish workers in shaping the outcome of events. 2 CONTENTS Abstract … p.2 Contents … p.3 Acknowledgements … p.5 1. Introduction … p.6 - Literature Review … p.7 - Approach and Sources … p.12 - Background: Poland’s Debt Crisis and the Commercial Banks … p.14 2. Austerity Poland and Lublin’s July … p.19 - Initial Stoppages … p.20 - Western Governments/Western Banks … p.27 - Lublin Rising … p.30 - Tension Mounts … p.32 - The Reality of Life … p.36 - The Railway Workers’ Strike … p.37 - Scabs … p.40 - ‘Friends’ and ‘Partners’ … p.44 - The Need to Look Closer to Home … p.46 - Lublin Falling … p.48 - Aftermath … p.50 3. August 1980 … p.55 - Gdańsk … p.57 - 14 August 1980 (Thursday) … p.65 - 15 August 1980 (Friday) … p.76 - 16 August 1980 (Saturday) … p.88 3 - 17 August 1980 (Sunday) … p.96 - 18 August 1980 (Monday) … p.105 - 19 August 1980 (Tuesday) … p.119 - 20 August 1980 (Wednesday) … p.128 - 21 August 1980 (Thursday) … p.141 - 22 August 1980 (Friday) … p.153 - 23 August 1980 (Saturday) … p.164 - 24 August 1980 (Sunday) … p.176 - 25 August 1980 (Monday) … p.184 - 26 August 1980 (Tuesday) … p.191 - 27 August 1980 (Wednesday) … p.203 - 28 August 1980 (Thursday) … p.211 - 29 August 1980 (Friday) … p.220 - 30 August 1980 (Saturday) … p.231 - 31 August 1980 (Sunday) … p.243 4. Conclusion … p.257 5. Bibliography … p.260 4 Acknowledgements With thanks to Tony Kemp-Welch, Mike Bowker and Jan Vermeiren for allowing me to pursue this work as I wished. With apologies for emails sent in haste and fractious supervisory meetings. I would like to thank Tony in particular for interesting and encouraging me in the study of civil resistance and Solidarity since I was an MA student. Thanks also to Lidia Żak, Olena Palko, Dan Howse, Dave Senior, Jim Hannah and above all my family for accommodation/encouragement/food/friendship/reading drafts/support/anything else I’ve missed (delete as applicable). With special thanks to Katelyn, Alyssa, Aidan and Ada and above all my grandmother, Eleanor Dawson. 5 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION Human affairs must be dealt with humanely, not with violence. Tensions, rivalries and conflicts must be settled by reasonable negotiations and not by force. Opposing ideologies must confront each other in a climate of dialogue and free discussion. The legitimate interests of particular groups must also take into account the legitimate interests of the other groups involved and of the demands of the higher common good. Recourse to arms cannot be considered the right means for settling conflicts. Inalienable human rights must be safeguarded in every circumstance. It is not permissible to kill in order to impose a solution.1 Although the words of John Paul II were directed towards international statesmen as ‘a few elementary but firm principles’ for moving away from violence towards peace, they were equally applicable to relations between workers and the state in Poland. Worker-state confrontations in 1956, 1970 and 1976 had all involved the use of violence. So too student protests in 1968.2 By contrast the worker-state confrontation during the summer of 1980 concluded peacefully. While workers made use of non-violent means of resistance, primarily in the form of strikes, the state also refrained from violence despite plans for a crackdown being made. Negotiations proved to be the favoured means of conflict resolution by both sides, most notably on the Baltic coast where the signing of agreements at Szczecin and Gdańsk led to the formation of the first ‘independent, self-governing trade union’ to exist under Communism: Solidarność (Solidarity). This thesis explores the role of civil resistance in the emergence of Solidarity. Was the success of worker protests in the summer of 1980 due to favourable circumstances in the overall power situation, both domestic and 1 ‘To Reach Peace, Teach Peace’, Message of His Holiness Pope John Paul II For The Celebration of the Day of Peace, 1 January 1979. < http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/messages/peace/documents/hf_jp- ii_mes_19781221_xii-world-day-for-peace.html> [August 2015] Note: This quotation has been amended to read ‘Inalienable human rights’ rather than ‘The inalienable human rights’. 2 See: P. Machcewicz, Rebellious Satellite: Poland 1956 (Stanford CA, 2009); J. Eisler, Marzec 1968 (Warsaw, 1991); J. Eisler, Grudzień 1970: Geneza, Przebieg, Konsekwencje (Warsaw, 2012); P. Sasanka, Czerwiec 1976: Geneza, Przebieg, Konsekwencje (Warsaw, 2006). 6 international? How important were the methods of non-violence used as opposed to the conditions within which they operated?3 In seeking to answer this question a new case study of the strikes in Poland in July and August 1980 that integrates both domestic and international responses to events has been prepared. Given the wealth of new material available on the strikes and the length of time since a new synthesis of the strikes based on archival research has appeared in English, its construction was guided by a simpler question: What actually happened during the summer of 1980? Overall it makes clear that while the use of non-violent means of resistance was vital in the achievement of a peaceful ‘breakthrough’ by Polish workers, it was Poland’s economic ‘crisis’ coupled with a desperate need for new loans from Western banks, internal divisions within the Party, and a reluctance to use force based on past experience and a fear of the consequences that were the main factors in providing the opportunity for Solidarity to emerge peacefully.4 International restraint was also crucial in this regard. Despite extensive media coverage and government attention, neither East nor West interfered or intervened. Continued Western support for the Polish authorities, as much as Soviet non-intervention, was vital to the peaceful development of events. Literature Review In the early- to mid-1980s an extensive literature on Solidarity developed, including Jerzy Holzer’s first history of Solidarity and numerous accounts by Western and Polish journalists.5 A handful of works exploring the use of non-violent resistance by Polish 3 Adapted from ‘Initial Questions’ in A. Roberts and T. Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present (Oxford, 2009), pp.xx-xxi. 4 On the terms ‘crisis’ and ‘breakthrough’, see: A. Kutylowski, ‘Non-violence in the Polish breakthrough: An Introduction’, Journal of Peace Research, 19:2 (1982), pp. 103-106 (pp.103-104). 5 See: N. Ascherson, The Polish August (Harmondsworth, 1981); T. Garton Ash, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity 1980-1982 (London, 1983); W. Giełżyński and L. Stefański, Gdańsk Sierpień 80 (Warsaw, 1981); J. Holzer, “Solidarność” 1980-1981: Geneza i Historia (Warsaw, 1983); A. Kemp-Welch (ed.), The Birth of Solidarity: The Gdańsk Negotiations (London and Basingstoke, 1983); S. Persky, At the Lenin Shipyard: Poland 7 workers also appeared.6 This was followed by a significant lull. Despite the increasing availability of primary sources from Soviet and Eastern bloc archives following the collapse of Communism, by the mid-1990s Mark Kramer was noting a decline in interest in the subject. He declared the ‘need for a new synthesis’ of events.7 Since the appearance of Kramer’s article, the Polish language literature on the Solidarity-era has expanded considerably. Notable works by Andrzej Paczkowski concerning the Party’s preparations for martial law and a multi-volume work edited by Łukasz Kamiński and Grzegorz Waligóra primarily exploring Solidarity on a regional basis have been published, along with a comprehensive new history by Andrzej Friszke.8 By contrast work on Solidarity and the Party in English has been limited. Two recent works are notable for their use of interviews with Solidarity activists unavailable elsewhere, but make no use of archival sources.9 In terms of the study of non-violence meanwhile, the most recent account also fails to make use of archival material.10 Only Anthony Kemp- Welch’s Poland under Communism provides a new account based on the holdings of Polish and international archives as well as Polish secondary sources.11 However, due to the appearance of a number of significant new works in Polish and the availability of new archival releases since its publication, as well as the restrictions placed on any account of and the Rise of the Solidarity Trade Union (Vancouver, 1982); J-Y.