ENTERPRISE IN GDANSK

While still in Gdansk, we met with more of the movers and shakers from Solidarity that afternoon. Solidarity Liberal Democratic Congress spoke with us in their broken English, dressed in their very best sweaters and patched jackets. They told of how anxious they were to be free-market businessmen, but were not sure where to start. Everyone of the American businessmen in that room had tears in their eyes by the end of the presentation. Free enterprise was so simple and easy, yet these men who had brought down a tyrannical regime were pleading to know the secrets of free markets. Of course we told them all our "free-enterprise" secrets: Manufacture and/or sell a product/service people want/need at a competitive price through a strong distribution channel -- too easy, huh?

We figured out ways we could help them (i.e. exportable computer technology), and exchanged contact information. We had accomplished something worthwhile that day, and were inspired to continue helping these people long after we were back home in our luxurious comfort.

We paid our respects at the Gdansk (formerly Lenin) shipyard memorial the next day, by laying a wreath and bouquets of flowers at the base of the monument. Our appreciation of what it meant to be in Solidarity was increased as the guards at the gate showed us that brass marker where the striker had been pinned and crushed to death against the iron gate during the 1970 tri-city, shipyard strike. Three anchors representing crosses mounted in a mixture of cement, asphalt and embedded rocks, sticks and bits of glass from thrown bottles that told the story of the massacre of the 19t0 strike.

Like the Berlin Wall, the 19t0 strike was tragically ironic. If communism was a “workers’ state,” and unions in the United States had been considered communist in origin – why would any workers’ strike in a communist country result in a bloody massacre? This was a question that Anna Walentynowicz asked after 19t0. The question had no answer, so she left the communist party and became part of the opposition, in search of the truth.

Joanna Wojciechowicz recounted to me how the whole shipyard went out on strike in 1980 in protest over Anna’s firing, and that no concessions in wages would bring them back, until she was reinstated. With the same authority as the well-known, Lech Walesa, Anna -- a crane operator -- was victorious over the tyranny of the government, as the government not only re-instated her, but with the encouragement of Alina Pienkowska (a nurse in the shipyard infirmary); the backing of other unions (to form Solidarity); and with Joanna orgainizing all of Gdansk to support the strikers (bakeries to provide bread; collected blankets, food, water, etc.); the 1980 strike continued until the communist government gave in to the 21 demands of the strikers.

We bought a make-shift Solidarity flag from the guards at the gate, and posed for a group picture on this freezing March day. We then began our Solidarity Pin collection by visiting St. Brigita’s cathedral. Here, the Priest Jankowski, had helped hide members of Solidarity during Martial Law (1981 to 1983), and I was able to meet him in subsequent visits to Poland.

Later that evening, we headed back to Warsaw where we met with Ambassador John Davis. This diplomat was instrumental in helping the Intellectual father of free Poland, Jacek Kuron, marry the idea of the intelligentsia and the workers in unity against The Big Lie (communism). This was the turning point in the history of Polish-worker strikes under communist rule. It wasn’t until the Intelligentsia were able to support the workers’ and student strikes that they had any impact on the communist hard-liners. Ambassador Davis attended as many of the court sessions as he could to witness the illegal proceedings of the Solidarity leaders’ trials and sentences. He wanted to make sure there was a representation from the United States as witness to the illegality of these proceedings.

We were sad to leave Poland, but our journey was not over. We were headed for Hungary as observers of the pending free election.