Alfred Bondos - Poland
 Change Through Strikes
Background: Solidarity began as a trade union in 1980 and drove a national civil resistance movement that eventually forced the country's first free elections since Communist rule in 1990.
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It was like a vicious circle. This tension led to a bad atmosphere at work. My coworkers and I noticed that life was unjust. Even people weren’t paid the same for the same work. We had to show that we didn’t agree with such a big injustice. We decided to leave our workplace and shout ’”We don’t want to work!’’ The protest lasted from the 8th to the 11th of June. That was a real solidarity movement. There was no division into workers or white-collar workers. Our protest was successful. We stood arm in arm. We shouted our demands but we stayed in the factory not to tease the militia. We just avoided being beaten up. Due to our actions, the authorities signed our demands. It happened for the first time in the Polish post war period. It was an incredible feeling. We started to believe that we could change something. Our victory influenced actions of workers in Silesia and the coastland…
We were together and against the martial law. A lot of our leaders had been arrested but I managed to escape. I had taken part in the organization of the strike. I was responsible for the contact between the workers and the committee through the radio. We weren’t safe, as army helicopters had arrived. We were aware of what was happening in the country, but we were determined. Motorized reserves of the Citizens‘ Militia [Polish State Police] stormed the factory. Motorized reserves of the Citizens' Militia used bats and tear gas to drive us away. We were holding hands in order to stay inside instead of fighting. That was the foundation of Solidarity. I stayed on the radio and I tried to protect workers, asked the militia not to hurt workers. I reminded the workers about peaceful resistance. We avoided bloodshed. |