'Finally the 13th of December came and prisons were filled with people. I lost everything, even hope’

December 13 marked the 30th anniversary of the Martial Law in Poland. The phrase in Polish is ‘Stan Wojenny’: translation – state of war.

It refers to the period of time between December 13, 1981 until July 22, 1983 when the government of People’s Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life. It is a time period in which many people lost their lives and hopes in an effort to eradicate a totalitarian regime.

Thirty years on, The Journal spoke to Krzysztof Haczkiewicz – in charge of one plant – who explained how the developments transpired from the moment when the Solidarity-led opposition was brought alive in 1980 before Martial Law eventually took hold the following year.

Haczkiewicz remembers the birth of Solidarity (Polish: Solidarno) as though it were yesterday. He was in Gdansk in 1980 when the strike in the Lenin shipyard broke out and brought with it a wave of solidarity strikes across various parts of the country.

When news from Gdansk Shipyard reached Haczkiewicz’s office, he was asked to make a decision for hundreds of other people. Finally, the Solidarity Declaration was written and he delivered it to the shipyard. The Solidarity movement is one of those events that touches the people who participate in them for life.

Today, Haczkiewicz lives in Melbourne, Australia, and spends most of his time travelling, enjoying his free way of living. “I hated injustice and the Nazi way of thinking,” he said. “I am an extreme type of free citizen.”

When in 1980 Solidarity came, Haczkiewicz decided to take an active role: “I was, of course, on the first row organising strikes.”

He soon became head of all Designing Offices in Gdansk and all EP branches across Poland, also emerging as a member of the Regional Delegates Forum in Gdansk.

Asked about his strongest memory of the Solidarity movement, Haczkiewicz pointed to August 16 1980 when Ania Walentynowicz saved a strike in the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk.

Walentynowicz was a member of the Free Union Movement, with Andrzej Gwiazda, Joanna Gwiazda, Lech Walesa, Bogdan Borusewicz and a few others on her side. They were cooperating with the Workers’ Defense Committee (Polish: Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR) in Warsaw. Lech Walesa had a job at Elektromontaz but joined the strike later and moved on to become leader. Haczkiewicz decided to go on strike when later that day news about the shipyard strike arrived at their Electro Project office in Oliwa.

He added: “A few of us – the senior engineers – were discussing that shocking event. “I was asked to make a decision for 100 highly skilled people. I went from room to room asking people to join us in the foyer now.

“It was so easy, like people were only waiting to be asked for a solidarity rally with shipyard workers. The strike committee was established and I became their head. The Solidarity Declaration was written and I was chosen to deliver it to the shipyard that afternoon. There was no army and no police around.”

According to Haczkiewicz, their registration was the 164th. By August 15, around 500 registrations had been signed.

“All shipyards were decorated with anticommunist slogans and demands for freedom by young workers with help of students from University, Medical Academy and Politechnic Institute,” he added.

Haczkiewicz labelled the following two weeks were the most exciting. “The Local Party secretary Tadeusz Fiszbach decided not to use bullets this time, but arranged meetings with party delegates who arrived from Warsaw.

“Mieczys?aw Jagielski was authorized by Politburo (Political Bureau) to carry on discussions. Our victory was two weeks later, on the 31st of August.”

Haczkiewicz took over the EP communication sources and called designing offices around the country asking them to establish Strike Committees by delivering them instructions and photographic material as support for different cases.

He said: “On the 7th of September 1980, I met eleven delegates from all EP branches in Lublin, Poland, and became their boss. It was the first, still illegal, commission with delegates outside Gdansk. Free union movement was allowed in Gdansk only at this stage.”

Asked how he would describe this situation in his own words, Haczkiewicz answered: “If you want to understand the situation in Poland in the 80s, the best way is to compare it to the last remaining similar regime on earth, which is North Korea.”

When he thinks back today he remembers the fear, even after 10 million people joined the movement. “Finally the 13th of December 1981 came and prisons were filled with people. I lost everything, even hope.” he said as resignation took over his voice.

The Journal also spoke to Wojciech, a student who was born six years after the strikes in Gdansk. He knows these events mainly from school lessons and from the stories his parents decided to share with him.

He explained: “For me, these events mean the beginning of great, wonderful changes in my country. They initiated a great national movement towards freedom of Poland and gave hope to unite again in the struggle for a better future.

“The workers from the Gdansk Shipyard strikes faced the fear of repression from communist government and fought for democracy, giving an example to the rest of citizens, and finally uniting more than 10 million people from all over the country.”

According to Wojciech, Poland is undergoing a dynamic transformation with empty shelves in stores filled with merchandise since the introduction of the free market.

Wojciech said: “Thanks to the efforts of the democratic government, Poland has finally reached a status of safe militarily as a member of NATO. Thanks to the membership in the European Union our borders are now open and people can study in foreign universities, work abroad or simply travel to other countries without tight restrictions.

“I am a person who has seen comparison between the fledgling democracy and well developed ones.

“The last year I spent in Scotland, gaining professional experience. It is a fact that higher salary rates and well-developed infrastructure in United Kingdom make life easier.

“But thanks to Solidarity, people like Krzysztof Haczkiewicz and further consequent steps, Poland chases the western countries very quickly.”