Anna Walentynowicz (Polish pronunciation: [ˈanna valɛntɨˈnɔvit͡ʂ]; August 13, 1929 – April 10, 2010) was a Polish free trade union activist. Her firing in August 1980 was the event that ignited the strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk that very quickly paralyzed the Baltic coast and a giant wave of strikes in Poland. The Interfactory Strike Committee [MKS] based in the Gdańsk shipyard eventually transformed itself into Solidarity trade union, of which she became a prominent member. By September more than million workers were on strike in support of the twenty one demands, making it the largest strike ever. Walentynowicz, whose name became synonymous with the strike became an organizing slogan [Bring Anna Walentynowicz Back to Work!] in the early days of the Gdansk strike, is now widely regarded as "mother of independent Poland."

Born in Rivne as Anna Lubczyk in what is now Ukraine in 1929, Anna Walentynowcz was orphaned during the Second World War and repatriated into Poland. She began working in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland in 1950, first as a welder, later as a crane operator. Recognized as a "Hero of Socialist Labor" or Stakhanovite for her hard work, Walentynowicz became disillusioned with the communist system, especially after the bloody events in December 1970 on the Baltic Coast (Polish 1970 protests). While she was an activist and a member of a socialist youth organization, she was never formally a member of the communist party. She was a devout Catholic who believed in social justice and standing up against oppression, in her later years deeply moved by the teachings of John Paul II with whom she developed a personal relationship. One of the last letters that John Paul II wrote was to Anna Walentynowicz wishing her speedy recovery from a back injury. She really began her quest for justice by speaking out publicly when one of her supervisors stole money from the workers' bonus fund to win lottery. Instead of reprimanding the corrupt supervisor, the system turned on her—she was harassed by secret police.

The exemplary worker and Hero of Socialist Labor turned a vocal dissident because the so-called workers state did not care about the workers. Walentynowicz joined the newly formed WZZ or Free Trade Unions of the Coast in 1978, and in the early 1980s came to symbolize the opposition movement, along with her colleagues from the WZZ, Lech Wałęsa, Andrzej Gwiazda, Bogdan Borusewicz, Alina Pienkowska, the Wyszkowski brothers and Andrzej Kołodziej. As editor of the Polish samizdat (bibuła) Robotnik Wybrzeża (The Coastal Worker), she distributed an underground newsheet at the shipyard; she often challenged the authorities, and it was not uncommon for her to openly challenge her superiors. For participation in the illegal trade union she was fired from work on August 7, 1980, 5 months before she was due to retire. This management decision enraged the workers, who staged a strike action on August 14 defending Anna Walentynowicz and demanding her return.

In early reportage from the Gdansk strike by Western press, which was permitted into the shipyard, Anna Walentynowicz is mentioned earlier than Lech Wałęsa. It was the women of the shipyard, especially Anna Waletynowicz and Alina Pienkowska, who are credited in most eye-witness accounts for transforming a strike over bread and butter issues into a solidarity strike in sympathy with other striking establishments in the Gdansk region. The Gdańsk Agreement was signed in August recognizing the right to organize free trade unions independent of the Party for the first time in the Communist bloc. When the Solidarity trade union was registered shortly after the Gdansk Agreement, it had nearly ten million members, the world's largest union to date.

Walentynowicz has criticized Wałęsa for taking too much individual credit, and not sufficiently acknowledging that the Solidarity union triumph was a group effort involving millions, even suggesting with some merit that his "cult of personality" at times greatly damaged the movement. It is well documented that Walesa-inspired effort to cleanse the informant "Bolek" file during his presidency dealt a serious blow to lustration efforts in Poland, although the National Institute of Remembrance investigation concluded that evidence pointing to Wałęsa as an informant was manufactured by the secret police (SB) of the era in order to discredit him in the eyes of the Nobel Committee. Recovered documents not considered by the Lustration Court strongly suggest that Walesa was Bolek, who informed on several of his colleagues [Henryk Lenarciak, Henryk Jagielski among others] who were leaders of the December 1970 strike between 1970 and 1976. There is no evidence that Walesa continiued in this role during the critical years as leader of the Great Solidarity strike of 1980 inspired by the firing of Anna Walentynowicz.

While remaining active and outspoken after the fall of communism in 1989 Walentynowicz distanced herself from the labor union and various political parties including those allied with Solidarity. She felt Solidarity elites have abandoned the workers and ordinary people, not living up to the core Solidarity values of social justice. She felt that the moral revolution that brought freedom to Poland had been co-opted by self-interested individuals who reneged on their promises. In 2000 she declined an honorary citizenship of the city of Gdańsk. In 2003 she asked for compensation from the government for her 1980s persecution, eventually receiving part of the sum. Walentynowicz cared little about herself and mostly donated all that she had to those who needed help.

On December 13, 2005 Walentynowicz accepted the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom in Washington on behalf of the first free trade union Solidarity from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and was personally honored along with John Paul II and General Edward Rowny, Chief US Nuclear Arms Control Negotiator with the Soviets. The columnist Georgie Anne Geyer called her the Rosa Parks of Solidarity and in her column compared her to the likes of Indira Gandhi and Corazon Aquino. During her visit she met with vice president Linda Chavez Thompson and other leaders of AFL-CIO. In a meeting at the State Department, she presented a relief sculpture of John Paul II as a gift to President George W. Bush and the American people, which was accepted by Paula Dobriansky, Undersecretary of State for Global Affairs, who has been recognized for her support of the Solidarity Union.

Andrzej Wajda's film sequence, Man of Marble and Man of Iron, is based loosely on Anna Walentynowicz's life with its central motif of a Hero of Socialist Labor turned dissident, prompting some to call her "woman of iron." She also appeared as herself in four movies, the best known being Man of Iron. "Gefangene der Freiheit" of Lara Quaglia, who yelds her all rights of her Life (2003-2013),distributed in German, French Polish and English , The Volker Schlöndorff movie Strike is a fictionalized version of her story.

Walentynowicz died in a plane crash near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, along with President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, First Lady Maria Kaczyńska, and many other prominent Polish leaders. A plaque on her house in Wrzeszcz, a borough of Gdańsk, has recently been dedicated and the city of Gdynia named an intersection after her.

Quotes

From a brochure handed out to workers in Lenin Shipyard on August 14[when?]: “ To the workers of the Gdansk Shipyard

We turn to YOU colleagues of Anna Walentynowicz. She has worked at the shipyard since 1950. Sixteen years as a welder, later as crane operator in W-2 section, awarded bronze, silver and in 1979 Gold Cross of Merit (Krzyz zaslugi). She had always been a model worker, what is more, one who reacted to every wrong and injustice.

This has resulted in her activism in independence of management trade union movement. Walentynowicz received a disciplinary notice of firing on August 7 for "major infraction of worker's responsibilities." We would like to remind you that Anna Walentynowicz has only five months to retirement. This matter demonstrates that the administration of the shipyard does not care about public opinion or legal procedure, which it violates forcing people to bend with its whims. Anna Walentynowicz has been a thorn in their side, because she is a model activist devoted to others. She is a thorn in their side because she defends others and is capable of organizing her colleagues... We appeal to you, defend the crane operator Walentynowicz. If you don't, many of you may find themselves in the same miserable situation.

Signed Founding Committee of Independent Trade Unions and the editorial board of THE COASTAL WORKER: Bogdan Borusewicz, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, Andrzej Gwiazda, Jan Karandziej, Maryla Płońska, Alina Pienkowska, Lech Wałęsa

”

References