Born: August 13, 1929 in Rowne, Poland (presently Rivne, Ukraine)
Died: April 10, 2010 in Smolensk, Russia
From a brochure handed out to workers in Lenin Shipyard on August 14, 1980: “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 led to the strike in the Gdansk Shipyard that paralyzed the Baltic coast and led to the giant wave of strikes in Poland and eventually to the creation of Solidarity, of which she became a prominent member. By September nearly a million workers were on strike in support of the twenty one demands, making it the largest strike ever.
Early days. Her parents, Jan and Aleksandra Lubczyk, died just before the outbreak of WWII. She was raised by strangers and finished four classes of grammar school. As a young girl she worked on a farm, then at a bakery and finally in margarine factory.
Adult life. In 1947 she became a member of ZMP (Union of Polish Youth- a Communist Party’s, PZPR- subsidiary). In 1950 she began working in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, first as a welder, later as a crane operator. Soon she became super-quota worker (przodowniczka pracy). Her photos appeared in the newspapers. In 1951 she was sent to Berlin for a youth congress. After joining the Women’s League she started to intervene for workers rights. In 1952 she gave birth to a son Janusz. Walentynowicz soon became disillusioned with the Polish communist party (PZPR) as she saw that workers were not allowed to organize and their concerns were not addressed. She began her campaign for justice when one of her bosses stole money from the employees and used it to participate in a lottery. In 1978, she became a founding member of a Committee for Free Trade Unions set up in Gdansk and she also came to symbolize the opposition movement visually by appearing as a stout female worker in many propaganda posters. As editor of the Polish samizdat (bibula) Robotnik Wybrzeza (The Coastal Worker), she brazenly distributed the illegal newspaper in person at the shipyard, often handing it directly to her bosses. 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. In the aftermath of the strike, Walentynowicz and Lech Walesa were returned to work, the Gdansk Agreement was signed and soon afterward the Solidarity trade union was formed. After the introduction of martial law in Poland in 1981, Walentynowicz was among the persecuted Solidarity leaders. She received a suspended prison sentence for illegal union activity. In 2009 IPN (Institute of National Memory) accused two SB agents of an attempt to poison Walentynowicz in 1981 with furosemide. But in 1983 martial law was lifted and she was able to resume her political and trade union activities. Poland’s first free elections in 1989 signaled the end of communism and Solidarity’s lead role in forming a coalition government. A former close colleague of Lech Walesa, Walentynowicz fell out with the Solidarity leader after he became president in 1990. She also left Solidarity itself and distanced herself from the political groups associated with it. In 2000 she turned down an honorary citizenship of the city of Gdansk. In 2003 she asked for compensation from the government for her 1980s persecution, eventually receiving part of the sum. She died in a plane crash near Smolensk on April 10, 2010, along with President of Poland, Lech Kaczynski, First Lady Maria Kaczynska, and many other prominent Polish leaders.
Filmy. She appeared as herself in four movies, the best known being Man of Iron by Andrzej Wajda. The Volker Schlöndorff movie Strike is a fictionalized version of her story.
Prizes and awards. January 2005: the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom in Washington on behalf of Solidarity from the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation; May 2006: awarded the White Eagle Order by Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland; December 2009; Pawel Wlodkowic Prize „for courage in defending basic values and truth even in spite of the opinion of the majority” by the Civil Rights Spokesman.
This article uses modified material from the Wikipedia article "Anna Walentynowicz" licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. :
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