| Summary: | Extracts from Polish underground publications compiled and translated into English by the RFE Polish Publication Unit for broadcasting purposes. Introductions to most articles are provided by RFE staff, and items are compiled in issues based mainly on theme and date.
A Chance for Self-management: An Interview with Henryk Wujec[from: Tygodnik Mazowsze, no. 113 (1 January 1985)]In an interview for the major underground weekly for the Warsaw area, Henryk Wujec speaks out in favor of Solidarity activists' becoming involved in self-management. Henryk Wujec, born in 1941, is a physicist by profession and has been active in the opposition for many years. From the fall of 1975 until the spring of 1976 Wujec was active in collecting signatures to a petition against proposed changes in the Polish Constitution. In the aftermath of protests at Radom and Ursus against the price rises introduced in June 1976, Wujec became involved in organizing help for the victims of police repression and in May 1977 became a member of the Workers' Defense Committee KOR. Wujec was an editor of the underground paper "Robotnik" [The Worker] and co-author of the Charter of Workers' Rights published in 1979. Throughout the late 1970s Wujec was subjected to numerous house searches and detentions by the police. In August 1980 Wujec managed to avoid arrest and became a member of the Workers' Solidarity Committee at the Ursus tractor factory outside Warsaw when it went on strike in support of Gdańsk workers. During the Solidarity period he worked first as an advisor and then as a member of the presidium at Solidarity headquarters for the Warsaw region and was active in workers' education under the auspices of the trade union. With the imposition of martial law on 13 December 1981, Henryk Wujec was interned and then formally arrested and charged with other leading KOR members with planning to overthrow the system by force. He was finally released under the amnesty declared on 22 July 1984 after having spent two years and eight months in prison.
The Position of the Steelworkers' Clandestine Committee on Workers' Self-management[from: Hutnik, no. 4(99) (6 March 1985)]In this statement dated 23 January 1985, the Steelworkers' Clandestine Workers' Committee (Polish acronym TKRH) at the Lenin Steelworks in Nowa Huta near Kraków gives its reasons for not being in favor of involvement in workers' self-management. "Hutnik" [The Steelworker] is published by the Solidarity branch at the Lenin Steelworks and has been appearing regularly since the spring of 1982.
Self-management: It Should be Worth It[from: Robotnik, no. 78 (20 January 1985)]This article describes the working of the workers' self-management committee at the Waryński construction machinery factory in Warsaw. "Robotnik" [The Worker] is published by members of the Warsaw-based Interfactory Workers' Solidarity Committee (Polish acronym MRK"S") and has been appearing regularly since the end of 1982.
The Cooperative Movement Can be Saved: A Conversation with a Cooperative Movement Activist[from: Tygodnik Mazowsze, no. 120 (7 March 1985)]The Warsaw underground weekly talks to an activist in the cooperative movement about the chances authentic cooperatives have of functioning in Poland today.
Conversations: Roża [Luksemburg Factory][from: Wola, no. 14(140) (15 April 1985)]This interview with a worker at the Róża Luksemburg light-bulb factory in Warsaw was published in the Warsaw underground weekly "Wola" [Will] (also the name of a district of Warsaw). The interview discusses the situation in the factory toward the end of March in the aftermath of the first wave of protests against the introduction of price rises.
Women on Strike: Żyrardów[from: Tygodnik Mazowsze, no. 128 (9 May 1985)]The leading Solidarity underground weekly from the Warsaw area describes the successful strike of women in a stocking factory near Warsaw.
My Point of View: A Conversation with a Worker[from: Bez Dekretu, no. 4 (February 1985)]"Bez Dekretu" [Without Edict] is published by Solidarity members and sympathizers in Kraków. The first issue appeared in November 1984. The journal is an example of the trend that underground publications are taking in Poland three years after the imposition of martial law. Although some underground papers have disappeared in this period, many new periodicals have been established. The trend is toward more serious, analytical journals and away from the news broadsheets that appeared in abundance throughout the country in 1982. So far Bez Dekretu has managed to appear every month. Each issue contains about 70 pages and carries between 10 and 20 items on social, political, and cultural affairs.
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