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Sources for Western Society: Printed Page 475

29-1 | SOLIDARITY UNION, Twenty-One Demands: A Call for Workers’ Rights and Freedoms (1980)

Polish resistance to Soviet domination in the 1980s found a point of focus in the activities of the anticommunist shipbuilder’s union Solidarność (Solidarity). Labor unions and strikes were illegal in the Soviet empire, but Solidarity, headed by worker Lech Walesa, successfully directed a group of ex-communist ally parties in broad resistance to the Soviets. In 1980 workers hung a pair of wooden boards with “Twenty-One Demands” at the entrance to a shipyard. The demands reflected a key aspect of Solidarity’s program, a determination to link the specific concerns of shipyard workers to broad-based reform. As you read the demands, think about the kinds of changes the workers wanted. What kind of future did they hope to create for their country?

  1. Acceptance of Free Trade Unions independent of both the Party and employers, in accordance with the International Labor Organization’s Convention number 87 on the freedom to form unions, which was ratified by the Polish government.
  2. A guarantee of the right to strike and guarantees of security for strikers and their supporters.
  3. Compliance with the freedoms of press and publishing guaranteed in the Polish constitution. A halt to repression of independent publications and access to the mass media for representatives of all faiths.
    1. Reinstatement to their former positions for: people fired for defending workers’ rights, in particular those participating in the strikes of 1970 and 1976; students dismissed from school for their convictions.
    2. The release of all political prisoners. . . .
    3. A halt to repression for one’s convictions.
  4. The broadcasting on the mass media of information about the establishment of the Interfactory Strike Committee (MKS) and publication of the list of demands.
  5. The undertaking of real measures to get the country out of its present crisis by:
    1. providing comprehensive, public information about the socioeconomic situation;
    2. making it possible for people from every social class and stratum of society to participate in open discussions concerning the reform program.
  6. Compensation of all workers taking part in the strike for its duration with holiday pay from the Central Council of Trade Unions.1
  7. Raise the base pay of every worker 2,000 zlotys2 per month to compensate for price rises to date.
  8. Guaranteed automatic pay raises indexed to price inflation and to decline in real income.
  9. Meeting the requirements of the domestic market for food products: only surplus goods to be exported.
  10. The rationing of meat and meat products through food coupons (until the market is stabilized).
  11. Abolition of “commercial prices” and hard currency sales in so-called “internal export” shops.3
  12. A system of merit selection for management positions on the basis of qualifications rather than [Communist] Party membership. Abolition of the privileged status of MO4, SB5 and the party apparatus through: equalizing all family subsidies; eliminating special stores, etc.
  13. Reduction of retirement age for women to 50 and for men to 55. Anyone who has worked in the PRL [Polish People’s Republic] for 30 years, for women, or 35 years for men, without regard to age, should be entitled to retirement benefits.
  14. Bringing pensions and retirement benefits of the “old portfolio” to the level of those paid currently.
  15. Improvement in the working conditions of the Health Service, which would assure full medical care to working people.
  16. Provision for sufficient openings in daycare nurseries and preschools for the children of working people.
  17. Establishment of three-year paid maternity leaves for the raising of children.
  18. Reduce the waiting time for apartments.
  19. Raise per diem [allowance for work-related travel] from 40 zlotys to 100 zlotys and provide cost-of-living increases.
  20. Saturdays to be days off from work. Those who work on round-the-clock jobs or three-shift systems should have the lack of free Saturdays compensated by increased holiday leaves or through other paid holidays off from work.

“The Twenty-One Demands,” in The Passion of Poland, by Lawrence Weschler (New York: Pantheon, 1984), pp. 206-208.

READING QUESTIONS

  1. Question

    What sort of problems do Solidarity’s leaders see with their workplace?

  2. Question

    What does the document reveal about the relationship between the current Polish governance and the reality of everyday life in Soviet-occupied Europe? What do the workers consider the standard of care?

  3. Question

    Although these demands were made against a communist state, in what ways do the authors accept the premise that the state has a responsibility to its citizens?