National Coordination Committee of the Solidarity Trade Union sessions at the Technical University of Gdańsk, February 1981, AKKS 3/513
Since 17 October 2017 we have been publishing scans of archival materials held in the Historical Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union. Among them you can find telexes of the National Coordinating Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union (e.g. May 1981 birthday wishes for Pope John Paul II), and the documentation of the 24 September 1980 strike at the Technical University of Gdańsk (regulations and instructions for the sit-down strike). Published on our website is also the National Coordination Committee’s resolution regarding access to mass media.
Telexes presented below come from the collection of the National Coordinating Commission & the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union, 1980-1981. It is worth recalling that it contains over one thousand archival units with telexes addressed to the Union authorities in Gdańsk, dated February – November 1981. The preserved telex messages are related to a variety of topics, like numerous appeals of members and enterprise committees, resolutions, communications and announcements issued by various Union groups, descriptions of strikes and workers’ protests, propaganda actions of the Security Service and repressions by the Citizens’ Militia (usually abbreviated MO). Included are also messages on situation in workplaces, meetings of Union members with government representatives or anniversary celebrations.
Sessions of the National Coordination Committee of the Solidarity Trade Union were usually held in Gdańsk (mainly at the Union’s headquarters – at the Inter-Enterprise Founding Committee of the Solidarity Trade Union, the Gdansk Region Management Board, the National Coordinating Commission, and later the National Commission – in Gdansk-Wrzeszcz at 103 Grunwaldzka Street). They also took place in the BHP Hall of the Gdańsk Shipyard, the Old Town Hall, in the Hevelius Hotel conference room, and – as you can tell from the attached telex messages – also in one of the auditorium of the technical University of Gdansk.
The telex gallery below may seem a bit chaotic at first glance, but after a more detailed analysis of the text you can find a lot of interesting information about the National Coordination Committee meeting held there on February 12, 1981. The messages tell us about expectations of the Solidarity Trade Union members related to debates during the session. Telex authors ask about topics to be covered during the meeting. They want to know if “Farmers’ Solidarity” or “90 days without the strike” will be discussed. Thanks to the preserved telex messages we know that the meeting took place in the Technical University of Gdansk because of the need for a big auditorium. The telexes contain a lot of names (like Geremek, Gruszecki, Kołodziej, Lis, Pawlicka, Rybicka, Sobieraj, Wałęsa). It can also be noticed that some of telex senders have insufficient knowledge of the proceedings of the National Coordination Committee meeting. Requests for information on the National Coordination Committee resolutions were sent from many regions in Poland: Bydgoszcz, Chełm, Elbląg, Gdańsk, Kalisz, Katowice, Konin, Lublin, Mazowsze, Radom and Rzeszów. There is also one request from a German press agency. Some senders ask for tape recordings of the session, and for a bank account number to pay 1000 Polish zloty for the benefit of the National Coordination Committee.
Visit us at the in the Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union
We have good news – we will continue cooperation between the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union and the Stanisław Flis “Pomerania Archives” Foundation. Soon we will publish more scans of selected documents from rich holdings of the Historical Archives of the National Commission, related to the Bydgoszcz Provocation, strikes of 1988, and June 1989 elections.
/Łukasz Grochowski, the Archives of the National Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union,
Iwona Flis, Stanisław Flis Foundation “Pomerania Archives”/
