Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee - The Early Days

The Early Days

When, in August 1980, Anna Walentynowicz lost her job at the Gdańsk Shipyard because of her position as editor of the underground newspaper Robotnik Wybrzeze, her fellow workers took action. Around 16 000 employees of the shipyard discontinued their work and occupied its premises on the morning of August 14, demanding Walentynowicz’s re-employment, the erection of a monument in honor of the victims of the strikes of 1970, and a pay rise of 2000 zlotys, amongst other things. After negotiating with management and having most of their demands met, a vote was taken on August 16 leading to the strike being called off. By this time, however, many of the workers at facilities surrounding the Gdańsk Shipyard had begun their own strikes making similar demands, and it was decided that in solidarity with them, the workers in the shipyard would continue to strike despite their own demands having been met. By the next morning the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (Polish shorthand: MKS) had been formed within the gates of the shipyard, intending to unite workers in the Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia area, coordinating action and maintaining and order to ensure the safety of the strikers. Lech Wałęsa, an electrician who had lost his job at the Gdańsk Shipyard in the strikes of 1976 was elected as chair of the MKS, while the remainder of the committee was composed of delegates from other facilities including Bogdan Lis, Andrzej Gwiazda, and others. By August 18, the MKS represented workers from 156 separate enterprises, and the number was steadily growing. Just two days after the formation of MKS the Polish economy was brought to a standstill as workers struck at factories and ports all along the Baltic coast. By August 21, much of the country was affected by strikes, even including the inland mines of the Upper Silesian Industrial Area, as more and more workers joined independent unions. The Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee at Gdańsk was becoming the national center for trade union movement: a phenomenon which was itself unique to this series of events. In the strikes of the 1950s and ‘70s it was the lack of a central organized structure that had limited the mobilization potential of striking workers. Now the MKS had been specifically designed with this problem in mind - the decentralization of the workers’ movement – and was working for the first time to unify and strengthen the movement, coordinating strikes all across Poland. It was for this reason that the government of Edward Gierek found they could no longer buy off strikers with small concessions, and finally had to settle into heavy negotiations with the MKS.