Fighting Solidarity
Encyclopedia
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
anti-communist underground
Resistance movement
A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to opposing an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign state. It may seek to achieve its objects through either the use of nonviolent resistance or the use of armed force...
organization, founded in 1982 by Kornel Morawiecki
Kornel Morawiecki
Kornel Morawiecki - was the founder and leader of Fighting Solidarity one of the more radical splinters of Solidarity movement in Poland, during the 1980s. His academic background is that of a theoretical physicist.He was the son of Michał and Jadwiga...
in Wrocław in response to the delegalization of Solidarity and government repression of the opposition after martial law
Martial law in Poland
Martial law in Poland refers to the period of time from December 13, 1981 to July 22, 1983, when the authoritarian government of the People's Republic of Poland drastically restricted normal life by introducing martial law in an attempt to crush political opposition to it. Thousands of opposition...
was declared in 1981. Created in June 1982, it was one of the most radical splinters of Solidarity.
Morawiecki and Fighting Solidarity activists saw their organization as the successor to the Polish resistance in World War II, hence their symbol merged the Solidarity logo
Solidarity logo
The Solidarity logo designed by Jerzy Janiszewski in 1980 is considered as an important example of Polish Poster School creations. The logo was awarded the Grand Prix of the Biennale of Posters, Katowice 1981. By this time it was already well known in Poland and became an internationally...
with the Kotwica
Kotwica
The Kotwica was a World War II emblem of the Polish Secret State and Armia Krajowa . It was created in 1942 by members of the AK Wawer "Small Sabotage" unit as an easily usable emblem for the Polish struggle to regain independence. The initial meaning of the initials "PW" was "Pomścimy Wawer"...
and crowned Polish eagle
Coat of arms of Poland
The White Eagle is the national coat of arms of Poland. It is a stylized white eagle with a golden beak and talons, and wearing a golden crown, in a red shield.- Legal basis :...
(in 1945, the new communist regime removed the crown from the eagle's head on the Polish coat of arms; many among the opposition saw the crown as a symbol of independent, non-communist Poland).
One of the main activities of Fighting Solidarity was information warfare
Information warfare
The term Information Warfare is primarily an American concept involving the use and management of information technology in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent...
: it printed and distributed many underground newspapers (bibuła). The most well-known of these included "Biuletyn Dolnośląski" (Wrocław), "Solidarność Walcząca" (Poznań
Poznan
Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...
) and "Galicja" (Rzeszów
Rzeszów
Rzeszów is a city in southeastern Poland with a population of 179,455 in 2010. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River, in the heartland of the Sandomierska Valley...
). Fighting Solidarity's bibuła were the first printed during the period of martial law, being available the day after martial law was introduced . Fighting Solidarity also tried to actively infiltrate the Polish secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
(Służba Bezpieczeństwa) and to support other anti-communist organizations, including ones in other countries of the Soviet Bloc, even the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
itself. The Polish secret police found it extremely hard to infiltrate the organization, even though they employed various tactics, including kidnapping
Kidnapping
In criminal law, kidnapping is the taking away or transportation of a person against that person's will, usually to hold the person in false imprisonment, a confinement without legal authority...
Morawiecki's children in an attempt to blackmail
Blackmail
In common usage, blackmail is a crime involving threats to reveal substantially true or false information about a person to the public, a family member, or associates unless a demand is met. It may be defined as coercion involving threats of physical harm, threat of criminal prosecution, or threats...
him. Despite its reputation for militance, Fighting Solidarity did not support social violence or terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
.
Fighting Solidarity was the only Polish organization of that time whose primary goals, declared from the start, included the destruction of communism, the independence of Poland and other nations controlled by communist governments (including those comprising the Soviet Union itself), and the reunification of Germany.
Fighting Solidarity powerbases included Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk, Rzeszów and Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...
. Among its most prominent members were Maciej Frankiewicz (Poznań), Roman Zwiercan, Andrzej Kołodziej (Gdynia
Gdynia
Gdynia is a city in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland and an important seaport of Gdańsk Bay on the south coast of the Baltic Sea.Located in Kashubia in Eastern Pomerania, Gdynia is part of a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdańsk and suburban communities, which together...
), Jadwiga Chmielowska (Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec
Sosnowiec is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland, near Katowice. It is one of the central districts of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metropolis with a combined population of over two million people located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Brynica river .It is situated in...
), Janusz Szkutnik (Rzeszów). In 1986 it claimed to have several hundred active members, not counting allies and supporters.
In 1990 many members of Fighting Solidarity founded a political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
, the Partia Wolności.
See also
- Confederation of Independent PolandConfederation of Independent PolandKonfederacja Polski Niepodległej was a political party founded on 1 September 1979 by Leszek Moczulski and others declaring support for the pre-war traditions of Sanacja and Józef Piłsudski...
(Konfederacja Polski Niepodległej) - Freedom and Peace (Wolność i Pokój)
- Orange AlternativeOrange AlternativeOrange Alternative is a name for an underground protest movement which was started in Wrocław, a town in south-west Poland and led by Waldemar Fydrych , commonly known as Major in the 1980s...
(Pomarańczowa Alternatywa)