Michał Siedziako

After martial law was imposed, strikes broke out all over Poland. The cradle of Solidarity in Szczecin—the Adolf Warski Shipyard, was the key centre of resistance in Western Pomerania and one of significance in all of Poland. After 13 December 1981, the Inter- -Enterprise Strike Committee was established there, spearheaded by Mieczysław Ustasiak and Andrzej Milczanowski. The authorities wanted to suppress the protests as quickly as possible. On the night of 14–15 December, army troops and police (MO) units entered the plant; several dozen people were arrested. The members of the strike leadership were subsequently brought before a military court in Bydgoszcz. In a show trial in March 1982, some of them were sentenced to imprisonment (the highest sentence was five years) and loss of civil rights. Although deprived of leadership, the strike at the Shipyard continued in shifts until 18 December, when the authorities, unable to cope with how the situation unfolded, suspended the plant’s operations and began to lay off and vet the workforce.

The August Agreements are often identified with one very specific document – the agreement signed on 31 August 1980 in Gdańsk between the Government Commission of the Deputy Prime Minister Mieczysław Jagielski and the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (MKS) headed by Lech Wałęsa. One day before, an analogous agreement with representatives of the authorities was signed by MKS led by Marian Jurczyk in Szczecin. This happened despite the arrangements, previously made between the two striking centers, on joint and solidary strike. It was the result of both specific circumstances in the final hours of the strike in the capital of Western Pomerania, and of the accounts of the striking residents of Gdańsk and Szczecin in a broader approach. The Szczecin Agreement also had significant consequences. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the problems outlined above.