WOMEN made up the majority of the strikers at the Szczecin
Departmental Public Transport Depot (WPKM) during the recent strikes in Poland (see /V 147 and 148). For once this led the editors of the bulletin Kurler Strajkowy — edited by the central strike committee at Szczecin (composed of nine men)
— to devote an article to the women strikers in issue number
9 on August 28.
International Viewpoint #149 • October 17, 1988
POLAND
N THE tram depots, the majority of workers are women. We do not know if this made it easier for the government to decide to "pacify" the strikes there. In any case, it only underlines the barbarous character of the police action. Perhaps these gentlemen thought that their job would be easier if they attacked women.
To their cost, in the depots at Niemierzyn and Golecin, they quickly found that they had made a mistake. The uniforms and the threatening weapons did not scare the women. The police had to carry them out of the depots. Often, several of the armed chaps were necessary to drag the tram drivers away. Such battles are really degrading for the people's government. But even Gandhi would have been proud of these
Celina Mosa was involved in the strike from the beginning. She was a member of the strike committee at Niemierzyn, and also involved in the aid and information centre, where she and some friends organized groups of strikers coming from the depots occupied by the police. And today? She is, of course, in the place where the strike is continuing, the Dabie depot in
What do their families say about it? "Our families have been exemplary. My son Arthur has nearly learnt to cook, he does the shopping and the housework. He even looks after the dog — he says. He has visited me here before and still comes. He understands that I have to do this.
"But everything's not rosy all the time and everywhere. Often, at the beginning, some young women came to see their striking husbands in tears to argue with them. There were tears and shouting. It was necessary to explain to them, convince them. You are not going to believe me, but today it is often the same women visiting the
'Don't come home
The men are active around "men's" questions — negotiations with the managers, the dialogue. Eugeniusz Gierczak cites a 28 volved in the mediation commission as curious fact: the official unions are inrepresentatives of... the management.
"They have not noticed this - what can you call it? — this impropriety, and history will have an official account of the discussions between the workers and the managesupported by these so-called "unions'. How are they going to get out of that one? But, in any event, their president Marian Kowalewski takes the side of the police in the attacks against strikers..." The president of the strike committee, Romuald Ziolkowski, and Miroslaw Kedzierski emphasized the political maturity of the strikers: "They are prepared to sacrifice other questions on the altar of pluralism. Wages are not the only things at stake.They can see the problems of retired people, of healthworkers and others." "We'll end up in the same
And do they appreciate the real value of the role of women? "Men? Of course," Celina replies. "If they still want a bit of order around them. It's important when so many people are concentrated in such a small space. But it's understandable. My male friends tell me: 'Don't worry, we'll manage to end up in the same cell'"
The Dabie depot is the last stronghold of the WPKM strike, the strongest. There are people from all the depots there; the stories and impressions run together. "Talk to Maryla Pozniak from Pogodno. She is really somebody! She was in the strike at the ZBKol workplace all night long. When the strike began to falter, she ran to the aid centre and found 15 people there. She explained, encouraged. The workers were impressed by this small blond [sic] who had left two children at home. The next day, there were several dozen occupying the workplace. And from Niemierzyn there's Wanda Jarocka, whose child has to look after itself at home. Or there's Ewa Walicka, a real spark of good humour, who raises everyone's morale. Nobody knows when she sleeps and nobody has ever heard her complain about being tired."
Among the WPKM's demands there is one that only concerns women: the demand for them to have a six-hour working day with eight hours pay. "Six hours a day? I think that ought to go without saying," says Celina. "I would prefer not to have to work and look after children in addition, like my grandmother. I often work from 4.00 in the morning to 5.00 in evening. And after that there's still the shopping, running to the house like a beast of burden to prepare next day's meal, a little sleep and then back to work again. Where's the place for children in that? Are our wage demands absurd? I admit that I get over 70,000 zlotys a month for 280 hours work, and the whole lot goes
"I never realized how strong the human body could be. I have just had a gynaecological operation. I must not catch a cold, or go swimming, although I love that. I was in hospital all summer. My friends knew about it and at the beginning they went easy on me. And after? The cold nights, the tiredness...The first four nights I must have slept for an hour and a half at the outside. I don't even use the vibramycine that they prescribed for me."
Finally, we visited the improvised chapel in the depot's vehicle wash. The cross in front of a bus, the flower-bedecked altar, a candelabra in the shape of a "V" made out of two pistons. Father Marian, who often visits the strikers and comes from the Sloneczne neighbourhood church, has already announced that later on he will find a choice spot for the candelabra. Prayers and a mass are held every day in this chapel. Songs and guitar music can also be heard there, thanks to frequent visits from young people from Oaza in the neighbourhood
Celina Mosa doesn't often go to these singalongs. "Some songs — above all The Black Virgin — make me cry and I have to leave when I feel my eyes filling with
But, as we already know, for the women of WPKM this is not a sign of weakness. *