The Solidarity strategist who planned the 1980 Gdańsk strike, shaped the 21 Demands, and co-founded the MKS
In the Lenin Shipyard, in the course of implementing Lenin's theory, we folded up Marxism-Leninism.
He was the principal organiser of the August 1980 strike at the Gdańsk Lenin Shipyard: he drew up the strike plan, grouped and ranked the Twenty-One Demands, and co-founded the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (MKS), making him the architect of the event that gave birth to Solidarity. When martial law was declared in December 1981, he evaded internment and spent more than four years underground rebuilding Solidarity's clandestine networks, once attending his daughter's baptism disguised as a woman. Arrested in 1986 and released under amnesty, he later served as a member of parliament, Deputy Interior Minister, and Marshal of the Senate; in July 2010 he made Polish history as the shortest-serving acting president, holding the office for only a few hours.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1968Arrested for distributing protest fliers, sentenced to 3 years, amnestied 1969
- 1977–1978Co-organiser, Free Trade Unions of the Coast (WZZ)
- 1980.08Plans Gdańsk shipyard strike, co-founds MKS
- 1981–1986Underground Solidarity organiser, Provisional Coordination Committee member
- 1991–2001Member of Sejm (three terms)
- 1997–2000Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs (police)
- 2005–2015Marshal of the Senate (three terms)
- 2010.07.08Acting President of Poland (for a few hours)
Related historical events
1968-1978: the Gdańsk opposition network and the Free Trade Unions of the Coast
Borusewicz's dissident career began more than a decade before the strike of 1980. Born in Lidzbark Warmiński near Gdańsk, he was still a secondary-school pupil at the School of Fine Arts in Gdynia when he was arrested in May 1968 for printing and distributing fliers supporting the student protests; sentenced to three years, he was released under the amnesty of July 1969. After graduating in history from the Catholic University of Lublin in 1975, he joined the campaign of support for striking workers in Radom in 1976 and the drive to collect signatures against the planned amendments to the constitution. From November 1976 he worked with the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) and its successor, the KSS KOR. From 1978 he took part in organising the Free Trade Unions of the Coast (WZZ) in the Gdańsk region, edited the independent papers Robotnik and Robotnik Wybrzeża, and handled the printing and distribution of second-circulation publications. Between 1977 and 1979 he organised the commemorations of the December 1970 events. In this period he acted as the point of contact for the opposition network in Gdańsk, a role compared to that of Jacek Kuroń in Warsaw. The base from which he could prepare the August 1980 strike at the Lenin Shipyard had been built up in advance through this underground publishing, worker-support and regional organising work.