A Solidarity leader beaten while linking workers’ and farmers’ demands
“You have to call them and try to persuade them to leave the building. It is very important and very urgent.”
Jan Rulewski was a Polish trade-union leader and democracy activist who headed Solidarity in the Bydgoszcz region. In 1981 he made farmers’ demand for an independent union a union-wide issue, and on 19 March he was beaten by militia during a session of the provincial council. The incident helped Solidarity organize a nationwide warning strike and exposed the tensions that preceded martial law. He was later interned under martial law and served in parliament after Poland’s democratic transition.
Career Timeline
- 1944Born in Bydgoszcz
- 1965–1969Expelled from the Military University of Technology, then imprisoned after an attempted escape
- 1979Graduated in mechanical engineering from the Academy of Technology and Agriculture in Bydgoszcz
- 1980–1981Chair of Solidarity’s Bydgoszcz region
- 1981–1984Interned after martial law, then released under amnesty in 1984
- 1991–2001Member of the Polish Sejm
- 2007–2019Senator of Poland