THE SOLIDARITY DECADE 485Shortly after eleven the government team arrives for the last time... Once again they
are led through the lines of shipyard workers, smiling and laughing now. Andrzy Wajda
is here with a camera team to make a sequel to his protrait of a Stalinist hero-workers,
Man of Marble...
There is another wrangle about the political prisoners, but then they pass on rapidly
through the other seventeen points, reading and initialling the texts... They break for
lunch...
Walesa, uncharacteristically, reads a short prepared statement:
Kochani (a word meaning literally 'beloved') We return to work on I September...
We got all we could in the circumstances. And we will achieve the rest because we now
have the most important thing, our IN-DE-PEN-DENT, SELF-GOVERNING
TRADES UNIONS. That is our guarantee for the future ... I declare the strike ended.
Prolonged applause. The two delegations rise to sing the national anthem...
Proceeding to the hall, they assemble for the last time on the platform, between Lenin,
the cross and the eagle, for the final signing ceremony. Walesa thanks the Deputy Prime
Minister... "We have settled, as Pole talks to Pole (jak Polak z Polakiem). Jagielski picks
up the phrase 'as Pole talks to Pole' and concludes '... I deeply believe that we wish to
serve the cause of the people, of our nation, of our socialist fatherland. ..' The state tele-
vision cameras whirl. On the news this evening, the country will be shown the packed
hall enthusiastically applauding the title of the socialist fatherland. But they will also see
Walesa signing the Agreement with an outsize plastic ballpoint pen, decorated with a
photograph of the Pope.
Then more cheers, more ovations, a vote of thanks ... as the gates are thrown open.
It is the end of the beginning.'^1
And it was the pin-hole through which all the stored up myths, fictions and pre-
tensions of the Communist world would rapidly seep away.
In its first period of free activity, which lasted from 31 August 1980 to ix
December 1981, Solidarity grew from strength to strength. Once it was legally
registered in court, it could not be overthrown until the Communist government
was prepared to flout its own law. It attracted millions from all walks of life,
rapidly exceeding its original brief as a syndicalist organization. It became a
social movement, a countrywide mutual aid society for anyone and everyone
who wished to be shielded from the Party's dictates. Moreover, it gained the
powerful sponsorship of the Polish Primate, whose message of strength through
peace was universally respected.
At an early stage, Walesa had rejected the concept of a centralized organiza-
tion. He did not wish to see a powerful executive giving directives to subordi-
nate regional branches. Instead, he argued for the sovereignty of the existing
regional strike committees, whose delegates would henceforth be free to
approve or to ignore the recommendations of a National Co-ordinating
Commission. Such a system would have obvious difficulties in formulating com-
mon policies. But it was well designed to resist and survive any outside attack
on its central organs or leaders. It was also strangely reminiscent of the historic
relationship between Sejm and sejmiki in the ancient Polish-Lithuanian