The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto, an ECC member institution, established the collection of uncensored publications relating to the Polish Solidarity/Solidarność‐movement in 1981. Since then, the library has developed this collection to include non‐periodical publications, graphics, photographs, cassettes, medals, stamps, artifacts, posters, and other materials generated by Solidarność and related organizations in Poland and abroad. The collection is comprised of approximately 60 linear feet of material. Serials, books and pamphlets, which initially constituted the largest part of the collection, were catalogued separately in recent years. Now these publications are more discoverable and searchable to researchers. In the new online catalogue, using the advanced search screen, search for all call numbers containing the word “solid.”
Completed in 2020, the cataloguing process, necessitated the rewriting of the 1988
version of the finding aid for the remaining archival and ephemeral material. Also, the original file, which had been created with what is now legacy computer software, was no longer accessible and did not reflect the current arrangement of the non‐catalogued collection. The Solidarity archival collection is presently organized according to medium of communication, date and place of origin, and language of communication. The archive is organized into four series: pre‐Solidarity, legal Solidarity, martial law, and post‐martial law periods. The fifth series contains microfilm and visual arts materials. The primary language of the collection is Polish.
One strength of the archive is the large number of materials documenting international reaction to the Solidarity movement. For example, some of the collection’s highlights include bulletins and documents issued by the Coordinating Office Abroad of NSZZ Solidarność and by international groups organized in support of NSZZ “Solidarność.” Canadian organizations and initiatives are extensively represented. Scholars investigating the Canadian connection to Solidarity should find this collection of documents of great interest.
Solidarity was a Polish trade union and social movement founded in 1980 and led by Lech Wałęsa. In 1981, its activities came to a halt with the introduction of martial law by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, which resulted in a wave of arrests of Solidarity activists. One of the consequences of martial law was a huge wave of emigration known as the “Solidarity Wave.” Witnessing the early stages of this wave of émigrés flooding into Vienna, Canada’s Globe and Mail reporter Mark Lukasiewicz wrote, “It has become a daily ritual. Every morning, dozens of reporters and cameramen from around the world assemble on Platform One at Vienna Railway station, waiting to glean what information they can from passengers arriving aboard the Chopin Express from Poland. When martial law was imposed in Poland more than a week ago, the interviews conducted on Platform One became virtually the only direct account of events in Poland.” The reporter then describes a conversation with a young Pole, a bulldozer operator from Łódź and a Solidarity member, who made up his mind to return to Poland, despite the unfolding political calamity, “‘Look, there are 10 million of us (in Solidarity) and they (the Communist Party) have what... 21⁄2? 2? 11⁄2.’ He laughs. ‘All right, maybe 3 million.’”[1] For many the introduction of martial law made it necessary to leave the country as political refugees.
Mark Lukasiewicz (Photograph used with permission of Hofstra University, NY)
Lukasiewicz donated materials pertaining to his work in Poland to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in April 2017. A Globe and Mail‐reporter from 1979 to 1983, he travelled to Poland and wrote a series of articles covering martial law and its aftereffects. His unique collection sheds light on the Canadian reception of Solidarity and provides a glimpse of events inside Poland for Canadian contemporaries. His donation, the most recent addition to the Solidarity collection, includes several scrapbooks/photo albums of events in Poland, various ephemera, as well as newspaper publications (catalogued separately). In addition to materials donated by Lukasiewicz, the Solidarity collection includes clippings from mainstream Canadian press (Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail) and Polish‐Canadian media (Echo Tygodnia, Głos Polski, Związkowiec, and others).
According to Statistics Canada, the number of immigrants from Poland to Canada in 1982 reached 8,291, falling to 5,106 in 1983, and remaining at approximately that level until numbers increased again in the late 1980s. As Michal Mlynarz writes, “Along with this mass movement of people came a significant mobilization on the part of Polish‐Canadian organizations to assist the refugees and their land of origin in every way they could. This included such activities as the lobbying of the Canadian government to denounce and boycott the People’s Republic of Poland, the organization of food and medicine drives, the staging of massive protests, and the formation of programs designed to sponsor and to acclimatize new immigrants into Canadian life.”[2]
The series on the post‐martial law period at the Fisher Library includes special publications of the Canadian Polish Congress in Toronto. Established in 1944, the Congress assisted Polish refugees through “a campaign collecting funds and appealing to Canadians to sponsor these refugees for their admission and settlement in Canada,” and through political advocacy of lobbying the Canadian government.[3] After martial law was lifted, the Canadian Polish Congress continued to concern itself with Polish issues in Canada.
The emergence of Solidarity, as an independent trade union, in Poland in 1980 provoked a range of reactions internationally— from support and endorsement by other trade unions and activist organizations in Western Europe to skeptical distrust from some governments. These reactions were shaped by a variety of ideologies and national political circumstances. For many Western trade unions, Solidarity presented the opportunity to reposition themselves and reflect upon their own struggles in the conditions of de‐unionization in the 1980s.[4]
Following the imposition of martial law in December 1981 and the subsequent suppression of Solidarity, a number of Western organizations sympathetic to Solidarity formed a transnational network of support. One such political organization in exile was the Coordinating Office Abroad of NSZZ Solidarność.‐Established in 1982, in Brussels, it provided centralized lobbying and financial aid to Solidarity in Poland and functioned “as a bridge with Western trade unions and other sympathizers.”[5]
The martial law period series includes materials issued by the Coordinating Office
Abroad of NSZZ Solidarność and by supporting groups in Austria, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, as well as in Canada. Canadian materials make up an important part of this archive and highlight a variety of organizations and initiatives supporting the Solidarity movement at all levels in Canada: internationally, federally, and locally. There are letters, petitions, articles, bulletins, as well as other information documents produced by the Canadian government, social and labour movements, and activist organizations—both international and Canadian. The collection includes materials from Amnesty International, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the Polish Refugee Committee, the Polish Workers Solidarity Committee, the Solidarity Information Office in Canada, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), and others.
Of particular interest are the letters, statements, and press releases by the Toronto office of the Canadian Labour Congress. These provide details of how information about the emergent Solidarity movement was communicated to the leaders of the CLC and what type of assistance was being provided by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and the CLC, which gave money “for the purchase of printing and other technical equipment.” A letter to members of the CLC Executive Council on 22 December 1980 designated the CLC as coordinator of assistance to Solidarity. This came about as a result of correspondence between Lech Wałęsa and the ICFTU in which the leader of Solidarity suggested Western unions could provide assistance to Polish counterparts. There is also a critique by the CLC President Dennis McDermott of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s position on political developments in Poland.
One poster calls for the designation of 30 January 1982 as “Solidarity Day.” The CLC press release of 25 January 1982 states, “The CLC has called on its two million members, as well as on ‘all other concerned citizens’ across the country, to observe the day by holding demonstrations, organizing prayer vigils, petitions and other actions.” Another notable item is the English translation of Solidarity’s programme published in the New Democratic Party’s Forward. The programme had originally appeared in Tygodnik Solidarność in April 1981.
Also, there are documents that refer to organized activities in Toronto. For example, a statement by the Polish Workers Solidarity Committee from 5 April 1982 calls for support from Canadian artists and writers, and invites them to an “Evening for Solidarity” at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. The event featured several prominent authors, actors, and activists. Anti‐Solidarity sentiments are also represented with leaflets such as the one by the Trotskyist League promoting a forum at the University of Toronto’s International Student Centre on Solidarity’s alleged CIA connections.
Materials in the collection provide a rich historical resource for charting the political relationships between Poland and Canada in the 1980s. These multifaceted documents weave a complex narrative involving special committees, political organizations, and extensive media coverage. According to political historian Idesbald Goddeeris, who studied Solidarity’s transnational dimensions and international impact, scholarship in this field, even ten years ago, was restricted by a lack of accessible archival material in Poland and North America, including those of the Coordinating Office Abroad of NSZZ Solidarność.[6] Now that the Solidarity collection at the University of Toronto Library has been catalogued and organized, it is possible to proceed with more in‐depth studies of the transnational reaction to Solidarity. This would allow scholars to formulate a more nuanced interpretation of the history of Canadian‐Polish relations.
By Natallia Barykina, Reference Specialist, Petro Jacyk Central & East European Resource Centre, University of Toronto Libraries. Reprinted from PJRC Update 13 (Spring 2021): 10-13.
[1] Mark Lukasiewicz, “Polish Worker Stands by Decision to Return Home,” Globe and Mail, Dec. 22 (1981): 12.
[2] Michal Mlynarz, “‘It’s Our Patriotic Duty to Help Them’: The Socio‐Cultural and Economic Impact of the ‘Solidarity Wave’ on Canadian and Polish‐Canadian Society in the Early 1980s,” Past Imperfect 13 (2007): 58‐59.
[3] Jan Kaszuba, “Opening Remarks”, Report for the XXVII Convention of Canadian Polish Congress, Winnipeg, November 12‐14 (1982): 2.
[4] Stefan Berger, “Solidarność, Western Solidarity and Détente: A Transnational Approach,” European Review 16, no. 1 (2008): 78.
[5] Idesbald Goddeeris, “Lobbying Allies?: The NSZZ Solidarność Coordinating Office Abroad, 1982‐1989,” Journal of Cold War Studies 13, no. 3 (2011): 125.
[6] Ibid., 86.