The strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard in August 1980, which gave rise to fundamental changes in Europe and in the world, would probably remain a local protest, isolated and soon suppressed by the authorities, had the strikers’ voice not been heard.
The voice that overcame all information blockades of the communist government and was the first stone of a domino effect, spreading all over the world, were two wooden boards on which the strikers’ demands in red paint and a black carpentry pencil were written. The postulates, apart from demands for the improvement of living conditions, contained, most importantly, also simple formulations of the ideas of freedom, justice and democracy, which the citizens of the countries subordinate to the Soviet empire, were deprived of.
The boards, painted on August 16, 1980, were hung on the Shipyard’s Second Gate, where a crowd of supporters for the strike was gathered, including press and television representatives from all over the world.
The authors of the Strike Boards were two young oppositionists, Aram Rybicki and Maciej Grzywaczewski. In 2003, the boards were entered on the UNESCO “Memory of the World” list.
The originals of the boards, according to the will of the authors and owners, are presented at the permanent exhibition of the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk.
This card presents the original boards with 21 demands of the 1980 Gdańsk strikers. When unfolded it shows how they were arranged on the 2nd Shipyard Gate during the strike.
Postcard concept – Maciej Grzywaczewski
Photo – Łukasz Łowiec-Wygoński
Graphic design and text – Giedymin Jabłoński
The income from the sale of this postcard is a donation to the Arkadiusz Rybicki Foundation