Election 1989.

Election 1989: How to cross out your opponent

The year 1989 was primarily the June elections. Although not fully free, although associated with many compromises, it brought great hope and energy. In anti-communist-oriented Przemysl, there were no problems collecting signatures for the Solidarity list. Despite doubts about the Round Table arrangements, people believed that good new times were coming. The previous reluctance to vote in the rigged elections to the communist parliament had turned into enthusiasm that here at last new people would sit in parliament. The candidates of the Solidarity side had a program that was talked about at home, at work, on the street. On the list carrying a breath of freedom were people who gave hope that the Polish state, so far subordinate to the USSR, would regain its longed-for freedom.

Marek Kaminski, chairman of the Regional Executive Commission of the Solidarity Trade Union in Przemyśl, was obliged by the National Executive Commission to set up a Solidarity Civic Committee for the Przemyśl province together with the local Solidarity of Individual Farmers. Together with the head of Farmers' Solidarity, Jan Karus, he invited 15 people, including Marek Kuchcinski, to join.

However, people, the program is not everything. The old power held firm. It had full control over the state media, the entire propaganda apparatus. To reach the people, the independence message had to be taken directly to the street.

- In June 1989, Przemyśl was perhaps the city most overrun with Solidarity opposition election banners and posters in all of Poland, recalls Marek Kuchcinski. - From the first days of the campaign there was a poster war in towns and villages - new posters and banners appeared in place of those destroyed most often at night, and there were times when the headquarters of the Przemyśl precinct was besieged by groups of young colporteurs, often children, packing placards and leaflets into backpacks. One of the leaflets, the so-called "how to cross out your opponent" pamphlet, was duplicated in the company's own underground printing plant in 300,000 copies. In such an atmosphere, the opponent, whose coalition office was supposedly headed by a Przemysl censor, not only had no chance of victory, but compromised by trying to convince voters with festivals laced with beer and sausage handed out for a "signature of support," as well as invented and stencil-painted slogans such as "the coalition must win so Poland won't lose," says the Sejm Speaker.

Przemysl houses, stores, Ruch kiosks literally disappeared under the stick-on posters. It was a real battle. At the election headquarters, water and flour were mixed to replace real glue. Dozens of people took to the streets, trying to hang the flyers in the most visible places. This was not easy. Some site owners were afraid of the authorities, tore down the posters themselves, and called the police. Visible security patrols appeared in the city, destroying the posters. Of the 4,000 Solidarity placards and banners, they tore down about 3,000! Solidarity flags were also torn down, and people claiming to be employees of the city hall's commerce department forced managers and vendors to take down posters of the freedom side from storefronts. Solidarity election announcements were also destroyed in Jaroslaw, Przeworsk and Lubaczow.

In the election campaign, the Civic Committee focused on education on the ground and openness to citizens. The intelligentsia, people of culture and the Church were involved. Solidarity was presented as a close-knit team with common goals. To avoid divisions, as many candidates were appointed as there were seats. For citizens accustomed to voting for the "one and only right candidate" from the PZPR, the KO also prepared manuals on how to vote. Among other things, the election bulletins appealed: to citizens to support the opposition, because "you owe it to them, because support for them means an end to murders, political rape, suffering...." .

The poster war climaxed the night before the elections. The Solidarity side was determined. All night long, almost until the pale dawn, there were people sneaking around in alleys, under windows and in backyards secretly spreading election notices. Large cities, such as Warsaw, for that particular night got the famous posters with the sheriff, who instead of a star, in his lapel, has a Solidarity stamp. However, he did not reach Przemyśl. Instead, there were other leaflets and announcements, dedicatedly hung up wherever they could. Where one could not, moreover, they also hung up.

Early in the morning of Sunday, June 4, 1989, polling places opened. Voter turnout was estimated to be not very high - more than 10 million Poles out of 27 million eligible to vote did not vote. This was a result of the progressive apathy of the public, which did not believe that elections could make a difference. Throughout the country, the mood was calm, and there were no riots.

Cut off from the polls, with airtime of half an hour a week, the opposition did not quite believe what was about to happen: of the 161 seats in the Sejm available in free elections, it won 160 in the first round, and the remaining candidate went to the second round. Of the 100 seats in the Senate in the first round, Solidarity candidates filled 92. In the Przemyśl province, four candidates entered parliament: Jan Musiał and Tadeusz Ulma for the Senate, Tadeusz Trelka and Janusz Onyszkiewicz - for the Sejm. Despite such overwhelming public support, Solidarity was too weak to hold the reins of power on its own. Despite such a large, multi-year effort, the people of Solidarity could not bear the burden of change.

Marek Kaminski today says: I appreciate the bloodless lead up to the elections, but with such strength, advantage, public support, Solidarity should set conditions. I have a great regret about this. Solidarity was weak and controlled by the communists. We also missed the Wilczek movement in '85. They lined up their people, they pushed the ubekas into companies. During the meetings, including with Walesa, whom we treated then as the only leader, I never imagined that these were the people who would go into alliances with the communists. I'm ashamed that I sat with them then. We wanted independence, the People's Republic of Poland was not an independent Polish state. How were we supposed to feel when we elected Jaruzelski as president of Poland? - Kaminski asks.

Also the head of Agricultural Solidarity, Jan Karuś, speaks about the events after 89 in a depressing tone about the political pushback and the enfranchisement of communists on national assets.

Elected deputies and senators were also failing. In "Views of Przemysl" in December 1989, Marek Kuchcinski wrote about the dissatisfaction and impatience of a society ignored by the authorities, lack of intelligence and helplessness.

However, no one regrets the effort there. Those who went to the polls on June 4 simply wanted to overthrow communism. They succeeded, but change did not come easily, and the harvest of the negligence of that time is still being reaped today.

- After 89, we began to take responsibility for the state: at the level of local governments, state and local institutions. In retrospect, it can be said that we did everything that could be done at that time. We expected changes in state power, there was disappointment, but this did not discourage us from working. From today's perspective it looks a little different: a small group of people performed miracles, fighting communism like David against Goliath," recalls Marek Kuchcinski.

Marta Olejnik