2019-12-17 17:56 update: 2019-12-18, 20:47
Photo: PAP/Marcin Bielecki
State and local officials, including President Andrzej Duda, on Tuesday marked the anniversary of the wave of strikes and demonstrations that spread across the Polish Baltic Sea coast in December 1970 in reaction to state-imposed price increases.
The ceremonies in the north-western port city of Szczecin were attended by the president, who made an address at the symbolic Szczecin Shipyard gate, featuring plaques commemorating the 16 victims killed by communist militia and army on December 17, 1970.
Duda said the events shaped Poland's future, influencing the later pro-democratic developments that ultimately led to the fall of communism in 1989.
"And one may say: Had it not been for that blood, today's contemporary Poland would not exist. And I wouldn't be able to stand here at this gate and speak from the heart what I simply want to say," the president said.
Most of the decision-makers that bear responsibility for the tragic events, as well as those who fired the shots, are no longer alive, Duda added.
The president expressed regret that in the 30 years of democracy after 1989, "Poland was unable bring the perpetrators to justice."
Senate Speaker Tomasz Grodzki sent a letter to participants in the ceremonies in which he said that the protesters demanded "justice and respect for human dignity, human rights and freedom."
PM Mateusz Morawiecki also wrote a letter, in which he said that "it is our duty to remember the highest price that the heroes of those events paid for a free homeland."
Similar ceremonies were held in the central port city of Gdynia, where demonstrations also took place on December 17, 1970, and were again brutally suppressed by communist forces.
President Duda sent a letter to participants in the Gdynia ceremonies. The letter was read out by his aide, Blazej Spychalski, during Tuesday morning observances at the Monument to the December 1970 Victims in Gdynia.
"The massacre of workers going to work early in the morning committed in Gdynia on December 17, 1970, and the bloody crackdown on protesters in the streets of Gdansk constituted the climax of the tragic events on the coast," Andrzej Duda wrote.
The Polish Senate on Tuesday passed a resolution commemorating the victims of the tragic events. "We pay homage to the heroes and victims of the Polish December 1970," reads the resolution that was passed unanimously.
The Senate recalled that the communists sent 5,000 militia officers, 27,000 soldiers, 550 tanks, 700 armoured personnel carriers over 100 helicopters and other aircraft to suppress the demonstrations.
"The December events showed the ruthlessness of the communist authorities who were ready to issue the order to fire at those who dared to oppose them. Not only the protesters, but also passers-by or people going to work were shot," the Senate stressed.
The protests, which erupted in cities on the Baltic coast on December 14, 1970 over planned food price hikes, culminated on December 17, when police opened fire on shipyard workers, killing many people going to work. According to official data, in December 1970, 45 people were killed in Poland's northern cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Szczecin and Elbląg, including 18 in Gdynia. Over 1,160 were wounded. (PAP)
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