Mining strikes

The communist authorities had hoped to channel the miners’ protests and use them to break up the emerging independent, self-governing trade unions. They even proposed creating separate miners’ unions for the southern and southeastern regions of Poland. The plan failed.

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Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging!

A year and a half later, in December 1981, the same region became the most heavily pacified part of the country. After martial law was imposed, more than 45,000 people took part in strikes across Upper Silesia’s hard-coal mines. Nine miners at the Wujek mine were killed. Another 123 injured people received hospital treatment, while 3,042 sought emergency medical care.

Nearly 1,100 miners lost their jobs through disciplinary dismissal, and 141 faced criminal proceedings. Workers struck at 25 of the region’s 68 mines. Almost 1,000 people were detained, 121 were sentenced, and several hundred appeared before misdemeanor panels, the 24-hour courts used at the time. Nearly 1,500 employees from other plants also lost their jobs.

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Through the work, effort and toil of your hands, the People’s Homeland is growing.

The authorities deployed 5,500 Civic Militia officers, including 2,500 brought in from outside Silesia. Local forces included 1,088 members of the Volunteer Reserve of the Civic Militia, and units of the Polish People’s Army also took part. The operation against industrial workplaces involved the militia, army and Security Service on a large, coordinated scale, backed by warnings from the Military Council of National Salvation that severe reprisals would follow.

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Coal is the number one Polish export commodity.

Despite the crackdown, or perhaps because of its scale, the region saw the country’s strongest response to martial law. Without communications or central coordination, dozens of companies went on strike independently. Mines, steelworks, transport companies and factories joined the protests, with the largest wave coming on Dec. 14 and 15. The article also recalls that miners at the Manifest Lipcowy mine ended a three-week strike on Sept. 3, 1988, in an event presented as a prelude to Poland’s Round Table talks. Throughout the four decades of the Polish People’s Republic, the rallying cry of the mining industry was: “Keep digging, keep digging, keep digging!”

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More coal and steel, and nothing will collapse.