Perhaps Gdansk

Another city not considered for a visit but a city that had some small meaning to me. Gdansk, located along the Gdania River and a port city on the Baltic Sea.


Thanks to another high speed train, we were able to make the trip from Warsaw to Gdansk, a distance of 340 kilometres, in just over 2 hours and 40 minutes.








 It was heavily bombed during WW II by the Allies and Russians after being occupied by the Germans.


















The plan was to visit some museums and its old town. Sadly, like Warsaw, it had been destroyed during the war but rebuilt to become one of the more visited places in Poland.

One of the pleasant aspects of Main Town is that the River Gdania flows in a circuitous route throughout the it.

Reminded us very much of Amsterdam with out the smell of marijuana and the ding, ding, ding of  bicycle bells.

Some of buildings survived the war. The Gdansk Crane dates back to the 14th century. It was used to load and unload cargo. It houses a museum exhibiting daily life of the port from 1500 to 1700. A interesting place to spend no more than 30 minutes.

The main attraction for me was the European Solidarity Centre which is devoted to the history of Solidarity, started in 1979 by Polish trade unionists and then morphed into civil resistance movement that spread throughout the Eastern Bloc countries. Some say that the creation of the Solidarity movement was the start of the beginning of the end of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics in 1991.

It rose from a shipyard worker's strike. Solidarity became a reality in the late summer of 1980 when it was recognized by the Polish communist government who signed an agreement allowing its existence. Led by Lech Walesa, a worker from the shipyard,  the movement grew to 10,000,000.

I had a small and personal connection to the Solidarity Movement. For me, it began in May of 1983; I was a 30 year old husband and father of two young boys. The world was going through the worst economic conditions since the 2nd World War. Inflation was in the double digits. We had just finished building a house with construction interest rates rising from 8% to 21% during the build and locking into a regular mortgage at 13.5%.

The Social Credit party led by William (Bill) Bennett junior had just been re-elected to a third term. Filled with power, the Socreds brought down draconian labour laws and terminated many of the social services that had been instituted over the past several decades. Bennett was following the same radical conservatism ideology of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Twenty-six bills were tabled.

Two bills dealt serious blows to the public sector unions. Under Bill 2, the unions lost the right to negotiate anything but wages and benefits and included the indefinite extension of wage controls. Bill 3 gave the government the right to fire anyone with out cause regardless of seniority and terminated any type of job security. 

On July 15^th, Operation Solidarity was born; a coalition of 400,000 BC unionists was formed to fight the Bennett restraint program.  The name grew from the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) movement protests happening in Poland. 

They  even using the same red and white banner used by the Polish movement.

Photo: Vancouver Sun

It was July 19^th and the union called an evening meeting of all Tranquille employees. Tranquille Institution started life as a tuberculosis hospital before becoming a mental institution.

At the time, I was the chief engineer of the heating plant and mechanical maintenance department for Tranquille.  

At the meeting we were informed of the closure of Tranquille and the layoff of all employees. There was no plan for what would happen to the residents and there was no actual date for the closure but under the new legislation all employees would loose their recall rights. That night, it was decided  the staff would occupy Tranquille and evict all management staff.

During the night a handmade flag was raised over the steam plant.

The next morning, I was waiting at the front door for my manager and the fire chief to arrive. I informed them that the union had taken over the institution and that they were not allowed to enter any of the buildings including the fire hall. The same thing was happening to management all over the complex.




http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/community-stories_histoires-de-chez-nous/solidarity-bc-protest_solidarite-protestation-cb/story/chapter-6-the-tranquille-occupation/

For the next three weeks, I lived on site, bunking down at the fire hall. Initially, I was contacted by Victoria and threatened that I would be held personally responsible for any facility problems that could occur on site but as time progressed the calls were more conciliatory as it became apparent that we were maintaining the institution as we normally would have.  

Fire Hall Photo: The Game of Nerds

Three stressful weeks later, we turned the institution back over to management, formed a huge parade and joined by other unions along the way, walked from Tranquille to a downtown Kamloops park where a huge Social Credit rally was being held to celebrate a by-election win for the Socreds in the Kamloops riding. We spoiled all their fun that day. 

Photo: Vancouver Sun

Operation Solidarity continued for the next three months with the largest demonstration ever witnessed in Vancouver, over 60,000  marched past the hotel where the Social Credit Party was hosting their general meeting. Two weeks later, a general strike and Nonie and I were spending some quality time on a picket line at a local liquor store.


Photo: Victoria Times Colonist



Six months later, I was offered and accepted a management position and we moved to Vancouver. 

Meanwhile back in Gdansk, we are headed for the War Museum. We planned to spend the morning there before catching an early afternoon train back to Warsaw. 

Our enjoyment of touring the Solidarity Centre the day before was quickly crushed by the memories stirred up at the War Museum. 

Given the direction of the world today, the lessons of past wars have been lost and forgotten. Everybody should tour a war museum every few years.