Alina Pienkowska

Alina Pieńkowska (b. January 12, 1952 in Gdańsk, d October 17, 2002, Gdańsk) was a Polish free trade union activist and a Senator for Gdańsk (1991-1993, Solidarity Parliamentary Club). The dispensary at the Lenin Shipyard had an uncut phone-line, and as the nurse, she was instrumental in communicating to the outside world about the strike that ultimately spread to the Baltic coast and the giant wave of strikes in Poland and eventually the creation of Solidarity, of which she was a member of its its organizing commitee.

In August 1980 she was a widowed mother (of Sebastian) working as the shipyard nurse and one of the founders of the underground free trade unions of the Baltic Coast in the 1970s.

Early in the August 1980 strike, the government granted Lenin Shipyard workers their working and pay demands. However, as workers were beginning to leave, Pienkowska grabbed a loudspeaker and made a passionate speech about the responsibility to keep the strike going to make sure that the other factories which had meanwhile started solidarity strikes with the shipyard would not be left exposed. She told Walesa:

You betrayed them. Now the authorities will crush us like bedbugs.

She was then among the authors of the 21 demands of the Interfactory Strike Committee, August 17 1980, which led to the Gdańsk Agreement.

She secretly married Bogdan Borusewicz during the period of martial law. He spent five years in hiding, visiting Alina from time to time. While still in hiding, Bogdan disguised as a woman attended the baptism of their daughter Kinga. Lech Walesa kissed his hand as was customary for a Polish male, either to play along or because did not recognize him.

She worked as the shipyard nurse until 1991, when she was elected Senator for one term. She was active in local politics and in health issues until the end of her life.

Andrzej Wajda said that she had been the model for a character in his film Man of Iron which was based on events in the shipyard. Some of her actions and words appear in Strike.

References and sources

• "We Want a Decent Life", by Stephen Smith, Time magazine, Monday, Dec. 29, 1980.
• Obituary, Time magazine, Monday, Nov. 11, 2002.
• Legendary Labor Activist Alina Pienkowska Dies, October 24, 2002, Human Rights Watch.
• Alina Pienkowska, a Force Behind Solidarity, Dies at 50 by Michael T. Kaufman, New York Times, October 28, 2002.
• Alina Pieńkowska, Klub Parlamentarny NSZZ "Solidarność", Senat II kadencji, website of Senate of the Republic of Poland
• Shana Penn, Solidarity's Secret : The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland, University of Michigan Press, 2005, ISBN 0-472-11385-2