45th anniversary of the Student Solidarity Committee
45 years ago, on December 13, 1977, students from Wrocław issued a statement on the formation of the Student Solidarity Committee. The committee became the first public organisation of democratic opposition in Wrocław. In the years 1977-1980, over 200 young people joined its activities. They demanded respect for human rights by the PRL authorities. Many of them were students at the University of Wrocław, especially at the Faculty of Letters. That is why, today, a plaque commemorating this event was unveiled in the building of this department at pl. Nankiera.
Andrzej Baworowski, an activist for the Student Solidarity Committee, mentioned: – “The Polish language we studied was torn apart by censorship – one was the official and legal language and the other one was one we could only learn by acquiring illegally banned publications. Reading and later also publishing illegal literature in the second circuit allowed us to get to know this language of the whole, without the restrictions of the authorities. Such a restored to us language meant a word: freedom”. It was publishing, the distribution of literature banned by PRL authorities in the so-called ‘second circuit’, that was an important element of the Student’s Solidarity Committee activities.
In addition, they are commemorated by a new dwarf in Wrocław – or rather, a “Bibułka” dwarf (because illegal publications on thin paper were called “bibuła” – ”tissue paper”) – standing today at the entrance to the building of the Faculty of Letters. Renata Otolińska, formerly spokeswomen and treasurer of the Student Solidarity Committee in Wrocław who was the prototype of the dwarf, said: “I am glad that this story will be present in the lives of today’s students of the faculty because of it – it will be alive”.
Translated by Martyna Sobczyk (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.
