Edmund Bałuka

Edmund Bałuka (born June 4, 1933 in Machnówka near Krosno , Poland ; † January 8, 2015 in Warsaw ) was a Polish dissident and trade unionist.

Life

Edmund Bałuka, who was born near Krosno in the Sub-Carpathian Mountains in 1933, tried to flee to the West as early as the 1950s. He was sentenced to work in a quarry for trying to escape. He later worked as a locksmith and crane operator in the Szczecin shipyard. After the bloodily suppressed strikes of December 1970 , Bałuka led the workers' protests in January 1971. He also became known in the West for the 9-hour talks he held for the strike leadership with PZPR Chairman Edward Gierek , Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz , the Interior Minister Franciszek Szlachcic and the General and Army Chief Wojciech Jaruzelski . In 1973 he fled to the West again. As later became known, the escape had been prepared by the security service of the Ministry of the Interior in order to get rid of the uncomfortable Bałuka. After the August agreements of 1980, as a result of which the opposition union Solidarność was legalized, Bałuka returned to Poland. When the state of war was declared, Edmund Bałuka was interned again and no longer played a decisive role in the opposition movement. He returned to France in 1985 and did not return to Poland until 1989, where he died in Warsaw in 2015. Edward Bałuka was, along with Marian Jurczyk, one of the most important figures in the Szczecin anti-communist labor movement.

Web links

• Nie żyje Edmund Bałuka, przywódca strajku w styczniu 1971 r. Obituary of Gazeta Wyborcza of January 8, 2015 (Polish)