Joanna Duda-Gwiazda (1939)

Joanna Duda-Gwiazda was born on 11 October 1939 in Krzemieniec (present-day Ukraine). During World War II, she and her family twice avoided deportation to the East.[1] The second time, her family was saved by railway workers. According to Joanna, that experience significantly influenced her attitude towards working people and her appreciation of their role, solidarity, and commitment, especially in situations that are dangerous and require great responsibility.

Joanna graduated from the secondary school in Nowy Sącz, and then from the Faculty of Ship Building in Gdańsk, where she majored in ship machinery and engine rooms. “I wanted to construct ships, it’s obvious”, she answered when asked about her choice of engineer as a profession. “These were the days of romantic communism, and the idea that you suddenly go to huge construction sites I regarded as its positive aspect. Though I did find my life during studies to be hard, due to the significant distance from home [in Nowy Sącz].”[2] In 1962, while still at the university, she married Andrzej Gwiazda. They were brought together by their passion for the mountains. They went not only to the Tatra Mountains, but also to Romania, Bulgaria, and even Spain (until 1976, when their passports were taken away from them). As Joanna recalled years later: “None [of our colleagues from the university] had enough strength [for the mountains], and then I met Andrzej, who thought nothing of that.”[3]

The events of March 1968 in Gdańsk and the massacre on the Coast nearly three years later were very important experiences that shaped Joanna Gwiazda as a dissident and, importantly, as a determined opponent of the communist system.  Joanna did not actively participate in those events, but she closely observed them, noticing the brutality directed against the protesters by the Citizens’ Militia and the army, and she became increasingly critical towards the policy of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). At that time, her distinctive and independent ideas were forged, among which her particular sensitivity to the social problems of her compatriots was clearly visible.[2]

The Gwiazdas belong to the phenomenon of “couples of the opposition”, similar to, for example, Zofia and Zbigniew Romaszewski or Ludwika and Henryk Wujec.[3] She worked as a chief technologist at the shipyard in Gdańsk until 1965, then at the Central Office of Ship Constructions until 1971, and finally, until her retirement in 1999, at the Maritime Advanced Research Centre at the shipyard in Gdańsk.[4]

After the signing of the August Agreement, Joanna focused on developing the structures of the legal “Solidarność”[6]: “The extent of the work that needed to be done simply exceeded our strength, resources, and available time, because apart from organising the union, there were plenty of other problems with which people came to us, frequently private ones; and one did [not] know what to do with all of this, because now everybody wanted the union to help them.”[7]

While Andrzej travelled around the country, Joanna organised meetings of the top management in Gdańsk, prepared documentation, and handled propaganda.[8] Until 29 September 1981 she was a member of the regional management and its press representative. In the union, she represented the group of the so-called “hard line” towards the authorities, and this brought her and Anna Walentynowicz together. Along with her husband, she was under the constant surveillance of the security services, and this meant, for example, that their flat was bugged.

When martial law was introduced in December 1981, Joanna was interned (as was Andrzej) and retained in internment facilities for women (in order) at Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Gołdap, and Darłówko. She was released on 22 July 1982.[9]