Alina Pienkowska (1952-2002)

Alina was born on 12 January 1952 in Gdańsk to Tadeusz and Helena Pabijan. She was the eldest of four children. Her father, who hailed from a small village in southern Poland, arrived in Gdańsk shortly after the end of the Second World War. He wanted to start a new, independent life in the port city, which offered the prospect of working in a shipyard. Her father’s experiences later turned out to be one of the fundamental sources of Alina’s opposition creed.

Long before commencing her union activity, Pienkowska made quite an impression on her Gdańsk high school peers. A student who had until that time been considered quiet and shy, in December 1965, she openly criticised the propaganda message conveyed by the Trybuna Ludu daily regarding the approach of the Catholic Church towards Polish-German relations following World War II. This was sufficient to prove Alina’s political maturity and the rising criticism with which she viewed the world. Pienkowska herself, however, pointed out that the key moment in which she “became convinced of the hypocrisy of the system” were the December 1970 strikes triggered by increases in the prices of meat and other foodstuffs planned by the government.[1] Even though Alina did not participate in the December 1970 strikes, she had a chance to listen to her father reporting on them in their kitchen, behind the half-closed door. Comparing his words to the official press narrative, Alina was able to learn what government propaganda is in practice, and how censorship works.

After the strikes ended, Alina became a part of the chair of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee and co-edited “21 postulates” comprising a list of demands to the authorities of the Polish People’s Republic. Alina authored the 16th postulate concerning the health care system.[4] She was also a signatory of agreements concluded at the time; they guaranteed the establishment of free trade unions. Pienkowska founded the “Solidarność” in Gdańsk as a member of the chair of the Inter-Enterprise Founding Committee of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union (NSZZ, Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy). Her work in “Solidarność” involved contacts between workplaces as well as participation in talks with the authorities concerning, among others, the implementation of pay increases, access to media, and health care. At the same time, Alina remained critical of the way Lech Wałęsa handled the union policy. In 1981, protesting the removal of Wałęsa’s opponents from the union, she gave up her work at the Regional Management.

On 13 December 1981, the day martial law was imposed in Poland, she was interned. Alina was transferred from Gdańsk to Bydgoszcz, and then to Gołdap. Upon her release in July 1982, Pienkowska got involved in aiding the families of those interned. On 23 December 1984 she married Bogdan Borusewicz in secrecy. It seems that prior to the year 1989, one of her key achievements was the establishment of the “Solidarność” social foundation. The foundation’s activity comprised supporting various health care centers in Poland by purchasing medical equipment. One of the major accomplishments of Alina’s foundation was performing the first non-invasive heart examination in Poland, which was possible thanks to funding obtained from a U.S. Congress grant.

When in 1989 she was approached with a proposition to participate in the Round Table talks (which led to peaceful political changes), she refused, arguing that the health care delegation on the Solidarity side was unrepresentative. After the political shift, she stood for a seat in the Polish Senate, representing the Democratic Union in the first entirely free election in 1991. She received over 200,000 votes. After she became a member of the Senate, Lech Wałęsa, then the president, offered her the position of Minister of Health. However, despite her experience and knowledge of the subject, she refused, stating that:

“Some would say that me becoming a minister would mean betraying the union […] Perhaps my refusal wasn’t rational, as I had the experience and ideas to solve the issues affecting the health care system”.[5]

After serving her term in the Senate, she returned to the profession of a nurse and then, from 1998 until her death, was a councilor of the City of Gdańsk. Alina Pienkowska died on 17 October 2002, succumbing to cancer.