Look Who it Was Random video

Aleksander Smolar - French politicians of all colours unite behind Poland (161/201)

122 views · Published 20 December 2018 · 3:14 · Indexed 29 October 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2018 · News & Politics

Watch on YouTube

To listen to more of Aleksander Smolar’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFwlxPLurqAOCrabBgGrqLA7

Aleksander Smolar (b. 1940) is a Polish writer, political activist and adviser, vice-president of the Institute for Human Sciences and president of the Stefan Batory Foundation. [Listener: Vitek Tracz]

TRANSCRIPT: Later, when martial law was imposed, the emotional reaction in France was absolutely extraordinary. Those mass protests – I saw in one actual protest under the monument to Mickiewicz, I saw ministers from the socialist government walking as ordinary individuals, not in the front row – there was no front row. These weren't official protests. They were just expressing their solidarity, and it was true of the republicans, liberals and Gaullists. These expressions of support were universal. The purity of the Solidarność movement, the fact that it was a movement that came from the workers, that it was Christian and essentially left-wing in its aspirations – despite the right-wing's current refutation of this – aroused universal support and various protests were systematically organised including the one in front of the Polish embassy. There were mass protests outside the Polish embassy in which obviously numerous Poles from Paris and other cities took part as did a great many French people. The political classes took an interest and so, as I've already mentioned, did Cheysson, the Foreign Minister who replied to the question of whether there would be a reaction on the part of the French government to martial law, he replied laughing, 'Bien sûr que non!' 'Of course not!' People were universally angered by this; the anger was greatest among society and politicians. There were several actions one of which I've already mentioned, the one organised by the trades unions of CFDT, but Force Ouvrière was also very active. Then there was the Solidarność Committee in Paris which had been organised by a renowned academic who had since died, Piotr Słonimski, the nephew of Antoni Słonimski, a soldier in the Home Army who'd been jailed after the war but thankfully Antoni got him out of there. He moved to France and became an eminent biochemist and a candidate for the Nobel Prize. He was an extraordinary man. He was very engaged politically. The practical work was done by our close friends, people like Krysia and Karol Sachs and many, many other people in Paris who were engaged in this and who formed links with various French organisations, mobilised people who were going to Poland, provided them with samizdat publications, food rations and so on. So there were a great many actions and huge amount of good will here in France.

More from this channel