Cooperation, Utilization, and Contention: The Polish Opposition and International Human Rights Associations in the 1980s

This paper presents research on the Polish opposition’s interactions with, and utilization of, international human rights groups and dsiscourses in their struggle against the state authorities.  Contact with international human rights associations and a narrative based upon universal human rights was vital to the Polish democratic opposition in the 1970s.  These foci became, at times, secondary after the rise of Solidarity in 1980.  In 1984, in the wake of the murder of Father Jerzy Popileuszko, a number of new, Polish independent human rights groups were formed for which an emphasis on universal human rights was paramount.  It is this period, from the mid 1980s, which is the focus for this paper.  By the late 1980s, groups such as Freedom and Peace (WiP) actively sought connections with human rights activists in the West as well as in the Communist bloc; Amnesty International bulletins were created, letter writings campaigns and public protests for World Human Rights Day were organized, and hunger strikes were held.  Although demands were framed within the context of universal rights (for instance support for conscientious objection) these at times belied more national concerns (rejection of the military oath's avowed allegiance to the Soviet connection).  Moreover, in their underground publications,  Polish activists found points of contention with international human rights groups.  Thus, this papers points to ways in which universal narratives can be co-opted, contested, and utilized as they migrate from the international to specific national contexts.