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    Illustrated
    Chronicle of
    Three
    Generations

    David Fletcher
    Chatper 32:
    April 1989
    to June 1990


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Chatper 32:
April 1989
to June 1990

  • 32.1 1989: Rising Up Against Regimes
  • 32.2 Poland: Solidarnosc (3 of 8)
  • 32.3 485 Manning Renovations (8 of 15) & Resolution with Doris
  • 32.4 Joanna Kujawa (1 of 7) and Our New York Trip
  • 32.5 My Alexandria Library Competition Entry (2 of 2)
  • 32.6 Summer 1989: California (2 of 2), Arcosanti (3 of 3)
  • 32.7 Summer of 1989: Work in the Office of Arthur Erikson
  • 32.8 Phrase Animee (5 of 6)
  • 32.9 Continuing to Teach at King Square Collegiate
  • 32.10 B.Ed at FEUT: Sept. 1989 to June 1990
  • 32.11 Berlin Wall Falls: November, 1989
  • 32.12 December, 1989, Massacre and the White Ribbon Campaign
  • 32.13 Fletchers During this Period, 1989 to 1990
  • 32.14 My Art During this Period, 1989 to 1990
  • 32.15 Union Organizing Activity
  • 32.16 Zeitgeist: Politics and Society, 1989 to 1990
  • 32.17 Culture, Books, Films, & TV: 1989 to 1990
  • 32.18 Chess During this Period
  • 32.19 Summary, Conclusions, Connections, Goals, Omissions, & Regrets



32.1 1989: Rising Up Against Regimes

32.1.1 Introduction
This was the year that totalitarian regimes were either making concessions to mass movements or cracking down on them.

32.1.2 Nationalist Demonstrations Against USSR

Olympic gold medalist gymnast Nadia Comaneci defects from Romania because of the intolerable hard-line Stalinist regime of Ceaucescu. Meanwhile Ceaucescu continues with construction of a giant palace for himself and gives six-hour speeches on the benefits of communism.

With Gorbachev's easing up on the Soviet apparatus of terror, nationalists in many Soviet republics and satelite states demonstrated for independence. In Bakou, Azerbaijan; Czechoslovakia's anti-communist dissidents were led by Vaclav Havel; demonstrations in Bulgaria; and in Hungary, Nagy's 1956 execution by the USSR was remembered and the border with Austria was opened up.

32.1.3 Tianamen Square, June, 1989

In China too, changes were occuring. At this time, at King Square Collegiate, I had Chinese students who were very close to movements for change in China. I had many discussions with them.

Taking advantage of a state visit by Gorbachev, socialist and pro-democracy students and workers in Beijing camp out in Tianamen Square. They erect a statue of the "Goddess of Democracy" and sing "The Internationale". The too-soft Zhao Ziyang is ousted and replaced by the hard-liner Den Xaio Ping. On 4 June, 1989, tanks invaded the square killing thousands of unarmed young people. Chinese governments traditionally do not tolerate any factionalism or internal division. In 1889, more than 20 million Chinese had been killed during the government repression of a dissident movement.

32.1.4 Apartheid Collapsing in South Africa

32.1.5 Berlin Wall Falls, November, 1989

In the summer of 1989, Gorbachev had renounced the Brezhnev Doctrine, which pledged to use Soviet force to protect its interests in Eastern Europe. On 10 September, Hungary opened its border with Austria, allowing East Germans to flee to the West. After massive public demonstrations in East Germany and Eastern Europe, and with thousands of Germans fleeing to the West through Hungary, East German hard-liner Honecker resigned. The new president Krenz threw open the Brandenberg Gates, 9 November, 1989, bringing down the Berlin Wall / Iron Curtain. The wall was disassembled, starting on 22 December, 1989. New Year's celebrators poured across the newly-open border.

32.1.6 German Re-unification

With the fall of the Berlin wall, East Germany's government never recovered any stability. Soon there was increasing pressure to re-unite Germany. At a meeting in Moscow on 12 September 1990, the United States, Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and the two Germanys agree to end Allied occupation rights in Germany. With troops scheduled to leave, within one month (3 October, 1990), East and West Germany formally united as the Federal Republic of Germany. This was one more event which ended the Cold War.

32.1.7 Czechoslovakia Velvet Revolution, November, 1989

In Novemeber, 1989, people in Prague took to the streets, especially Wenceslaus Square, to call for reforms. Havel and Dubcek called for the government to resign, which it did 24 November. Both Habel and Dubcek came to power the next year.

32.1.8 Romanian Revolution, December, 1989

Following Solidarity's victories in Poland, the demise of Communist authority in Hungary, the fall of Honecker (a close friend and ally of Ceausescu), and, finally, the deposing of Bulgaria's Todor Zhivkov, Romania had remained the last Stalinist bulwark in Eastern Europe.

In mid-December tention in Romania ran high as the secret police, the Securitate, arrested dissidents. When crowds intervened in the arrest of pastor Lazlo Tokes in the town of Timisoara, the Securitate opened fire. 7,000 were killed and the protests spread to Bucharest. During a Ceausescu speech, the crowd booed preventing him from finishing. The crowd took over the TV station and announced that the regime was finished. Street battles with the loyal Securitate continued for days, killing 60,000 --but by 29 December, the revolutionaries were victorious. See History of Romanian Revolution. Their symbol was the Romanian flag with the centre cut out, where the Communist symbol had been.

What deserves to be stressed, is that all of these events of the second half of 1989 were influenced by the events in Poland during the first half of 1989. Therefore to understand the context of all of this, one must return to Poland for a more careful re-examination.




32.2 Poland: Solidarnosc,
and my Third Trip (3 of 8)

32.2.1 Introduction

My Work with Solicarnosc
My work with Solidarnosc (dating back to 1971) continued during the period leading up to the events of Spring, 1989. See chapter 30, section 6)

32.2.2 Review of Recent Events In Poland

In 1987 Solidarnosc again had started to organize strikes, and by 1988 these grew in size and frequency. Rather than meeting the strikes with repression, they were tolerated. The economic downturn which followed the widespread strikes, forced the PZPR government to resign and be replaced by an interim Council of Ministers. This new government included several non-PZPR members, although it remained communist-dominated. Meanwhile, thoughout the summer of 1988, the still-powerful (and Soviet supported) Committee for Defence of the Country (KOK) began preparations for the re-introduction of martial law. They wanted to crush Solidarnosc as had been done in 1980. This was avoided by the intervention of the new Minister of the Interior, General Czeslaw Kiszczak. He proposed negotiations directly with Solidarnosc, with the intention of ending the strikes and leading to the legalization of Solidarnosc. These "Round Table" negotiations between Kiszczak and Walensa had began in July, 1988. The Polish authorities had decided to share authority at a time when painful economic reforms were increasingly being seen as necessary.

32.2.3 "Roundtable" Agreement in Poland

The "Roundtable" negotiations led to an historic agreement, which was ratified on 5 April, 1989. This led to the re-legalization of Solidarnosc and partially-free elections. This agreement opened the door to real democracy. It could be argued that the Cold War was won by Poland at this time. If so, it was a victory of ideas over tanks, the result of workers joining forces with intellectuals. The psychological war that had raged for twenty years under the slogan: "Let Poland be Poland" overthrew communist repression. It was agreed to hold partially-free elections in June to the Sejm (Lower House of the Parliament) where most seats were reserved for the government and the remaining 35% of seats were to be contested freely.

32.2.4 Solidarnosc Legalized and Wins Election

In the 4 and 18 June, 1989, partially-democratic elections, Solidarnosc swept the board in all of the seats it was allowed to contest. It subsequently formed a coalition government with two smaller parties, with Tadeusz Mazowiecki becoming the first non-communist Prime Minister of a Warsaw Pact country. It was also the first democratically elected cabinet in the communist block. The government was almost immediately faced with a further deepening of the economic recession, which it addressed by introducing radical market reforms. The latter were seen to be outrageous by other Communist block countries.

32.2.5 My Third Trip to Poland, Summer, 1989

Just as my second trip had been to a different Poland compared to my first trip, this third trip was to a completely new Poland with a new Solidarnosc-dominated government. Former political prisoners were now running the country. I could work completely in the open, and not in the shadows as before.

There was a rush of feeling that Solidarnosc was presenting the world with a third option: between raw capitalism and rotting communism. It seemed (on superficial examination) that on every level, from the worker on the shop floor to the offices of the highest authorities, that perhaps Solidarnosc would bring together socialists and Church people, workers and intellectuals, to achieve a new concensus.

32.2.6 Context: the Fall of 1989

On 29 December, 1989, the Sejm adopted an act to amend the constitution which provided for fundamental changes in the political, social and economic system.

In 1990 Lech Walesa was elected President. Everything was looking up. On the surface, there appeared to be some concensus as to how to proceed. But there was none. As analysis in subsequent chapters will show, Solidarnosc was becoming fragmented --and this would eventually lead to its downfall. The seeds of this downfall were already becoming apparent in the late 1980s.




32.3 Work Renovating 485 Manning Ave. (8 of 15) and Resolution with Doris

32.3.1 Introduction

    Date:Tasks performed this period
    , 1979purchase, moving in
    April, 1980breaking concrete in backyard
    May, 1980digging hole
    26 May, 1980removing excavated soil, concrete
    31 May, 1980pouring footing
    4 June, 1980concrete block foundation wall
    20 June, 1980concrete columns on East side of garage
    3 July, 1980brick around garage columns
    7 July, 1980West concrete block wall on garage
    early August, 1982structure of addition and roof completed.
    August, 1982enclosure of addtion completed room.
    Fall, 1982upstairs apartment completed.
    1983major work on downstairs apartment.
    1984completion of grade-level living room and basement.
    1986Completion of the downstairs and moving upstairs.
    1995new roof, new skylights.
    1996new bathroom on second floor.
    2002new bathroom in basement.
    2005completion of basement bathroom
    30 July, 2005fire on roof
    Fall, 2005repairs by HOPE contracting
    2006covered workspace in backyard, studio in garage, finishing touch-up to whole house
    late August, 2006 showings, and sale 30 Aug.

32.3.2

I do not know who said: "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" but I think it was must have been a man in his mid-30s. It seems that my learning about house renovation and repairs meant that this was interpreted as an open invitation to my friends to ask me to do repairs on their homes. Earlier than this time either I did not have the knowledge or I did not have friends that owned homes. Later than this I would be too old to be asked to repair things. So this being the perfect time, I found I was always being asked by friends to fix stuff.



32.4 Joanna Kujawa and Trips to Niagara and New York

32.4.1 Introduction

32.4.2 Joanna

32.4.3 Trip to Niagara with Joanna and Bern

32.4.4 Trip to New York City with Joanna, March, 1989




Next section
Chapter 33:5
1990 to 1991

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