To have or to be? To go with the flow or against the grain? Magda Potorska in conversation with Barbara Nowakowska-Drozdek

Jefferson once said: “Every generation needs a new revolution”. Did you feel like revolutionaries?

No – Barbara explains – we didn’t feel like revolutionaries, since we associated the word ‘revolution’ with a bloody overthrow, with one regime replacing another. Examples of such revolutions are the years of terror after the French Revolution or Soviet Russia. We recalled the ‘Carnation Revolution’ in Portugal in 1974, but it was not until after 1989 that we discovered the expression ‘peaceful revolution’. My commitment followed a natural impulse from my heart and mind, which came about as a result of my patriotic attitude to life. This was the attitude with which I grew up, and which was rooted in tradition. There is no doubt that the experience of coming into direct contact with the opposition movement was of considerable importance, and in this regard, Jacek Kuroń was a highly influential figure for me. 
 

It is said that politics should be observed within the framework of the decade, and not from a current-day perspective... Do you believe that you were the ones who managed to cut through a part of the Iron Curtain?

Not from the macrocosmic perspective, since we were not professional political activists. However, at the microcosmic level, yes, certainly, since all activities, even the smallest, add up so that quality automatically emerges from quantity. We were aware that each additional establishment of a pro-Solidarność organisation and the networking of these organisations with each other would increase our chances of popularising the fight for Solidarność in the West and of shaping public opinion. With this in mind, the first coordination meeting of all pro-Solidarność organisations in Germany was held in Düsseldorf in 1982. 
 

Do you believe that the people who have political power influence the course of events? 

Yes, but not only they alone, since there is also a parliamentary opposition and an opposition outside parliament. 
 

Did you ever have the feeling that you really did have such an influence?

Thanks to the media work, yes, since we recognised and valued the positive influence of the western media on the politics of the eastern bloc.