The Protest Action (Akcja „Protest”)

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[This is a draft of a new page, which I am preparing for publication on Wikipedia.]

The Protest Action was formed in the United States in 1983 (?) to carry out a petition campaign calling for the release of eleven Polish pro-democracy opposition leaders who were in jail in Soviet-occupied Poland at the time. The group's Polish language name was Grupa „Protest” and its campaign was named Akcja „Protest” in Polish. [Check: Did the campaign leaders call themselves Grupa „Protest”?]

The Solidarity Eleven

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The petition campaign demanded the release of eleven imprisoned Polish pro-democracy opposition leaders. They were:

  1. Jacek Kuroń
  2. Adam Michnik
  3. Zbigniew Romaszewski
  4. Henryk Wujec
  5. Andrzej Gwiazda
  6. Seweryn Jaworski
  7. Marian Jurczyk
  8. Karol Modzelewski
  9. Grzegorz Palka
  10. Andrzej Rozpłochowski
  11. Jan Rulewski

The first four were members of the Committee for the Defense of Workers (KOR). The remaining seven were leaders of the Solidarity trade union. [Alternative wording: All eleven were involved in the Solidarity movement. The first four were also members of the Committee for the Defense of Workers (KOR), which was started in 1976.]

Broader Demands

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In addition to demanding the release of the Solidarity Eleven, the Protest Group called for [...]

The Launch of the Campaign

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Protest Group appeals and communiques were signed by Ewa Sułkowska-Bierezin, Jarosław Świątek and Marcin Żmudzki, but the group also received support from many other individuals in Washington, D.C., and other American cities, including Witold Sułkowski and his wife Anna Sułkowska, Ambassador [whatwashisfirstname] Davies and Janusz Beer.

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Wojciech Wołyński, a Polish emigré, designed the distinctive Protest logo which was used on the petition signature form and communiques. Mr. Wołyński now teaches at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

The Spread of the Campaign through the Social Networks

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The Protest Group's petition campaign spread to many states. The most active centers of support outside of the Washington metropolitan area included ____, ____ and ____. Petition sheets with multiple signatures were coming from individuals who ___. [Who were the people who sent in the largest batches of signed petitions? Did they write letters to us? If yes, what did they write?]

Petition Signatories

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By the end of the campaign, about eleven thousand people had signed the petition. The great majority of the signatories were members of the Polish community, but signatories also included many prominent Americans...

  • Lane Kirkland
  • VIP signatory # 2
  • VIP signatory # 3
  • VIP signatory # 4

Letter to U.S. Congress

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The leaders of the petition campaign, aided by Ambassador ___, appealed to U.S. Congress to put pressure on the Polish government to release the Solidarity Eleven.

Jan Nowak's Letter to President Reagan and the President's Reply

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Mr. Jan Nowak (Jezioranski), a long-time advocate of the Polish cause in Washington, wrote a letter to President Ronald Reagan on behalf of the campaign. The President responded with a supportive letter (see a copy of that letter) [attach a scanned copy].

Media Impact

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The petition campain was covered by Radio Free Europe and Voice of America. These two radio stations delivered the news about the petition to Poland. [One local radio or television station also covered the campaign.]

Solidarity Support Groups Abroad

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The Protest Group was part of a network of organizations which provided support to the Polish Solidarity movement from abroad

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  • Ewa Sułkowska-Bierezin -- a biographical note about her on poles.org, based on an entry in "Who's Who in Polish America" 1st Edition 1996-1997, Boleslaw Wierzbianski editor; Bicentennial Publishing Corporation, New York, NY, 1996
  • Wojciech Wołyński -- his profile on the website of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design
  • Marcin Żmudzki -- his personal website with links to his pages on LinkedIn and Facedbook.

[End of draft page about the petition campaign.]

Welcome to Wikipedia!!!

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Hello MarcinZmudzki! Welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. If you decide that you need help, check out Wikipedia:Where to ask a question, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Please remember to sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. Below are some recommended guidelines to facilitate your involvement. Happy Editing!  Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  05:34, 5 May 2007 (UTC)Reply
Getting Started
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Hello MarcinZmudzki! Thank you for your contributions related to Poland. You may be interested in visiting Portal:Poland/Poland-related Wikipedia notice board, joining our discussions and sharing your creations with us.

-- Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk  05:34, 5 May 2007 (UTC)Reply

Europe 10,000 Challenge invite

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Hi. The Wikipedia:WikiProject Europe/The 10,000 Challenge has recently started, based on the UK/Ireland Wikipedia:The 10,000 Challenge. The idea is not to record every minor edit, but to create a momentum to motivate editors to produce good content improvements and creations and inspire people to work on more countries than they might otherwise work on. There's also the possibility of establishing smaller country or regional challenges for places like Germany, Italy, the Benelux countries, Iberian Peninsula, Romania, Slovenia etc, much like Wikipedia:The 1000 Challenge (Nordic). For this to really work we need diversity and exciting content and editors from a broad range of countries regularly contributing. If you would like to see masses of articles being improved for Europe and your specialist country like Wikipedia:WikiProject Africa/The Africa Destubathon, sign up today and once the challenge starts a contest can be organized. This is a way we can target every country of Europe, and steadily vastly improve the encyclopedia. We need numbers to make this work so consider signing up as a participant and also sign under any country sub challenge on the page that you might contribute to! Thank you. --Ser Amantio di NicolaoChe dicono a Signa?Lo dicono a Signa. 10:04, 6 November 2016 (UTC)Reply

Hi. We're into the last five days of the Women in Red World Contest. There's a new bonus prize of $200 worth of books of your choice to win for creating the most new women biographies between 0:00 on the 26th and 23:59 on 30th November. If you've been contributing to the contest, thank you for your support, we've produced over 2000 articles. If you haven't contributed yet, we would appreciate you taking the time to add entries to our articles achievements list by the end of the month. Thank you, and if participating, good luck with the finale!