I came to the Shipyard at 4:15. After posting posters I prepared leaflets for myself - I had 500 of them and I gave a leaflet to every single person entering the shipyard saying: „Take it and read. The whole shipyard is on strike today.”

Some 30 of us gathered and off we went. Two workmates carried one poster at the front of the procession. People emerge from all over the place to see what is going on. We shout: “Turn the machines off and join us. Many oblige. Now, already a larger group, we cross the bridge. [...]

And so there were already more than 1000 people - the crowd grew so dense that we could no longer see the end of the procession. Every now and then I would climb a post to see where it ends. At that time we were already sure that we’ll make it. People emerged from holds, from ships, they stood on gangways, high, and once they saw us they would descend. So we could see that our group grew minute by minute […]

We climbed onto an excavator which was immediately surrounded by a crowd of people. We said this: „We must appoint a strike committee. We need trusted people who are respected in their working brigades. Let them contact us.” Upon this, the director and his entourage turned up - we invited him onto the excavator and we helped him climb. When the director started to speak, we suddenly saw Leszek Wałęsa who approached the director and asked in an ominous whisper: “Do you remember me? I worked in the shipyard for ten years and I feel that I still belong here, because the crew trusts me. I have been jobless for the past four years.” And then he added: “We are going to stage a sit-in strike.”