TO THE ANTIPODES WITH A “ONE WAY” PASSPORT. 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARTIAL LAW

Jagoda Williams, graduate from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Warsaw Polytechnic, holds a PhD in technical sciences from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research (IPPT), Polish Academy of Sciences. Funding member of NSZZ “Solidarity” at the Building Research Institute (ITB) in Warsaw. Forced to flee Poland. Lecturer in Structural Engineering in New York, and then in Melbourne. She lives in Australia, where she popularized the profiles of Solidarity activists settled in the Antipodes who had to leave Poland without the right to return to their homeland.

(…) The purpose of this book is not to present detailed biographies of the activists or their activities, but rather to show the diversity of types of activities – to present men and women of different ages, from different social groups, with different understandings and involvement in this great national movement that swept up and united Poles in solidaristic action.

                                                                                 Jagoda Williams, Foreword

(…) This book is an important part of heroic Polish history – all the more valuable because it is not from the front pages of newspapers. A mandatory read, especially in the difficult times of European Union post-communism.

Tadeusz Płużański