The Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland announced that President Andrzej Duda accepted the request of the management of JSW and the JSW Foundation and assumed the National Patronage over the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Jastrzębie Agreement. This patronage is established over projects which fit into the celebrations of the centenary of Poland’s independence and serve the purpose of appropriate commemoration and popularization of patriotic attitudes, achievements and aspirations among Poles. – We wish successful celebrations to the organizers and everybody involved in the preparations, wrote the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland.
This year’s Independence Day is a great opportunity to commemorate all the anonymous heroes of the August of 1980 as this year marks the 40th anniversary of signing the Jastrzębie Agreement and it is the miners from Jastrzębie’s mines that made a huge contribution to this historic change. Their uncompromising attitude paved the way for a march towards free and independent Homeland. To remind the public about the miners’ role on this path, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa and the JSW Foundation organize an exceptional celebration of Poland’s Independence Day. The organizers have arranged an abundance of events which, even during the current challenging period of a pandemic, will enable their participants to pay homage to miners and celebrate Poland’s Independence and Freedom in unity.
The project “Celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Jastrzębie Agreement – Silesian contribution to 100 years of the Independent Republic of Poland” will have its highlights on 11 November 2020 with a holy mass for the Homeland at 11:00 a.m. in the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church in Jastrzębie-Zdrój, and a theatrical and musical performance entitled “Heroism of Witold Pilecki” at 4:00 p.m., which will be held without the participation of the audience but will be broadcast live on-line at www.PorozumienieJastrzebskie.pl. At 7:00 p.m. a spectacular light show will be projected on 40 buildings in Jastrzębie-Zdrój and places across the municipalities cooperating with JSW. At 8:00 p.m., we encourage everyone to light candles in the windows to commemorate the anonymous heroes. You can also light symbolic candles at the website www.PorozumienieJastrzebskie.pl.
In connection with the anniversary, a number of events have been prepared, including an exhibition of historical photographs in the Zofiówka Section (formerly KWK “Manifest Lipcowy”) devoted to prelate Bernard Czernecki, chaplain of the Śląsko-Dąbrowski Region’s Solidarity. The JSW Foundation also organizes a collection of souvenirs, photographs and newspapers from that period to prepare a time capsule.
In addition, social media were used to promote the 40th anniversary of the Jastrzębie Agreement, reaching out to schools, preschools, parishes, sports clubs, Voluntary Fire Brigade units, municipalities, towns and cities to involve them in the celebrations. Among the proposed online initiatives is “challenge40”. Participants show, in the form of videos, photographs or presentations, how they spend their family weekends, embedding the “40” motif, thereby commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Jastrzębie Agreement. In addition, in the mining municipalities over the past few days you could find celebratory instagram frames to put on your profiles with a note #JastrzębieAgreement #WeRemember#Let’sCelebrateTogether.