But the damage was done – the incident exposed a rift in Solidarity between the moderate leadership and radicals like Walentynowicz who feared the movement might stray from its ideals. In truth, as Solidarity grew into a nationwide organization, women like Walentynowicz who had been at its forefront increasingly found themselves pushed to the margins. At Solidarity’s first national congress in the summer of 1981, out of nearly 900 delegates, only 7% were women, and Walentynowicz – the very spark of the revolution – was not among themencyclopedia.com. The union’s leadership committees became overwhelmingly male-dominated (for example, only 1 woman sat on the 100-plus member National Commission)encyclopedia.com. This reflected traditional attitudes in a conservative Catholic society, but it also caused resentment. Walentynowicz saw it as a betrayal of Solidarity’s egalitarian promise. She also bristled at Solidarity’s new focus on high politics. Wałęsa and his circle, influenced by intellectual advisors, often spoke of grand national strategies, while Walentynowicz was more concerned that the union remain rooted in everyday workers’ struggles and moral principles.
Through the latter half of 1981, the Solidarity leadership tried to walk a fine line, pushing for change but avoiding open confrontation with the communist regime. Walentynowicz and other activists in the rank-and-file grew frustrated with what they perceived as the moderation and ego of some leaders. She was unafraid to voice her displeasure, even if it meant challenging Wałęsa publicly. That dissent would soon be rendered moot by external events. On December 13, 1981, General Wojciech Jaruzelski’s government abruptly declared martial law in Poland, unleashing tanks and riot police to crush Solidarity. The free union was banned and its leaders arrested in overnight raids. In Gdańsk, Walentynowicz was among the first to be seized. When troops stormed the Lenin Shipyard, friends had to physically restrain “Anna” from standing in front of the tanks – such was her instinct to resistencyclopedia.com. Imprisoned in grim internment facilities, she went on a hunger strike to protest the inhumane conditionsencyclopedia.com. On one occasion after an early release, Walentynowicz boldly snuck back into her old shipyard (now under military management) and operated her crane for a day in symbolic defiance of the banencyclopedia.com. The astonished authorities, unsure what to do with this indomitable woman, sent her to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation – a classic Soviet-style tactic to discredit dissidents as “insane.” After six weeks, doctors found no grounds to declare her mentally ill, and she was shuttled back to prisonencyclopedia.com. Even behind bars, Walentynowicz’s reputation as a moral beacon persisted: prison staff greeted her with flowers and kisses when she arrived, a mark of secret respect for the “Mother of Solidarity”encyclopedia.com. Defiant as ever, she told them: “We struggle with our hearts, not with violence. Solidarity is a volcano that cannot be capped.”encyclopedia.com
Walentynowicz spent a total of 19 months in prison between 1981 and 1984 for her Solidarity activitiesen.wikipedia.org. She endured the hardship without complaint, emerging gaunt but unbroken. In 1983, she was brought to trial, accused of organizing an illegal strike in the shipyard and even, bizarrely, of trying to commandeer a fire brigade’s water cannon to fight off the policeencyclopedia.com. The trial gained international attention. Perhaps fearing to make her a martyr, the court handed Walentynowicz a suspended sentence – citing her age, poor health, and exemplary work record as justification for leniencyencyclopedia.com. It was a face-saving way for the regime to neutralize her without further elevating her heroic status. The truth was that by then Walentynowicz was a symbol – a living rebuke to the communist claim that it represented the working class. After martial law, Solidarity was driven underground, but the movement lived on in clandestine publications, secret meetings, and the hearts of millions. In this “second life” of Solidarity, women played a pivotal role as couriers, organizers, and guardians of the opposition’s continuityencyclopedia.com. Walentynowicz herself, though under constant surveillance, remained extremely active through the 1980s, giving speeches in churches, organizing prayer meetings and hunger strikes to protest ongoing injusticesencyclopedia.com. She championed the cases of young conscientious objectors jailed for refusing military service, helping inspire a new Freedom and Peace movement that linked Christian ethics with anti-regime activismencyclopedia.com.
As the decade wore on, Walentynowicz grew increasingly disillusioned not only with the communist state but also with some of her former Solidarity colleagues. In her view, people like Wałęsa were too willing to compromise and were basking in personal glory while ordinary folk continued to suffer. She accused Wałęsa of developing a “cult of personality” and forgetting that Solidarity’s success had been a collective effort of millionsen.wikipedia.org.