Common agricultural strike in Wielkopolska (1922)

Common agricultural strike - a general strike that took place in Wielkopolska from 2 to 14 August 1922.

The strike was organized by the Classical Trade Union of Agricultural and Forest Workers, previously settled in the government. He had a payroll. He covered about 100,000 people, ie over ¾ contract laborers employed in agriculture, especially in large estates. It was carried out during the harvest, which was to exacerbate its effects. He met a massive anti-strike action organized by the government, supported by the official press, landowners and clergy. Punitive military expeditions were sent to the villages, fired at strikers and placed in prisons. The military formed the so-called. Assistive Units. An unspecified number of people died (from 14 to several dozen workers), and about 60 were injured. Several hundred people lost their freedom. Also, local forces composed of individual peasants were used to pacify the strikers. In order to shine on the field, the landowners themselves and priests set out. The letter sent by the Poznań bishop Stanisław Kostka Łukomski. Officials, students, merchants, craftsmen and young people were helped. Most contracts were concluded with individual farmers for the harvest of cereals, as a remittance by donating part of the harvest (eg in the Rawicz area it was one in five imported fur).

Eventually, the strike ended with the failure of agricultural workers. They returned to work without achieving pay targets. At the end of the operation, there were cases of boycotting by shop workers run by merchants helping in the harvest.

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