Strajk! Skok do wolności Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Rules of Strike
• Scenario
• Game Components
  • Card levels
• Game Preparation
• Sequence of Play
• Player Turns
• Gaining Cards from the Board
  • Example: taking a card from the board
• Special Actions
  • Example: special actions
• Drawing Cards
• Discarding Cards Out of the Game
• End of Turn
• Negotiating Demands and the End of the Game
• Advice of the Committee of Experts
• The 21 Demands

Rules of Strike

Number of players: 2–5. Ages: 12+. Game duration: 30–60 minutes.

Before August, I was known as a simple worker, one of many union members (...) Now I jump to the front, I act independently, I take the leader's role, I impose my role on the group...

No one can make a plan for something like a strike. A strike is like a crowd which reacts unpredictably, in its own way.

Scenario

Everybody in turn controls the actions of Lech Wałęsa, gaining support for the strike in the shipyard. You use walking and running cards to move Wałęsa around the board. You use speech cards to win over the workers and residents of Gdańsk. With them on his side, Wałęsa draws the attention of foreign correspondents. Press interviews inform the entire country of the shipbuilders' struggle, which causes other groups to join the strike, and the shipyard is visited by delegates of MKS (Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy: the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee) and the MKS Committee of Experts under Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Being certain of support from the delegates and experts, you can attempt to negotiate the strike demands. The winner is the person who, as Lech Wałęsa, is the first to gain 2 demand cards.

Game Components

110 cards:

• 20 speech cards
• 10 walking cards
• 14 running cards
• 15 worker cards
• 15 resident cards
• 14 correspondent cards
• 8 delegate cards
• 8 expert cards
• 6 demand cards

Plus:

• 1 main board
• 5 player boards
• 1 Wałęsa token

Every detail of the shipyard operation during the strike was important. The people themselves created the routine; the strike process was clear to everyone, and it was visible from the first moment one entered the shipyard...

Card levels

Cards are grouped into five levels. Gaining cards of higher and higher levels is how you progress.

Level	Card types
I	Speech, Walking, Running
II	Worker, Resident
III	Correspondent
IV	Delegate, Expert
V	Demand

Game Preparation

Place the game board at the center of the table and put the Wałęsa token on the space with a cross behind the shipyard fence. Sort the playing cards according to type (as described in "Game Components"). Then put the cards face down on the board as follows:

• Workers are stationed in these 3 areas: Department 1, Department 2 and Department 3. Put 5 worker cards onto each of the 3 departments.
• Strike leaflets are printed here, and foreign correspondents wait behind the fence. Put the 14 correspondent cards here.
• Delegates of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee from other plants will arrive here, when the media report on the sympathy strike. Put the 8 delegate cards here.
• Here in the bhp Hall (safety training hall), Wałęsa negotiates demands (the goal of the game). Put the 6 demand cards here.
• Gdańsk inhabitants gather here in front of gate 2. Put the 15 resident cards here.
• Experts arrive here from the railway station. Put the 8 expert cards here.
• This square has a cross commemorating the shipyard workers killed in December 1970, giving Lech Wałęsa more motivation to act. Put 4 running cards here.

Turn the top card of each deck face up, except for the demand deck.

Each player receives a player board and 4 speech cards, 2 walking cards and 2 running cards. Each player shuffles their cards and puts them in a face down stack on the center space (tomorrow) of their player board to create their initial tomorrow deck.

In a game with fewer than 5 players, return the unused cards to the box.

Finally everyone draws 5 cards from their Tomorrow deck. Whoever drew the fewest speech cards is the starting player (using youngest player as a tie-breaker).

Gdańsk is becoming a Mecca attracting delegations from workplaces across the country with words of support and declarations of readiness to strike.

Sequence of Play

Players take turns in clockwise order. During your turn, you play as many cards as you wish from your hand to your player board. You will use your cards frequently: drawing, playing, shuffling and drawing again.

Your own cards will move among 4 places during play: your hand, and 3 stacks (today, tomorrow, later) on your player board.

• Today represents current meetings. You play cards from your hand onto this stack, face up.
• Tomorrow represents future meetings. You draw your cards from this face down deck.
• Later represents meetings postponed to "some day". At the end of your turn, you move your played cards from Today to Later, face up.

By playing cards from your hand, you move Wałęsa on the main game board and gain cards of higher and higher levels. Instead of gaining cards, you can also do special actions. Going through all the levels and gaining 2 demand cards ends the game.

Thank God that all this shuffling, the shifting arrangements between us, this entire personal aspect of the strike and its leadership, was in the shadows of the main movement.

Player Turns

At the start of your turn, you draw cards from your tomorrow deck until you have 5 cards in your hand (see Drawing Cards). Then you play cards from your hand, doing actions (see Gaining Cards from the Board and Special Actions). You always place the cards you play and the new cards you gain onto the Today space on your board.

When you can no longer perform actions, or choose to stop, you may keep any cards you like in your hand (never more than 5) and discard the rest to your Today pile.

Finally you move all your Today cards to your Later stack. Finally turn the top cards face up on those board locations where there are face down cards (because you took cards from there). (See "End of Turn".)

It was really not as rosy as everybody imagines today. I ran from department to department (...), I made speeches, we turned off machinery, and when there was no other way, we began to sing "Boże, coś Polskę" (God Save Poland)...

Gaining Cards from the Board

Each board space has a stack of cards. The icon next to a stack indicates which cards you must play there to gain a new card.

To take a card from the main board, Wałęsa must be at the board location with the card you want. You can move Wałęsa from location to adjacent location by using walking and running cards. Walking moves Wałęsa 1 location, and running moves Wałęsa 1 or 2 locations.

With Wałęsa at the appropriate space, play the necessary cards from your hand to take the face up card from that space's stack. If you want to take another card from a space where you've already taken a card this turn, then you must do the special action of playing a speech card to turn the stack's new top card face up.

Note: If the last action of your turn is walking or running, then you cannot leave Wałęsa on a space with no cards. (Your turn can end with Wałęsa on an empty space if your last action was not walking or running — for example, if you took the last card from the space after moving him there!)

Illegal: you can't move here and end your turn.

Example: taking a card from the board

Marta has in her hand the following cards: walking, running, speech, resident, worker. Wałęsa is in the bhp Hall.

1. Marta plays her walking card and moves Wałęsa to Department 1.
2. There she plays her speech card to take the face up worker card, which she moves to her player board's Today stack.
3. Marta plays her running card and moves Wałęsa 2 locations, through Department 2, to the printing office.
4. There she plays her resident and worker cards to take the face up correspondent card, which she moves to her Today stack.

Now she has played all the cards from her hand, so her turn must end. She moves all her Today cards to her Later stack.

Special Actions

To do a special action, Wałęsa does not have to be on any particular board location (except for playing a speech card). You just play the card onto your Today stack and perform the card's special action.

• Speech: turn the top card at Wałęsa's current location face up.
• Resident: discard 1 card from your hand to the box (out of the game).
• Worker: discard as many cards as you like from your hand to your Today stack, then draw the same number of cards from your tomorrow deck.
• Correspondent: draw 2 cards from your tomorrow deck.
• Delegate: draw 3 cards from your tomorrow deck.
• Expert: discard 3 cards from your hand to the box (out of the game).

It's true that from the beginning of the strike I had influence on people.

Example: special actions

Michael has in his hand the following cards: walking, running, speech, resident, worker. Wałęsa is in the bhp Hall. Michael knows that he owns a correspondent card and he wants to draw it.

1. So he plays his worker card as a special action and discards 2 cards (walking and resident) from his hand to his Today stack, then he draws 2 cards from his tomorrow deck. Success! He drew a correspondent card and a speech card.
2. Now Michael plays his running card and moves Wałęsa through Department 1 to Gate 3.
3. There he plays his correspondent and speech cards to take an expert card from that space, placing the expert onto his Today stack.
4. He has no good use for his last card (speech) and he doesn't want to keep it for next turn, so he discards it to his Today stack.
5. Finally he moves all of his Today cards to his Later stack.

Drawing Cards

As a result of doing certain special actions (mainly the correspondent card), you can draw cards. You always draw cards from your tomorrow deck. If this stack runs out during your turn, shuffle your later stack and move it to tomorrow to make a new face down tomorrow deck. If all these cards run out as well, then you cannot draw more cards this turn. You can still play cards from your hand and finish your turn as usual.

Note: You move cards from your Today stack to your Later stack only at the end of your turn. Thus you can never play the same card twice in a turn.

I am faced with difficult choices (...), in such situations, I leave matters to take their own course. Whoever keeps up is with me, and I with him (...) If more and more obligations delay reaching the goal, I do not say anything to anyone, I just "speed up" and look for a new rhythm.

Discarding Cards Out of the Game

Two special actions let you discard cards from your hand out of the game. You play a resident or an expert card to your Today stack and then choose which card or cards to discard from your hand to the box. These cards are permanently out of play and cannot return to the game.

It's possible to play for a whole day, ten hours, but that's a bit too much of that game. That's why I propose settling the issue quickly.

End of Turn

At the end of your turn, you can keep up to 5 cards in your hand. Discard any unwanted cards to your Today stack. You can't keep more than 5 cards.

Then move all of your Today cards to your Later stack.

If any decks on the board have a face down card on top (because you took cards during your turn), then turn those top cards face up now. (Exception: don't turn the top demand card face up.)

If you took the last card from a deck on the board, nothing special happens. That location is empty from now on.

Now the turn goes clockwise to the next player.

Note: Once you are comfortable playing the game, you can save time by drawing cards for your next turn (to fill your hand to 5 cards) while other players do their turns.

Negotiating Demands and the End of the Game

If you have at least two blue cards (delegates or experts) in your hand, you can move Wałęsa to the bhp Hall and begin negotiating demands with the government delegation. Demand negotiation begins by playing a speech card from your hand, to turn the top demand card face up and checking which cards are needed to negotiate the demand:

• delegate + delegate
• delegate + expert
• expert + expert

So, strategy about discussions and tactics for dealing with specific points were essential. (...) They give confidence in a game with such high stakes.

Failure: If you do not have both necessary cards in your hand, then Wałęsa failed to negotiate the demand. This causes the end of your turn. (As usual, you can keep up to 5 cards in your hand, discarding the rest.) Set the unsuccessfully negotiated demand aside face down, next to the board.

Note: If the demand deck runs out before the game ends, then take the unsuccessfully negotiated demands from beside the board and shuffle them to create a new face down demand deck.

Because today's talks failed, we'll postpone the session till tomorrow.

Yes or no. If no – we'll rest. We can rest, we have time.

Success: If you have both necessary cards in your hand, then play them as usual to your Today stack. Then take the demand card, read its text aloud, and put it face up on the table in front of you as a trophy. You're half way to victory! You can continue your turn as usual, perhaps even revealing another demand card by playing another speech card.

Whoever gets 2 demand cards first is the winner.

Advice of the Committee of Experts

"We know what we want," I told Mazowiecki and Geremek (...) The idea is not to get tricked, and you have to help us out.

• Try to collect an appropriate mix of card types.
• Don't take too many workers and residents.
• If your deck is too big and you rarely draw the cards you want, then use resident or expert cards to discard less useful cards from your deck. This will help you succeed more quickly.
• Use the special actions of worker, correspondent and delegate cards to get more cards into your hand. The more cards in your hand, the more possibilities you have. Try to draw all your cards, leaving no cards remaining in your tomorrow and later stacks.
• Try to remember the demands which have already been seen, so you can predict which cards you will need in your hand to successfully negotiate future demands.

The 21 Demands

The 21 Demands, as printed in the booklet.

1. Acceptance of free trade unions independent from parties and employers, in accordance with Convention No. 87 of the International Labor Organization concerning freedom of association.

2. A guarantee of the right to strike and the security of strikers and strike supporters.

3. Compliance with the PRL's constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech, the press and publication, including freedom for independent publishers, and making the mass media available to representatives of all faiths.

4. A return of former rights to:

   • People dismissed from work after the 1970 and 1976 strikes.
   • Students expelled because of their beliefs.

   The release of all political prisoners (including Edmund Zadrożyński, Jan Kozłowski, and Marek Kozłowski). A halt to repressions for personal beliefs.

5. Informing the public through mass media about the formation of the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee and its demands.

6. Taking real steps to bring the country out of its crisis situation:

   • a) fully informing the public about the socio-economic situation.
   • b) enabling all communities and social classes to take part in discussions about the reform program.

7. Compensation for all workers taking part in the strike for the period of the strike, treated as vacation days, paid from the funds of the Central Council of Trade Unions.

8. An increase in each worker's monthly salary by 2000 plz (as printed; Polish złoty), as compensation for the price increases.