Józef Pinior was a national leader of Solidarnosc in the 1982-1987 period. He was one of its main organizers in the Lower Silesian region. He was imprisoned and given a heavy sentence but freed with the amnesty for political prisoners. In 1988 he was again imprisoned for his role in a wave of strikes. In 2011 he became a senator as an independent candidate from the Civic Platform list but lost reelection in 2015. While in office he publicized the existence of CIA prisons in Poland. In 2020, he was convicted of accepting bribes and sentenced to a year-and-a-half in prison.
Poland: An International Appeal
Against the Current, No. 32, May/June 1991