The gaunt, gentlemanly Mazowiecki had served as an adviser to Lech Wałęsa, the leader of the Solidarity movement. He had seen the movement swell to more than nine million members in the heady days after the August 1980 Gdansk Shipyard strike – and, like the rest of the movement’s leadership, had been interned when General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law and banned Solidarity 16 months later.
身材瘦削、颇具绅士风度的马佐维耶茨基曾任团结工会运动领导者莱赫·瓦文萨的顾问。他曾亲眼目睹团结工会运动在1980年8月格但斯克船厂罢工后风头正劲的日子里膨胀到超过900万人——他也像其他运动领袖一样，在沃伊切赫·雅鲁泽尔斯基将军宣布戒严并于16个月后查禁团结工会的日子里遭到软禁。团结工会此后转向地下生存，打印讨论文件并组织集会。