---
title: 'Banned union''s banners on the fence at Jasna Góra, Częstochowa: "Zło dobrem zwyciężaj"'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/poland-solidarity-banners-jasna-gora-1985/
description: Hand-painted white banners hang along an iron fence beside a brick wall at the Jasna Góra monastery, with the Solidarity lettering and the names of…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Banned union's banners on the fence at Jasna Góra, Częstochowa: "Zło dobrem zwyciężaj"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/poland-solidarity-banners-jasna-gora-1985.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/poland-solidarity-banners-jasna-gora-1985.jpg)

# Banned union's banners on the fence at Jasna Góra, Częstochowa: "Zło dobrem zwyciężaj"

Hand-painted white banners hang along an iron fence beside a brick wall at the Jasna Góra monastery, with the Solidarity lettering and the names of workplaces and cities ('Huta Ostrowiec', 'Wrocław') beside Church phrases: 'Zło dobrem zwyciężaj' (Overcome evil with good) and 'Serc[e] z Janem Pawłem II'. The tell for transfer is the pairing: the banned union's name and logo are hung next to the Pope's name and a scriptural motto at a national shrine, so the shrine's standing is lent to the union's cause.

## Text on the object

Original (Polish) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
[Large banner, centre-left:] SOLIDARNOŚĆ / HUTA OSTROWIEC
[Banner below it:] SOLIDARNI W TRZEŹWOŚCI
[Banner, lower left, small red caption above the logo:] WROCŁAWSKA / SOLIDARNOŚĆ / [Solidarity logo] SERC Z JANEM PAWŁEM II
[Banner, centre top:] ZŁO DOBREM ZWYCIĘŻAJ
[Banner, right of centre:] SOLIDARNOŚĆ / WROCŁAW
[Tall banner, right, with small portrait:] [CHCEMY?] WOLNOŚCI, PRAWDY I SOLIDARNOŚCI
[Banner, centre, partly folded:] [illegible] daj pomóc naszym dniom a sercom SOLIDARNOŚĆ
[Small banner, upper centre, on a Polish flag:] [illegible] SOLIDARNOŚĆ
[Banners at left edge and right, cut off or too small:] [illegible]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
[Large banner:] SOLIDARITY / HUTA OSTROWIEC (steelworks)
[Banner below it:] SOLIDARY IN SOBRIETY
[Banner, lower left:] WROCŁAW / SOLIDARITY / [logo] HEART WITH JOHN PAUL II (the first word is cut off and may be 'SERCE')
[Banner, centre top:] OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD
[Banner, right of centre:] SOLIDARITY / WROCŁAW
[Tall banner with portrait:] [We want?] FREEDOM, TRUTH AND SOLIDARITY
[Banner, centre:] [illegible] give help to our days and to our hearts Solidarity
[Small banner on flag:] [illegible] SOLIDARITY
[Others:] [illegible]
```

Read from enlarged crops of the committed image. Several banners are partly out of frame, folded, hidden behind people or too small to read; only legible parts are given and unclear words are bracketed with a question mark. The 'Solidarność' lettering uses the union's logo style (the final letter's flag-like stroke is not transcribed).

[← Bilingual banner "For anti-imperialist solidarity, peace and friendship" on a Moscow house of culture, XII World Festival of Youth and Students](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/moscow-vit-1985-hungarian-club-antiimperialist-banner/) ["Frontul Democrației și Unității Socialiste - cel mai larg organism politic": Romanian wall chart →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/romanian-front-of-democracy-and-socialist-unity-1985/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)