- Polish:
- Solidarność
- Officially:
- Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” or
- Polish:
- Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy “Solidarność”
- Date:
- September 22, 1980 - c. 1990
Solidarity
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What was Solidarity in Poland?
Solidarity was a Polish trade union that emerged in the early 1980s as the Soviet bloc's first independent labor union. Founded in September 1980, it faced suppression by the Polish government in December 1981 before reemerging in 1989. Solidarity played a pivotal role as the first opposition movement to participate in free elections within a Soviet-bloc nation since the 1940s.
Under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa, Solidarity's activism prompted the Polish government to recognize the organization. This recognition led to the union's participation in elections and the subsequent formation of a coalition government.
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Who started the Solidarity movement?
The Solidarity movement, or Solidarność, was not started by a single person but emerged from collective efforts. In 1980, strikes protesting rising food prices spurred resistance, particularly in Gdańsk, where Lech Wałęsa led workers at the Lenin Shipyards. An Interfactory Strike Committee formed, uniting various enterprises and presenting demands to the Polish government based on the Charter of Workers’ Rights.
Solidarity was formally founded on September 22, 1980, uniting 36 regional trade unions, with Lech Wałęsa as chairman. The Workers’ Defense Committee (KOR), founded in 1976 by dissident intellectuals, also played a role, with its activists becoming members of the union. By 1981, Solidarity represented most of Poland's workforce.
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What did Solidarity want to change in Poland?
Solidarity, the Polish trade union, aimed to change several aspects of Polish society during the 1980s. They sought economic reforms, free elections, and the inclusion of trade unions in high-level decision-making.
The organization also demanded greater freedom of religious and political expression, as well as the right to strike. These demands challenged the communist government, which led to the imposition of martial law in 1981 in an attempt to crush the Solidarity movement. Ultimately, Solidarity's efforts contributed to the collapse of communism in Poland and the Eastern Bloc.
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How did the Polish government react to Solidarity?
Initially, the Polish government, led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, confronted the increasingly strong and demanding Solidarity with controlled strikes. Amid severe pressure from the Soviet Union to suppress Solidarity, Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland on December 13, 1981, aiming to crush the movement. Solidarity was declared illegal, its leaders were arrested, and the union was formally dissolved by the Sejm (Parliament) on October 8, 1982; however, it continued as an underground organization. In April 1989, the government agreed to legalize Solidarity and allow it to participate in free elections.
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Why was Solidarity important for other countries under communist rule?
Solidarity, the Polish trade union, was the first independent labor union in a Soviet bloc country. Founded in 1980, it faced suppression but re-emerged in 1989, leading to Poland's first free elections since the 1940s and the formation of a coalition government.
Solidarity inspired similar movements in other Soviet-bloc countries by demonstrating a working-class revolution against a socialist state. Its success in pushing for change peacefully influenced Pope John Paul II's approach and contributed to Mikhail Gorbachev's "new thinking," which eventually led to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
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What role did Solidarity play in ending communism in Poland?
Solidarity, Poland's first independent labor union in a Soviet bloc country, played a crucial role in ending communism in Poland. Founded in 1980, it quickly gained support, representing most of Poland's workforce.
Throughout 1981, Solidarity challenged the government, demanding economic reforms, free elections, and trade union involvement in decision-making. Although suppressed by martial law in December 1981, Solidarity continued as an underground organization.
A new wave of strikes in 1988 led to the government recognizing Solidarity and allowing it to participate in free elections. In June 1989, Solidarity won a sweeping victory, leading to a coalition government and the first noncommunist premier since the late 1940s. Lech Wałęsa, a leader of Solidarity, became Poland's first popularly elected president in 1990.
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Solidarity, Polish trade union that in the early 1980s became the first independent labour union in a country belonging to the Soviet bloc. Solidarity was founded in September 1980, was forcibly suppressed by the Polish government in December 1981, and reemerged in 1989 to become the first opposition movement to participate in free elections in a Soviet-bloc nation since the 1940s. Solidarity subsequently formed a coalition government with Poland’s United Workers’ Party (PUWP), after which its leaders dominated the national government.
The origin of Solidarity traces back to 1976, when a Workers’ Defense Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników; KOR) was founded by a group of dissident intellectuals after several thousand striking workers had been attacked and jailed by authorities in various cities. The KOR supported families of imprisoned workers, offered legal and medical aid, and disseminated news through an underground network. In 1979 it published a Charter of Workers’ Rights.
During a growing wave of new strikes in 1980 protesting rising food prices, Gdańsk became a hotbed of resistance to government decrees. Some 17,000 workers at the Lenin Shipyards there staged a strike and barricaded themselves within the plant under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa, an electrician by trade. In mid-August 1980 an Interfactory Strike Committee was established in Gdańsk to coordinate rapidly spreading strikes there and elsewhere; within a week it presented the Polish government with a list of demands that were based largely on KOR’s Charter of Workers’ Rights. On August 31, accords reached between the government and the Gdańsk strikers sanctioned free and independent unions with the right to strike, together with greater freedom of religious and political expression.
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Solidarity formally was founded on September 22, 1980, when delegates of 36 regional trade unions met in Gdańsk and united under the name Solidarność. The KOR subsequently disbanded, its activists becoming members of the union, and Wałęsa was elected chairman of Solidarity. A separate agricultural union composed of private farmers, named Rural Solidarity (Wiejska Solidarność), was founded in Warsaw on December 14, 1980. By early 1981 Solidarity had a membership of about 10 million people and represented most of the work force of Poland.
Throughout 1981 the government (led by General Wojciech Jaruzelski) was confronted by an ever stronger and more demanding Solidarity, which inflicted a series of controlled strikes to back up its appeals for economic reforms, for free elections, and for the involvement of trade unions in decision making at the highest levels. Solidarity’s positions hardened as the moderate Wałęsa came to be pressured by more militant unionists. Jaruzelski’s government, meanwhile, was subjected to severe pressure from the Soviet Union to suppress Solidarity.
On December 13, 1981, Jaruzelski imposed martial law in Poland in a bid to crush the Solidarity movement. Solidarity was declared illegal, and its leaders were arrested. The union was formally dissolved by the Sejm (Parliament) on October 8, 1982, but it nevertheless continued as an underground organization.
In 1988 a new wave of strikes and labour unrest spread across Poland, and prominent among the strikers’ demands was government recognition of Solidarity. In April 1989 the government agreed to legalize Solidarity and allow it to participate in free elections to a bicameral Polish parliament. In the elections, held in June of that year, candidates endorsed by Solidarity won 99 of 100 seats in the newly formed Senate (upper house) and all 161 seats (of 460 total) that opposition candidates were entitled to contest in the Sejm (lower house). In August Solidarity agreed to form a coalition government with the PUWP, and a longtime Solidarity adviser, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, on August 24 became the first noncommunist premier to govern Poland since the late 1940s. In December 1990 Wałęsa was elected president of Poland after splitting with Mazowiecki in a dispute over the pace of Poland’s conversion to a market economy. The split between Wałęsa and Mazowiecki prevented the formation of a Solidarity-backed coalition to govern the country in the wake of the PUWP’s collapse, and the union’s direct role in Poland’s new parliamentary scene dwindled as many new political parties emerged in the early 1990s.
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