Solidarity (Polish trade union)

"Solidarność" redirects here. For other uses, see Solidarność (disambiguation).

Solidarity
Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity"
Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy „Solidarność”
Founded31 August 1980 (1980-08-31) (recognised)
17 September 1980 (1st Congress)[1]
10 November 1980 (registered)
TypeLabour movement
HeadquartersGdańsk, Poland
Location
  • Poland
Members
Almost 10 million at the end of the first year; over 400,000 in 2011[2] (680,000 in 2010)[3]
Key people
Anna Walentynowicz, Lech Wałęsa
AffiliationsITUC, ETUC, TUAC
WebsiteSolidarnosc.org.pl (in English)

Solidarity (Polish: „Solidarność”, pronounced [sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ] ⓘ), full name Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity"[4] (Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy „Solidarność” [ɲɛzaˈlɛʐnɨ samɔˈʐɔndnɨ ˈzvjɔ̃zɛɡ zavɔˈdɔvɨ sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ], abbreviated NSZZ „Solidarność”), is a Polish trade union founded in August 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.[1] Subsequently, it was the first independent trade union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state.[5]

The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981,[2][3] representing one-third of the country's working-age population.[6] In 1983 Solidarity's leader Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the union is widely recognized as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.

In the 1980s, Solidarity was a broad anti-authoritarian social movement, using methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers' rights and social change.[7] The Government attempted in the early 1980s to destroy the union through the imposition of martial law in Poland and the use of political repression.

Operating underground, with substantial financial support from the Vatican and the United States,[8] the union survived and by the later 1980s had entered into negotiations with the government.

The 1989 round table talks between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition produced an agreement for the 1989 legislative elections, the country's first pluralistic election since 1947. By the end of August, a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed, and in December 1990 Wałęsa was elected President of Poland.

Following Poland's transition to liberal capitalism in the 1990s and the extensive privatization of state assets, Solidarity's membership declined substantially. By 2010, 30 years after its founding, the union had lost more than 90% of its original membership.

  1. ^ a b Guardian newspaper report Retrieved 22 June 2009
  2. ^ a b (in Polish) 30 lat po Sierpniu'80: "Solidarność zakładnikiem własnej historii" Archived 29 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved on 7 June 2011
  3. ^ a b (in Polish) Duda za Śniadka? by Maciej Sandecki and Marek Wąs, Gazeta Wyborcza of 24 August 2010
  4. ^ Solidarity at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  5. ^ Stanley, John (14 April 2015). "Sex and Solidarity, 1980–1990". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 52 (1–2): 131–151. doi:10.1080/00085006.2010.11092641. JSTOR 40871520. S2CID 155049801.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Official was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Aleksander Smolar, "'Self-limiting Revolution': Poland 1970–89", in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present, Oxford University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-955201-6, pp. 127–43.
  8. ^ Tony Judt (2005). Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. The Penguin Press. p. 589.