Solidarity

Solidarity was a Polish trade union and social movement founded in 1980. It organized workers and helped bring an end to communist rule in Poland.

Gdańsk Shipyard: A shipyard on Poland’s Baltic coast, known as the birthplace of Solidarity. Workers’ strikes here in August 1980 launched the negotiations that established Solidarity.
Interfactory Strike Committee: A coordinating body of striking workers established in Gdańsk in August 1980. It united separate workplace demands and negotiated the Gdańsk Agreement.
Jacek Kuroń: A Polish dissident and politician who helped found the Workers’ Defense Committee. His opposition networks connected worker activism with intellectual support before Solidarity formed.
Martial law in Poland: A period of military rule imposed by Poland’s communist government from December 1981 to July 1983. The government used martial law to arrest Solidarity leaders and suppress the union.
Polish United Workers’ Party: The communist party that governed the People’s Republic of Poland. Solidarity’s independence directly challenged the party’s claim to represent workers.
August 1980 strikes: A wave of Polish labor strikes that forced the government to negotiate with workers. The strikes produced the agreements that legalized independent trade unions.
Gdańsk Agreement: An agreement signed on 31 August 1980 between striking workers and Poland’s communist government. It secured the right to form independent unions and enabled Solidarity’s legal existence.
Tadeusz Mazowiecki: A Polish journalist and politician who became Poland’s first non-communist prime minister after the Second World War. He advised Solidarity and led the government formed after the movement’s electoral breakthrough.
Polish Round Table Agreement: The 1989 agreement that introduced political reforms and partially free elections in Poland. It formalized the transition negotiated by Solidarity and the communist authorities.
Central Council of Trade Unions: The state-controlled federation of trade unions in communist Poland. Unlike this official federation, Solidarity organized workers independently of the government.

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