Solidarity





Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity"


Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność"


Founded

September 1980


Members

1,185,000 (2006)


Country

Poland


Affiliation

ITUC, ETUC, TUAC


Key people

Janusz Śniadek, Lech Wałęsa


Office location

Gdańsk, Poland


Website

www.solidarnosc.org.pl
(In English)


Solidarity (Solidarność, IPA: [sɔli'darnɔɕt͡ɕ]; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity," Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność," IPA: [ɲeza'lɛʐnɨ samɔ'ʐɔndnɨ 'zvjɔ̃zɛk zavɔ'dɔvɨ sɔli'darnɔɕt͡ɕ]) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa.

Contents

1 History
2 Catholic social teaching
3 Organization
4 Legacy

4.1 Influence abroad


5 Chairmen
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
9 Credits



Solidarity was the first non-communist trade union in a Communist country. In the 1980s, it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union. The Roundtable Talks between the government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August, a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Lech Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. The success of Solidarity played a significant role in the collapse of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe and the Revolutions of 1989. Since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 it has become a more traditional trade union.

History
 1980 strike at Vladimir Lenin Shipyard, Gdańsk, in August 1980, birthplace of Solidarity.
Main article: History of Solidarity
Solidarity was founded in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, where Lech Wałęsa and others formed a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church[1] to members of the anti-communist Left. Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members' activities.[2]
In September 1981, Solidarity's first national congress elected Lech Wałęsa as a president and adopted a republican program, the "Self-governing Republic."[3] The government attempted to destroy the union with the martial law of 1981 and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union.
The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the Soviet Union ruled (in practice) by a one-party Communist regime, but the whole of the Eastern bloc. It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the communist Polish United Workers' Party, which had violently ended a 1970 protest with machine gun fire (killing dozens and injuring over 1,000), and the broader Soviet communist regime in the Eastern Bloc, which had quelled both the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring with Soviet-led invasions.
Solidarity's influence led to the intensification and spread of anti-communist ideals and movements throughout the countries of the Eastern Bloc, weakening their communist governments.
In Poland, the Roundtable Talks between the government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected Prime Minister. In December 1990, Wałęsa was elected president. This was soon followed by the dismantling of the People's Republic of Poland, and the creation of the non-communist, democratic Third Polish Republic. These limited elections, where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory, sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist counterrevolutions in Central and Eastern Europe. Solidarity's example was, in various ways, repeated by opposition groups throughout the Eastern Bloc, eventually leading to the Eastern Bloc's effectual dismantling, and contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s.
Since 1989, Solidarity has become a more traditional trade union, and had relatively little impact on the political scene of Poland in the early 1990s. A political arm founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) won the parliamentary election in 1997, but lost the following 2001 election. Currently Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.

Catholic social teaching
In Solicitudo Rei Socialis, a major document of Catholic Social Teaching, Pope John Paul II identifies the concept of solidarity with the poor and marginalized as a constitutive element of the Gospel and human participation in the common good. The Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, was a very powerful supporter of the union and was greatly responsible for its success. In addition, the priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, who regularly gave sermons to the striking workers was eventually killed by the Communist regime for his association with Solidarity.

Organization
Formed in 1981, the union's supreme powers were vested in a legislative body, the Convention of Delegates (Zjazd Delegatów). The executive branch was the National Coordinating Commission (Krajowa Komisja Porozumiewawcza), later renamed the National Commission (Komisja Krajowa). The Union had a regional structure, comprising 38 regions (region) and two districts (okręg). During the communist era, the 38 regional delegates were arrested and jailed when martial law came into effect in 1983 under General Jaruzelski. After a one-year prison term the high-ranking members of the union were offered one way trips to any country accepting them (Canada, United States, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland).
Solidarity was organized as an industrial union, or more specifically according to the One Big Union principle, along the lines of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Spanish Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (workers in every trade were organized by region, rather than by craft).
Currently, Solidarity has more than 1.1 million members. National Commission of Independent Self-Governing Trade Union is located in Gdańsk and is composed of Delegates from Regional General Congresses.

Legacy
Solidarity played a major role in the collapse of Communism, leading first to the Revolutions of 1989 in Eastern Europe, and then later to Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The fall of the Communist regime marked a new chapter in the history of Poland as well as in the history of Solidarity. Having defeated the communist government, Solidarity found itself in a role it was much less prepared for, that of a ruling political party. Soon after, Solidarity's popularity began eroding. Conflicts between various factions inside Solidarity intensified. Wałęsa was elected the chairman of Solidarity, but his support eroded. In December, Wałęsa was elected president, resigning from his post in Solidarity and becoming the first President of Poland elected by popular vote.

Influence abroad
The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the USSR ruled, in practice, by a one-party Communist regime, but the whole of the Eastern bloc. It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the communist Polish United Workers' Party, which had bloodily ended a 1970 protest with machine gun fire (killing dozens and injuring over 1,000), and the broader Soviet communist regime in the Eastern Bloc, which had quelled both the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring with Soviet-led invasions.
Solidarity's influence led to the intensification and spread of anti-communist ideals and movements throughout the countries of the Eastern Bloc, weakening their communist governments. The 1989 elections in Poland where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe[1] known as the Revolutions of 1989 (Jesień Ludów). Solidarity's example was in various ways repeated by opposition groups throughout the Eastern Bloc, eventually leading to the Eastern Bloc's effectual dismantling, and contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s.
In late 2008, several democratic opposition groups in the Russian Federation formed a Solidarity movement.

Chairmen
Lech Wałęsa 1980-1990
Marian Krzaklewski 1991-2002
Janusz Śniadek 2002-
Notes

↑ 1.0 1.1 Manfred B. Steger, Judging Nonviolence: The Dispute Between Realists and Idealists (Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0415933978), 114.

↑ Paul Wehr, Guy Burgess, and Heidi Burgess (eds.), Justice Without Violence (Lynne Rienner, 1993, ISBN 1555874916), 28.

↑ Piotr Gliński, The Self-governing Republic in the Third Republic, “Polish Sociological Review,” 2006 (1).


ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Eringer, Robert. 1982. Strike for Freedom: The Story of Lech Walesa and Polish Solidarity. Dodd Mead. ISBN 0396080650.
Garton Ash, Timothy 2002. The Polish Revolution: Solidarity. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300095686.
Kaminski, Marek M. 2004. Games Prisoners Play. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691117217.
Kenney, Patrick. 2003. A Carnival of Revolution: Central Europe 1989. Princeton University Press. ISBN 069111627X.
Kenney, Patrick. 2006. The Burdens of Freedom. Zed Books Ltd.. ISBN 1842776622.
Kubik, Jan. 1994. The Power of Symbols Against the Symbols of Power: The Rise of Solidarity and the Fall of State Socialism in Poland. The Pennsylvania State University. ISBN 0271010843.
Osa, Maryjane. 2003. Solidarity and Contention: Networks of Polish Opposition. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 0816638748.
Ost, David. 2005. The Defeat Of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe (ebook). Cornell University Press. ISBN 0801443180.
Penn, Shana. 2005. Solidarity's Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472113852.
Perdue, William D. 1995. Paradox of Change: The Rise and Fall of Solidarity in the New Poland. Praeger/Greenwood. ISBN 0275952959.
Staniszkis, Jadwiga. 1984. Poland's Self-Limiting Revolution. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691094038.
Weigel, George. 1992. The Final Revolution: The Resistance Church and the Collapse of Communism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195166647.
External links
All links retrieved November 16, 2019.

Advice for East German propagandists on how to deal with the Solidarity movement
The Birth of Solidarity BBC.
Solidarity, Freedom and Economical Crisis in Poland, 1980-81
The rise of Solidarność – Colin Barker, International Socialism, Issue: 108


The Cold WarParticipants NATO · Warsaw Pact · Non-Aligned Movement · People's Republic of China1940sYalta Conference · Potsdam Conference · Gouzenko Affair · Iran crisis · Chinese Civil War · Greek Civil War · Restatement of Policy on Germany · Truman Doctrine · Marshall Plan · Communist takeover in Czechoslovakia · Tito-Stalin split · Berlin Blockade1950sKorean War · First Indochina War · Iranian Coup · Guatemalan Coup · Uprising of 1953 in East Germany · First Taiwan Strait Crisis · Poznań 1956 protests · Hungarian Revolution of 1956 · Suez Crisis · Sputnik crisis · Second Taiwan Strait Crisis · Cuban Revolution1960sCongo Crisis · Sino-Soviet split · U-2 Crisis of 1960 · Bay of Pigs Invasion · Cuban Missile Crisis · Berlin Wall · Vietnam War · 1964 Brazilian coup d'état ·U.S. Invasion of Dominican Republic · South African Border War · Overthrow of Sukarno · Bangkok Declaration · Laotian Civil War · Greek military junta of 1967-1974 · Prague Spring · Détente · Sino-Soviet border conflict1970sNuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty · Cambodian Civil War · Ping Pong Diplomacy · Four Power Agreement on Berlin · 1972 Nixon visit to China · Chilean coup of 1973 · Yom Kippur War · Strategic Arms Limitation Talks · Angolan Civil War · Mozambican Civil War · Ogaden War · Sino-Vietnamese War · Iranian Revolution1980sSoviet war in Afghanistan ·Polish Solidarity Movement · Central American Crisis · Able Archer 83 · Strategic Defense Initiative · Invasion of Grenada · Fall of the Berlin Wall · Revolutions of 19891990sDissolution of the USSRSee alsoBricker Amendment · Glasnost · Iron Curtain · McCarthyism · Operation Condor · Operation Gladio · Perestroika · Soviet espionage in USEstablishmentsCentral Intelligence Agency · Comecon · European Community · KGB · StasiRacesArms race · Nuclear arms race · Space RaceIdeologiesCapitalism · Communism · Stalinism · MaoismForeign policyBrezhnev Doctrine · Ulbricht Doctrine · Carter Doctrine · Containment · Domino Theory · Eisenhower Doctrine · Johnson Doctrine · Kennedy Doctrine · Nixon Doctrine · Ostpolitik · Peaceful coexistence · Reagan Doctrine · Rollback · Truman Doctrine · Marshall Plan

Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article
in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

Solidarity  history
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

History of "Solidarity"
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.