Solidarity Solidarity
Lech Walesa is hoisted through the Lenin Shipyard following the signing of the August Accords, August 31, 1980. Stanisław Składanowski / ECS Collection
The word ‘Solidarity,’ or Solidarność as it is in Polish, is synonymous with the city of Gdańsk. Although Poland’s first free labour union was born out of the 1980 Lenin Shipyard strikes in Gdańsk, Solidarność would bloom into a nationwide social movement. Truth be told there are other cities in Poland which feel that Gdańsk has unfairly become symbolic of a movement that was bravely coordinated by Poles across the country. Nonetheless, for most foreign visitors, Solidarity is strongly associated with Gdańsk, its shipyards and the leader of the protests - Lech Wałęsa. The story of Solidarity is a more complicated one than most foreign visitors realise. Although the movement and the trade union were officially christened in 1980, their roots can be traced back some ten years earlier. Protesting against plunging living standards, workers at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdańsk and other yards in Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin took to the streets, with the army promptly called in to intervene. Bloody clashes led to the deaths of 44 people, and ultimately forced communist leader Władysław Gomułka out of power. Replaced by Edward Gierek, his half-mad economic policies served to create an illusion of prosperity, as well as generating a flush of jobs in Gdańsk’s Nowy Port area. But the memory of 1970 did not fade and Gdańsk remained a ticking timebomb for the authorities. As the ‘70s drew to a close, tensions started to rise again, with living standards falling and the economy in huge debt built on massive foreign loans. On August 7, 1980 the dismissal of female crane operator, Anna Walentynowicz at Gdańsk’s Lenin Shipyards provided 36
the spark for workers who were already prepared to go on strike due to disillusionment with price increases and the falling value of their salaries. Fired from the shipyard in 1976 for anti-government activities, labour activist Lech Wałęsa saw that momentum for a strike was growing quickly, and decided to famously scale the wall of the Lenin Shipyard to take control. A strike was called and the workers’ demands were met on August 16. With many strikers subsequently leaving the yard, Walentynowicz and another woman, Alina Pienkowska, are credited with convincing many - including Wałęsa - to stay on and turn the strike into more than just a demand for better working conditions. The leaders then steered their colleagues away from mere wage demands towards the idea of creating a trade union movement to represent the workers and fight injustice. Having learned from the mistakes of 1970, the workers did not confront the authorities, but instead locked themselves inside the shipyards. Three days later leaders representing workers from over 150 industrial plants, as well as members from across the social spectrum in Poland, met in the shipyards to hammer out 21 demands, including the legalisation of independent trade unions. Days of tension followed, with tanks and armed units stationed menacingly outside the gates of the shipyards. On August 31 the government backed down, agreeing to meet the 21 demands - which became known as the August Accords - thereby marking the first peaceful victory over communism. The agreement was famously signed in the shipyards by Lech Wałęsa using a large souvenir Pope John Paul II pen.
