Solidarity Video Showcase

Solidarity (Solidarnosc) - full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" — Niezalezny Samorzadny Zwiazek Zawodowy "Solidarnosc") is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the then Lenin Shipyards, and originally led by Lech Walesa.

It 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 with the martial law of 1981 and several years of repressions, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union.

The Roundtable Talks between the weakened 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 Walesa was elected President of Poland. Since then it 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 was founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) won the Polish parliamentary election, 1997, but lost the following Polish parliamentary election, 2001.

Currently, Solidarity, or the remnants of it, has little political influence in modern Polish politics.

Solidarity began in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, where Lech Walesa and others formed a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church to members of the anti-communist Left. Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members' activities.

The government attempted to destroy the union with the martial law of 1981 and several years of repressions, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union. In Poland, the Roundtable Talks between the weakened 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 Walesa was elected president. 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 a pokedude Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.

Read the Wikipedia article about Solidarity (Solidarnosc)...

Photo author: Solidarnosc from flickr.com