Solidarity

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Solidarity
Image:Solidarnosc.png
Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity"
Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność"
Founded September, 1980
Members 1,185,000 (2006)[1]
Country Poland
Affiliation ITUC, ETUC, TUAC
Office location Gdańsk, Poland
Website www.solidarnosc.org.pl
(In English)

Solidarity (Polish: Solidarność (help·info); full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" — Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność") is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa. 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. 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 Wałęsa 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 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 has little political influence in modern Polish politics.


Contents

[edit] History

"High Noon, 4 June 1989"Solidarity Citizens' Committee election poster by Tomasz Sarnecki
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"High Noon, 4 June 1989"
Solidarity Citizens' Committee election poster by Tomasz Sarnecki
Main article: History of Solidarity

Solidarity began 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[2] to members of the anti-communist Left. Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members' activities.[3] [4] 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 Wałęsa 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 Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.

Gdańsk on 25th anniversary of Solidarity, summer 2005.
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Gdańsk on 25th anniversary of Solidarity, summer 2005.

[edit] 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 counterrevolutions in Central and Eastern Europe[2] 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.

[edit] Organization

Formed in 1981, the union's supreme powers were vested in a legislative body, the Convention of Delegates (Zjazd Delegatow). 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).[5]

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.

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[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ WHAT IS THE NSZZ SOLIDARNOSC ?. Solidarnosc.org. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
  2. ^ a b
  3. ^ (Feb 1994) Paul Wehr, Guy Burgess, Heidi Burgess: Justice Without Violence (ebook), Lynne Rienner Publishers, p 28. ISBN 1-55587-491-6. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
  4. ^ Cavanaugh-O'Keefe, John (Jan 2001). Emmanuel, Solidarity: God's Act, Our Response (ebook), Xlibris Corporation, p 68. ISBN 0-7388-3864-0. Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
  5. ^ (Polish) Solidarność NSZZ in WIEM Encyklopedia. Last accessed on 10 October 2006

[edit] External links

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[edit] Further reading

Cold War
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