The significance of "Solidarity"

• In July 1980, Poland met an economic crisis
• The prices of goods rose while wages were controlled and stayed the same
• Those with lower wealth faced poverty
• This led to several strikes and was seen to be part of the fall of Soviet influence

• In 14 August 1980, workers protested about the rising prices and the firing of workers that complained about their conditions in Lenin Shipyard, Gdansk, and demanded rights to form trade unions (an organisation of workers to defend and improve their rights)
• The strike was led by an electrician named Lech Walesa
• The strike lasted one week, and ended when the Communist Party and committee organising the strikes began negotiating
• The Communist Party failed to separate strike efforts, even after cutting phone lines and censoring the news and they continued to be supported across the country
• In the negotiations, the workers prepared 21 demands. Here were some of the most important ones

Some of the demands

• Acceptance of free trade unions free from state and enterprise control
• Guarantee of the right to go on strike and of their security
• Public access of media containing information on the Inter-Factory Strike Committee and for its demands to be published
• Increasing the base pay of all workers by 2,000 zlotyls a month to compensate for the increased prices
• A sufficient food supply within the market in the country. Exports were only to be for extra supply
• For the most qualified to be selected for management, and remove biases of party membership
• Saturday as a rest day

• On 31 August 1980, some of the demands were met, most importantly one that allowed the establishment of free trade unions
• Soliditarity, a free trade union that spread across the country, was set up after two weeks
• On 13 December 1981, Soliditarity was suspended as the country was under a declared "state of war"

Even though protests in other Eastern European countries were failures, the Polish protests led to change. This was because...

• The protests were well organised, consisting of a committee, spokespeople, and a newspaper
• The demands were of nationwide concern, which allowed the protests to be supported throughout the entire nation
• There was minimum violence so that punishments from the government would be less harsh
• The protests were supported by many. 10 million people (including around 80% of the workforce) joined the trade union

After the people had calmed with less protests, the government started to regain control.

• Wojech Jaruzelski, recently elected as Prime Minister, invited Walesa, the leader of the strikes, to discuss about his new position
• However, this was a trick, and Jaruzelski did not want to negotiate
• Jaruzelski claimed to have recordings that Solidarity was planning to take over
• Jaruzelski banned the Solidarity, arresting most leaders including Walsea
• It seemed like reform had ended

• In 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the new leader of the USSR
• Eastern countries were behind in development and had falling economies
• Gorbachev made reforms to deal with this, including the release of the political prisoners that were part of Solidarity
• These reforms failed to revive Polish economy
• By 1988, the economy reached its lowest point, causing strikes and increasing food prices (by 40%)
• The government negotiated with Soldarity and Walesa to end the strikes
• On 17 April 1989, Solidarity was no longer illegal
• The new Prime Minister was a member of Solidarity, Tadeusz Mazoweiki, because the candidate from the Communist Party did not have enough support. He was the first non-communist Prime Minister in Eastern Europe in the last 40 years
• A Solidarity-led government was set up