Rise of Solidarity in Poland
- Date
- August–September 1980 (movement to 1989)
- Category
- Social & demographic
- Region
- Eastern Europe (Poland)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
In August 1980, strikes over food-price increases swept Poland, centred on the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, where electrician Lech Wałęsa emerged as a leader.
The Gdańsk Agreement permitted the formation of Solidarność (Solidarity), founded on 17 September 1980 — the first independent, self-governing trade union in the Soviet bloc, which rapidly grew to roughly 10 million members. The communist government imposed martial law on 13 December 1981, banning the union and detaining its leaders, but Solidarity persisted underground. As the Soviet bloc weakened in the late 1980s, Round Table negotiations (February–April 1989) produced partly free elections on 4 June 1989, in which Solidarity-backed candidates won overwhelmingly. This led to the first non-communist-led government in the bloc, demonstrating that communist rule could be challenged from within and helping ignite the wider Revolutions of 1989.
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Empires active in August–September 1980 (movement to 1989)
- Soviet Union1922 CE – 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE – 1999 CE
- Yugoslavia1918 CE – 1992 CE
Related social & demographic events
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- The Great Leap Forward and the Great Chinese Famine1958–1962
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- The Ethiopian Famine Shocks the World1983–1985
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- Soweto Uprising Galvanises Anti-Apartheid Struggle1976
Further reading
The wider story
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