Solidarity or Solidarność was the most important factor in the decomposition of the Soviet Union. Polish workers and intellectuals began fighting for their freedom in attacking the very foundation of the communist system. The refusal to submit to Soviet rule on every level shaked the very foundation of the Soviet state.
“Solidarity has the right to speak out on behalf of society; you are the litmus test of a free, sovereign and independent Poland,” President Andrzej Duda said in Gdansk on the anniversary of the signing of the so-called August Agreements.
The Polish president attended a ceremonial meeting of the Board of the Gdansk Region of the Solidarity Trade Union to mark the 44th anniversary of the signing of the August Agreements and the founding of the union.
44 years ago, on August 31, 1980, at 5 p.m. in the Gdansk Shipyard, an agreement was signed between the Polish Government Commission and the Inter-Union Strike Committee, representing more than 700 factories and state entities from all over Poland.
The government delegation agreed, among other things, to the establishment of new, independent, self-governing trade unions, the right to strike, the construction of a memorial to the victims of December 1970 strikes pacification.
Another clause was the commitment to broadcast Sunday Catholic mass on Polish Radio and significant limits in censporship. The signing ceremony was broadcast by state TV.
The agreement, which was signed by “Solidarity” chairman Lech Walesa and Deputy Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Jagielski, consequently led to the establishment of the Solidarity Trade Union, the first legal trade union organization in communist countries that was independent of the authorities.
The establishment of a free trade union was a serious blow to the communist state, because it started to operate in the most sensitive sphere of workers and their rights. The need for the existence of “Solidarność” showed that the system was bakcrupt in providing the most essential needs of every human that was based on their dignity.
“Solidarity” was later prohibited and pacified by the communist authorities during the martial law of 1981. Most prominent activists of the trade union were arrested and face brutal repression.
In 1989 the leaders of “Solidarność” agreed to the talks with representatives of the communist party and military in order to force democratic change in Poland.
The final agreement of the so-called Round Table talks led to a partially free elections of 1989 that proved the complete bankruptcy of the Polish communist party. In the completely free elections to the Polish senate, the representatives of “Solidarity” won all available seats.
On June 4, 1989, the first round of elections to the Sejm and Senate was held. In the elections to the Senate, the candidates of the Civic Committee won 92 seats, the “coalition party” (communist) was left with none. In the elections to the Sejm “Solidarity” won 160 out of 161 possible seats.
ilk weeks later, the changes that led to the collapse of the communist systems began in the countries of Central Europe. The elections of June 4, 1989 are considered the symbolic beginning of the so-called Autumn of Nations, that led to the disbanding of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Source: Dzieje.pl, PAP
Tomasz Modrzejewski
