On August 31, 1980, one of the strangest, but also important events in the history of Poland and the Cold War in general, took place in the shipyards of Gdansk: for the first time, a trade union independent of the communist state. was founded – and this with the consent of the state. How did Poland arrive at this paradox, which at the end of the decade led to the creation of the first non-communist government in an Eastern Bloc country?

From the 1970s, the first nuggets of non-communist organizations of workers, students, and intellectuals began to emerge in countries under Soviet control—evidence of a crisis that was slowly beginning to manifest itself in existing socialist regimes. In particular, in Poland, which, due to both national and religious characteristics, did not really recognize its belonging to the Soviet power bloc, after 1975 the leadership of the communist government, headed by the first secretary of the (communist) Polish United Workers’ Union, led the economy into recession . From the summer of 1976, the first strikes of workers began after the violence against workers in various factories. Thus, the first working committees were formed, which, with the support of the dissident intelligentsia, founded the Committee for the Protection of Workers (KOR), which was renamed the Committee for Social Self-Defence (KSS/KOR) the following year.

Strikes continued in the following years until July 1980, when the Gierek government, faced with an economic crisis, decided to raise prices without raising wages. In 1979, the Polish economy contracted by 2% for the first time since World War II. External debt reached about $18 billion in 1980. An unprecedented wave of strikes and factory occupations followed as the workers’ committees of the various regions of Poland began to coordinate their struggle.

Strike in Gdańsk: the rise of Lech Walesa’s star

As often happened in such situations, a random event became the spark that ignited further rapid events: at the shipyard. Lenin in Gdansk, the people’s activist Anna Valentinovich was fired, which caused a concerted reaction from the shipyard workers. On August 14, workers went on strike, led by electrician Lech Walesa, a former shipyard worker who had been laid off since 1976. The shipyard workers’ committee demanded the re-employment of Valentinovich and Walesa, as well as respect for the rights of the workers. In addition, they demanded the installation of a monument to the shipyard workers who died in the 1970 demonstration, as well as the legalization of independent trade unions.

The Polish government imposed censorship, and the state media reported little on “episodic labor unrest in Gdańsk”. As a precautionary measure, the authorities cut off all telephone connections between Gdansk and the rest of Poland. However, there was little the government could do to reverse the spread of dissident labor groups around the country. On August 16, delegations from other trade union strike committees arrived at the shipyard. Their representatives agreed with the striking shipyards to set up a joint strike committee to coordinate their struggle. The next day, the committee submitted a list of 21 demands to the shipyard, many of which went beyond purely labor issues, demanding new independent unions, the abolition of censorship, the establishment of the right to strike, more rights for the church, the release of political prisoners, and an improvement in the national system.
the health of the country.

On the 18th, a delegation from the KOR organization, which included the future Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, arrived in Gdansk to support the strikers. On the same day, the Stettino shipyard workers joined the strike, starting a wave of strikes in parallel across the country’s shipyards, closing ports and paralyzing the economy. With the help and support of the KOR, the workers of factories, mines and shipyards throughout Poland united: within a few days, more than 200 factories and enterprises became members of the strike committee, to which new workers’ committees were constantly put forward, which were established in different parts of the country.

Faced with much popular support for workers’ committees within the country, as well as international public opinion due to international media coverage of the strikes, the Polish government began to give in to strikers’ demands. In the following period, government commissions were sent to Gdańsk and Szczecin to discuss the workers’ demands, which eventually accepted many of them. On August 30 and September 3, representatives of the workers and the government signed an agreement in Gdańsk and Szczecin, which supported many of the strikers’ demands (the main concern of the workers was the creation of a trade union independent of the Communist Party and recognition of the legal right to strike). The agreement became known as the “August Agreement”, and although it dealt with trade union issues, it allowed for the first time in Poland to introduce democratic changes in the communist political structure, so much so that today it is considered the first major step in the abolition of the communist party’s monopoly of power.

The action of “Solidarity” causes tremors in power

Encouraged by the great success of the August strikes, the workers’ representatives established a nationwide trade union on 17 September, which they called “Solidarity”. The name was the idea of ​​the anti-establishment intellectual Karol Mondzelewski.

Its highest body was the assembly of representatives, and its executive body was the National Coordinating Committee, later renamed the National Committee. Solidarity had branches throughout Poland – especially in large cities, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Lodz, Krakow, Katowice and, of course, in Warsaw.

The great political significance of Solidarity’s success was almost immediately noticed at the highest level: in the same month, Gierek was replaced as first secretary of the Communist Party by Deputy Stanislav Kanya. In the months that followed, Solidarity’s growth would take off rapidly: an estimated year after the Gdańsk Agreement, nine million workers, intellectuals, and students joined Solidarity or its subsidiaries, such as the independent student union, the Agricultural Solidarity, and the independent trade union. This corresponds to almost 1/4 of the country’s population (and about 80% of the entire labor force). Throughout 1981, Solidarity staged strikes and other non-violent protests against the regime, whose cohesion and tolerance were gradually beginning to experience a crisis. The most striking example was a four-hour strike in March 1981 to protest the police beating of 27 trade unionists. About 12 million people participated, paralyzing almost the entire country. From the same summer, it will become clear to the regime that Solidarity can no longer be dealt with by conventional means…

Two more factors should be noted, not without the participation of which Solidarity was born and rapidly developed at these unprecedented rates. First, in October 1978, Bishop Karol Boytyla of Krakow was elected Pope under the name of John Paul II—a fact alone that highlighted the sharp contrast between the Catholic Church and Soviet communism, a contrast that underlay Polish social and political culture. The Pope gave strong support to Polish anti-regimes when he made his first pilgrimage to Poland a year later, drawing hundreds of thousands of believers, denouncing the regime’s violence, and supporting freedom, human and religious rights for Poles with his aversion to “be not afraid” for the public. Walesa himself emphasized that the Pope’s visit to Poland was an important factor in the creation of Solidarity.

Finally, US support for Solidarity should not be overlooked: in the midst of the escalating Cold War that followed the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the emergence of a powerful anti-establishment movement in Poland was another important factor. an opportunity for the Americans to undermine the Soviet bloc. In addition to the aforementioned decisive promotion of the demands of Solidarity by the Western media, the Americans will undertake – especially after the election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency – a whole campaign of material and moral strengthening of Solidarity and, in general, Polish anti-regimes. The implications of this support will be of paramount importance for the development and ending of the Cold War in Europe.

Mr. Ioannis Tsorgis is a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. His book “Greek Democracy and the Junta” was published.
according to Pedio publications.