Solidarity Emerges

Solidarity Emerges

Poland 1980

Synopsis

With major uprisings in 1956, 1968, 1970, and 1976 and the presence of a socially conscious Roman Catholic Church, Poland was the most restive of the Soviet satellites during the cold war. Faced with a drastically declining standard of living and the continued repression of civil liberties in the late 1970s, the country once again tipped toward unrest, even as the nation seemed united in pride over the election of Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II on 16 October 1978. A year after the Pope's June 1979 visit to Poland, a strike wave erupted to protest the government's announcement of new price hikes. By the end of July 1980, 150 factories had shut down; the following month, the major shipyards along the Baltic Coast in Gdansk and Gdynia were occupied by strikers as well. In addition to improved wages and benefits, the strikers' demands included an end to censorship in the press and government interference in trade unions. A new, industry-wide union, Solidarity, emerged as the national coordinator of the strike, and its leader, Lech Walesa, as the primary voice of the opposition. By the end of the year Solidarity claimed a membership of 10 million Poles from all walks of life.

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