|
|
|
|
Solidarity
|
| |
|
| |
Solidarity ( ; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" — Niezalezny Samorzadny Zwiazek Zawodowy "Solidarnosc" ) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Walesa.
Solidarity was the first non-communist trade union in a communist country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union.
Discussion
Ask a question about 'Solidarity' Start a new discussion about 'Solidarity' Answer questions from other users |
Encyclopedia
Solidarity ( ; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" — Niezalezny Samorzadny Zwiazek Zawodowy "Solidarnosc" ) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Walesa.
Solidarity was the first non-communist trade union in a communist country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union. The Roundtable Talks between the government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Walesa was elected President of Poland. Since then it has become a more traditional trade union.
History
Solidarity was founded in Gdansk in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, where Lech Walesa and others formed a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church to members of the anti-communist Left. Solidarity advocated non-violence in its members' activities. In September 1981 Solidarity's first national congress elected Lech Walesa as a president and adopted a republican program, the "Self-governing Republic". The government attempted to destroy the union with the martial law of 1981 and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union.
In Poland, the Roundtable Talks between the government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected Prime Minister. Since 1989 Solidarity has become a more traditional trade union, and had relatively little impact on the political scene of Poland in the early 1990s. A political arm founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) won the parliamentary election in 1997, but lost the following 2001 election. Currently, as a political party Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.
Catholic social teaching
In Solicitudo Rei Socialis, a major document of Catholic Social Teaching, Pope John Paul II identifies the concept of solidarity with the poor and marginalized as a constitutive element of the Gospel and human participation in the common good. The Roman Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope John Paul II, was a very powerful supporter of the union and was greatly responsible for its success. Lech Walesa, who himself publicly displayed ostentatious Catholic piety, confirmed Pope's influence, saying: The Holy Father, through his meetings, demonstrated how numerous we were. He told us not to be afraid.
In addition, the priest Jerzy Popieluszko, who regularly gave sermons to the striking workers was eventually killed by the Communist regime for his association with Solidarity. Polish workers themselves were closely associated with the Church, which can be seen in the photographs taken during strikes in the 1980s. On the walls of several factories, portraits of Virgin Mary or John Paul II were visible.
Influence abroad
The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the USSR ruled (in practice) by a one-party Communist regime, but the whole of the Eastern bloc. It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the communist Polish United Workers' Party, which had bloodily ended a 1970 protest with machine gun fire (killing dozens and injuring over 1,000), and the broader Soviet communist regime in the Eastern Bloc, which had quelled both the 1956 Hungarian Uprising and the 1968 Prague Spring with Soviet-led invasions.
Solidarity's influence led to the intensification and spread of anti-communist ideals and movements throughout the countries of the Eastern Bloc, weakening their communist governments. The 1989 elections in Poland where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe known as the Revolutions of 1989 (Jesien Ludów). Solidarity's example was in various ways repeated by opposition groups throughout the Eastern Bloc, eventually leading to the Eastern Bloc's effectual dismantling, and contributing to the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s.
In late 2008, several democratic opposition groups in the Russian Federation formed a Solidarity movement.
Organization
Formed in 1995, the union's supreme powers were vested in a legislative body, the Convention of Delegates (Zjazd Delegatów). The executive branch was the National Coordinating Commission (Krajowa Komisja Porozumiewawcza), later renamed the National Commission (Komisja Krajowa). The Union had a regional structure, comprising 38 regions (region) and two districts (okreg). During the communist era the 38 regional delegates were arrested and jailed when martial law came into effect 1983 under General Wojciech Jaruzelski. After a one year prison term the high-ranking members of the union were offered one way trips to any country accepting them (including Canada, the United States, and nations in the Middle East).
Solidarity was organized as an industrial union, or more specifically according to the One Big Union principle, along the lines of the Industrial Workers of the World and the Spanish Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (workers in every trade were organized by region, rather than by craft).
Currently, Solidarity has more than 1.1 million members. National Commission of Independent Self-Governing Trade Union is located in Gdansk and is composed of Delegates from Regional General Congresses.
Regional structure
Solidarity is divided into 37 regions, and the territorial structure to a large degree reflects the shape of Polish voivodeships, established in 1975 and annulled in 1998 (see: Administrative division of People's Republic of Poland). The regions are:
- Gdansk, based in Gdansk,
- Warmia-Masuria, based in Olsztyn,
- Elblag, based in Elblag,
- Lower Silesia, based in Wroclaw,
- Pila, based in Pila,
- Western Pomerania, based in Szczecin,
- Land of Lodz, based in Lodz,
- Czestochowa, based in Czestochowa,
- Land of Sandomierz, based in Stalowa Wola,
- Plock-Kutno, based in Plock,
- Lesser Poland, based in Krakow,
- Opole Silesia, based in Opole,
- Seashore, based in Koszalin,
- Slupsk, based in Slupsk,
- Zielona Gora, based in Zielona Gora,
- Beskidy, based in Bielsko-Biala,
- Konin, based in Konin,
- Southern Greater Poland, based in Kalisz,
- Podlachia, based in Bialystok,
- Piotrkow, based in Piotrkow Trybunalski,
- Cuiavia and Dobrzyn Land, based in Wloclawek,
- Carpathia, based in Krosno,
- Land of Rzeszow, based in Rzeszow,
- Torun, based in Torun,
- Silesia-Zaglebie, based in Katowice,
- Land of Radom, based in Radom,
- Greater Poland, based in Poznan,
- Gorzow, based in Gorzow Wielkopolski,
- Holy Cross, based in Kielce,
- Middle-East, based in Lublin,
- Bydgoszcz, based in Bydgoszcz,
- Jelenia Gora, based in Jelenia Gora,
- Leszno, based in Leszno,
- Chelm, based in Chelm,
- Przemysl-Jaroslaw, based in Przemysl,
- Mazovia, based in Warsaw,
- Copper Basin, based in Legnica.
The network of key factories
The network of Solidarity branches of the key factories of Poland was created on April 14, 1981 in Gdansk. It was made of representatives of seventeen factories; each stood for the most important factory of every voivodeship of the pre-1975 Poland (see: Administrative division of People's Republic of Poland). However, there were two exceptions. There was no representative of the Koszalin Voivodeship, and the Katowice Voivodeship was represented by two factories:
- Gdansk Voivodeship was represented by the Vladimir Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk,
- Szczecin Voivodeship was represented by the Szczecin Shipyard,
- Poznan Voivodeship was represented by the H. Cegielski - Poznan S.A.
- Bydgoszcz Voivodeship was represented by the Rail Vehicles Repair Shop in Bydgoszcz,
- Zielona Gora Voivodeship was represented by the Rolling Stock and Steel Works Zastal in Zielona Gora,
- Katowice Voivodeship was represented by two factories - the Wujek Coal Mine in Katowice and the Spare Parts Factory Zgoda in Swietochlowice,
- Krakow Voivodeship was represented by the Vladimir Lenin Steelworks in Nowa Huta,
- Wroclaw Voivodeship was represented by the Rail Carriage Factory Pafawag in Wroclaw,
- Rzeszow Voivodeship was represented by the Factory of Communication Equipment WSK in Rzeszow,
- Bialystok Voivodeship was represented by the Cotton Works Fasty in Bialystok,
- Kielce Voivodeship was represented by the Ball Bearings Factory Iskra in Kielce,
- Olsztyn Voivodeship was represented by the Tire Company Stomil in Olsztyn,
- Lublin Voivodeship was represented by the Factory of Communication Equipment PZL in Swidnik,
- Lodz Voivodeship was represented by the Julian Marchlewski Cotton Works in Lodz,
- Warsaw Voivodeship was represented by the Ursus Factory in Warsaw,
- Opole Voivodeship was represented by the Malapanew Steelworks in Ozimek.
Chairmen
See also
Further reading
External links
- (PL, EN, DE, FR, ES, RU)
- , Colin Barker, International Socialism, Issue: 108
- , by Daniel Singer
-
- A radio programme about the song "Mury", the anthem of Solidarnosc. In Russian with English transcript
|
| |
|
|
