Solidarity (Polish trade union) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Solidarity

Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity"
Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność"
Founded	(recognition) 31 August 1980 (1st Congress) 17 September 1980 (registration) 10 November 1980 (1980-11-10)
Members	Almost 10 million at the end of the first year; over 400,000 in 2011 (680,000 in 2010)
Country	Poland
Affiliation	ITUC, ETUC, TUAC
Key people	Anna Walentynowicz, Lech Wałęsa
Office location	Gdańsk, Poland
Website	Solidarnosc.org.pl (in English)

Solidarity is a trade union founded in August-September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland. Subsequently, it was the first independent union in a Warsaw Pact country to be recognised by the state. The union's membership peaked at 10 million in September 1981, representing one-third of the country's working-age population. Solidarity's leader, Lech Wałęsa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and the union is widely recognised as having played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.

In the 1980s, Solidarity was a broad anti-bureaucratic social movement, using methods of civil resistance to advance the causes of workers' rights and social change. Government attempts in the early 1980s to destroy the union through the imposition of martial law and the use of political repression failed. Operating underground, with significant financial support from the Vatican and the United States, estimated to be as much as US$50 million, the union survived and by the latter 1980s had entered into negotiations with the government.

The 1989 round table talks between the government and the Solidarity-led opposition produced agreement for the 1989 legislative elections, the country's first pluralistic election since 1947. By the end of August, a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December 1990, Wałęsa was elected President of Poland.

Following Poland's transition to liberal capitalism in the 1990s and the extensive privatization of state assets, Solidarity's membership and influence declined significantly; by 2010, 30 years after being founded, the union had lost more than 90% of its original membership.

Images for kids

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  30-years of Solidarity mural in Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski (priest Jerzy Popiełuszko in foreground)

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  The logo of Solidarność painted on an overturned Soviet era T-55 in Prague in 1990

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  Students in Scotland collect signatures for a petition in support of Solidarity in 1981

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  Solidarity, ETUC Demonstration—Budapest 2011