Solidarity
How it started:
- Throughout the years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia, strikes relating to low wages or high food prices have been evident.
- Strikes took place in both 1956 and 1970 which resulted in the increase in wages, decrease in food prices or both.
- The polish did not intend to get rid of their government or put up resistance against the USSR; they only wanted to improve their standard of living.
- The Poles were aware that they lacked behind the workers in the West.
- The government was aware that it could not survive unless it fulfilled the Poles demands for consumer goods.
- Poland performed well economically during the first half of the 1970s. In a survey conducted in 1975, 60% of Poles thought that living conditions were going to continue to improve. Summary: The poles were becoming more well-off and were optimistic about the future.
- Poland faced an economic crisis in the late 1970s. The situation got worst from 1976. 1979 was the worst year for the Polish industry in their history of communist rule.
- The government used propaganda to cover up the short comings of their industries.
- Poland had official trade unions, but as most countries, they were ineffective.
How effective was solidarity?:
- In the late 1970s, Polish leaders began setting up small, independent, trade unions. Many strikes broke out in 1980. Solidarity (a trade union) grew in strength over the next 6 months.
- July 1980: Government increases the price of meat which results in strikes.
- August 1980: Workers at Gdansk ship yard (led by Lech Walesa) put forward 21 demands to the government. This included free trade unions and the freedom to strike. Solidarity was founded.
- 30 August 1980: Demands agreed by government.
- September 1980: Solidarity had 3.5 million members.
- October 1980: Membership grew to 7 million. Solidarity became recognized by the government.