Notes on the Solidarity movement in Poland.

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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.
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  • January 1981: Membership grew to 9.4million (peak)-more then a third of the workers in Poland.

Why did the Polish government agree to Solidarity’s demands in 1980?

  • Solidarity was particularly popular among highly skilled workers and foremen of the shipbuilding and heavy industry-the most important industries and workers to the government. A strike in these industries would have drastically affected Polish economy.

  • Solidarity was not seen as an alternative to Communism; however, more then 1 million (30%) of Communist joined it. In a survey in 1981, almost 40% of the people joined Solidarity as they thought that ...

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