Solidarity
| |
| Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" | |
| Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność" | |
| Founded | September 1980 |
|---|---|
| Members | 1,185,000 (2006)[1] |
| Country | Poland |
| Affiliation | ITUC, ETUC, TUAC |
| Key people | Janusz Śniadek, Lech Wałęsa |
| Office location | Gdańsk, Poland |
| Website | www.solidarnosc.org.pl (In English) |
Solidarity (Template:Audio-pl IPA: [sɔli'darnɔɕt͡ɕ]; full name: Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity"—Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność" IPA: [ɲeza'lɛʐnɨ samɔ'ʐɔndnɨ 'zvjɔ̃zɛk zavɔ'dɔvɨ sɔli'darnɔɕt͡ɕ]) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdańsk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Wałęsa.
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 Wałęsa was elected President of Poland. Since the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 it has become a more traditional trade union.
History
Solidarity was founded in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, where Lech Wałęsa and others formed a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church[2] to members of the anti-communist Left. Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members' activities.[3][4] In September 1981 Solidarity's first national congress elected Lech Wałęsa as a president[5] and adopted a republican program, the "Self-governing Republic."[6] 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.
The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the Soviet Union 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 violently 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.
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. In December 1990, Wałęsa was elected president. This was soon followed by the dismantling of the People's Republic of Poland, and the creation of the non-communist, democratic Third Polish Republic. These limited elections, where anti-communist candidates won a striking victory, sparked off a succession of peaceful anti-communist counterrevolutions in Central and Eastern Europe.[7] 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.
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 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. In addition, the priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, who regularly gave sermons to the striking workers was eventually killed by the Communist regime for his association with Solidarity.
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[2] known as the Revolutions of 1989 (Jesień 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.[8]
Organization
Formed in 1981, 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 (okręg). During the communist era the 38 regional delegates were arrested and jailed when martial law came into effect 1983 under General Jaruzelski. After a one year prison term the high-ranking members of the union were offered one way trips to any country accepting them (Canada, United States, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland).
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).[9]
Currently, Solidarity has more than 1.1 million members. National Commission of Independent Self-Governing Trade Union is located in Gdańsk and is composed of Delegates from Regional General Congresses.
Chairmen
- Lech Wałęsa 1980-1990
- Marian Krzaklewski 1991-2002
- Janusz Śniadek 2002-
Notes
- ↑ WHAT IS THE NSZZ SOLIDARNOSC ?. Solidarnosc.org. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Steger, Manfred B (January 2004). Judging Nonviolence: The Dispute Between Realists and Idealists (ebook), Routledge (UK), p114. ISBN 0-415-93397-8. Retrieved 2006-07-09.
- ↑ (February 1993) in Paul Wehr, Guy Burgess, Heidi Burgess: Justice Without Violence (ebook), Lynne Rienner Publishers, p28. ISBN 1-55587-491-6. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
- ↑ Cavanaugh-O'Keefe, John (January 2001). Emmanuel, Solidarity: God's Act, Our Response (ebook), Xlibris Corporation, p68. ISBN 0-7388-3864-0. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
- ↑ KALENDARIUM NSZZ „SOLIDARNOŚĆ” 1980–1989PDF (185 KiB). Last accessed on 15 October 2006 (Polish)
- ↑ Piotr Gliński, The Self-governing Republic in the Third Republic, “Polish Sociological Review,” 2006, no.1
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedSteger - ↑ Kasparov starts new Russian opposition movement. The Associated Press. December 13, 2008.
- ↑ (Polish) Solidarność NSZZ in WIEM Encyklopedia. Last accessed on 10 October 2006
External links
All links Retrieved January 17, 2009.
- FAES The Polish trade Union Solidarity and the European idea of freedom
- Advice for East German propagandists on how to deal with the Solidarity movement
- The Birth of Solidarity on BBC
- Solidarity, Freedom and Economical Crisis in Poland, 1980-81
- The rise of Solidarność, Colin Barker, International Socialism, Issue: 108
- Arch Puddington, How American Unions Helps Solidarity Win
- Solidarity Lost, by Daniel Singer
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
Credits
New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:
The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:
Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.
