On August 31, 1980, Poland’s communist rulers signed a key agreement with striking workers at the Gdańsk shipyard that led to the establishment of Solidarity, the first independent trade union in then-communist Eastern Europe.
The Gdańsk Agreement followed strikes at the shipyard in this northern Polish city, with former employee Lech Wałęsa at the helm.
Workers at the Gdańsk shipyard, led by Wałęsa, the face of Solidarity in Poland, went on strike in August 1980, demanding better pay, the reinstatement of an unfairly sacked colleague, and a monument to workers who had died in protests 10 years earlier.
Workers from other cities joined the strike, leading the communist regime to make concessions.
The authorities were compelled to act. Poland's communist leader at the time, Edward Gierek, called for a peaceful solution to the conflict.
On August 31, after 18 days of a sit-in strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard and protests in over 700 workplaces around Poland, the agreements were signed, marking the birth of Solidarity.
The agreement caused a brief eruption of freedom of expression in Poland, before the clampdown of December 1981, when the communist authorities declared martial law.
Nevertheless, the communist regime eventually fell due to efforts by Solidarity campaigners, culminating in the Round Table Agreement of spring 1989.
Radio Poland's Agnieszka Bielawska has the story.
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