14/08/2026
On this day in 1980, workers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland, went on strike and occupied their workplace. Their action gave birth to Solidarność (Solidarity), the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc. It changed the course of European history, helping pave the way for the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the eventual break-up of the Soviet Union.
For a decade, Polish workers had protested low wages, rising living costs and a lack of freedoms, but many had been victimised. The 1980 strike was sparked by the firing of crane operator and union activist Anna Walentynowicz just five months before her retirement.
Led by L**h Wałęsa, who had also previously been sacked from the shipyard for union organising, the workers had carefully prepared for the strike. Families, farmers and bakers brought food to those occupying the shipyard, while the workers used the management's printing presses to mass-produce strike bulletins countering state propaganda.
Although the shipyard workers won their own demands on 16 August, they remained on strike in solidarity with others. Their Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee drew up the famous 21 Demands calling for independent trade unions, the right to strike and freedom of expression. The Gdańsk Agreement was signed on 31 August, leading to the creation of Solidarność as a national trade union movement.
Come and visit the Working Class Movement Library: we hold a wide range of books, pamphlets, radical newspapers and other material on Solidarność, trade unionism in Poland, and international labour solidarity.
