198014–31 August 1980 · Gdańsk

Solidarity and the Gdańsk Shipyard strike

Gate No. 2 of the Gdańsk Shipyard, where the 1980 Solidarity strike began — Photo: Adrian Tync. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Workers at the Lenin Shipyard struck over the sacking of crane operator Anna Walentynowicz, led by the electrician Lech Wałęsa. The August Agreements won the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc, Solidarity, which soon had about ten million members. Martial law suppressed it in 1981, but in 1989 Solidarity won Poland's partly free elections.

Revolutions & Resistance
Political History
Industrial Heritage
Gdańsk, Poland

Sites

Site 1: European Solidarity CentreMuseum beside the shipyard, with the boards of strike demands.Map ↗
Site 2: Gate No. 2 and the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard WorkersThe strike gate and three steel crosses for workers shot in 1970.Map ↗