Free Trade Unions (Eastern Europe)

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In the real socialist countries of the former Eastern Bloc , too, there were numerous efforts to establish free trade unions independent of the official trade union associations. The majority of them were called free trade unions or were even called that.

Czechoslovakia

The first demands to establish free and independent trade unions were made during the Prague Spring in what was then Czechoslovakia in 1967/1968. It was not explicitly a matter of founding a new association because it soon succeeded in transforming the existing unions quickly. They soon became one of the driving forces behind the reform process - especially under pressure from members.

Soviet Union

Timid attempts to found free trade unions were also made in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, but without having gained any significance (as in Poland or Romania).

Romania

At the beginning of 1979 some intellectuals (Ionel Cană, Gheorghe Brasoveanu, Vasile Paraschiv ) and workers in Bucharest founded the “Free Trade Union of Romanian Workers” SLOMR ( Sindicatul liber al oamenilor muncii din Romania ), in other cities like Timișoara , Arad and others some offshoots followed. However, the unions were soon dissolved by the Romanian secret service Securitate , individual founding members and sympathizers were arrested, brought to justice and in some cases sentenced to long prison terms.

Poland

File: Solidarnosc.png
Solidarność logo

The Polish Solidarność movement achieved the highest level of awareness and success . The breakthrough of the trade union founded in 1980 under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa , which was soon joined by millions of citizens, could only be stopped by the martial law imposed by General Wojciech Jaruzelski , even that only temporarily. As a result, the activities of this movement led to the fall of the regime in Poland.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Borin, Vera Plogen [pseudonyms for Richard Sklorz and Sibylle Plogstedt], Management and Self- Administration in the CSSR , Berlin: Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, 1970 (Rotbuch No. 4)
  2. ↑ Siebenbürgische Zeitung of March 20, 2009 - Interview with Carl Gibson: Legitimate protest against the Ceauşescu dictatorship ; Retrieved February 3, 2016
  3. ^ SLOMR in Dialog , Documentation, in: Journal of the Democratic Circle of Romanians in Germany, March 1989 issue

Web links

literature

  • Jerzy Holzer: Solidarity. The story of a free trade union in Poland. Beck, Munich 1985, ISBN 978-3406306037
  • Carl Gibson : Symphony of Freedom. Resistance to the Ceausescu dictatorship. Röll, 2008, ISBN 978-3897542976
  • Sibylle Plogstedt: Labor disputes in Soviet industry (1917-1933). Campus, Frankfurt / New York 1980