Solidarność

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Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarność"
Independent self-governing trade union federation "Solidarity"

logo
Associations:
Members: 400,000–680,000 (2010)
State Board
Chairman: Piotr Duda
Internet
Internet presence: www.solidarnosc.org.pl
August strikes in the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk, 1980

Solidarność [ sɔliˈdarnɔɕt͡ɕ ] pronunciation ? / I ( Pol. "Solidarity", the official name of NSZZ "Solidarity" , Polish Niezależny Samorządny Związek Zawodowy "Solidarity" [ ɲezalɛʐnɨ samɔʐɔndnɨ zvjɔzɛk zavɔdɔvɨ sɔlidarnɔɕt͡ɕ ]; German Independent Self-Managed Trade Union 'Solidarity' ) is the name of a Polish trade union , which in 1980 made a strike movement emerged and played a decisive role in the revolution and reform of 1989 . It represents the most successful independentAudio file / audio sample   free trade union in the former Eastern bloc .

Solidarność is a member of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC). According to the IGB membership list, it has 557,749 members (as of November 2017).

Beginnings

Stele “21 demands” in Gdansk
Monument to the “Solidarność” struggle for freedom and democracy: section of the former wall around the Lenin shipyard in Gdańsk

The Solidarność union emerged from a workers ' strike movement in the summer of 1980. From the beginning, the workers' movement was led by intellectuals critical of the regime such as Tadeusz Mazowiecki , Bronisław Geremek , Jacek Kuroń , Adam Michnik , Józef Tischner and large parts of the Catholic Church , especially Pope John Paul II . , supported. This enabled a solidarity across social boundaries, which then turned in a popular movement against the ruling regime. There was particularly great support from western countries (especially the USA and West Germany).

The trigger for the large wave of strikes in 1980 were price increases for meat on July 1, 1980. Local strikes soon spread across the entire country. On August 14, 1980, a strike broke out at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk . The immediate cause of this was the dismissal of crane operator Anna Walentynowicz , a well-known symbolic figure of the strike movement of 1970 on the Baltic coast. Shipyard workers set up a company strike committee under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa . According to the management, the strike was supposed to end after two days. On the night of August 16, however, it was decided to keep the strike going in order to achieve lasting results. As a result, on August 17, 1980, the "Inter-company Strike Committee" ( Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy ) was founded, which was tasked not to disband even after the end of the strike, but to monitor compliance with what had been achieved. The committee worked out the so-called 21 demands . In addition to other mostly political and social concerns, these 21 demands also contained the central demand for the approval of independent trade unions. After long negotiations, the government signed the Danzig Agreement on August 31, 1980 . From then on the 'Independent Self-Governing Union “Solidarity” was formed.

The strikes in the so-called Polish August differed significantly from strikes in the previous history of the People's Republic of Poland . On the one hand, the strike at the Lenin shipyard was organized as an occupation strike and precisely coordinated by the strike committee. The state power should not be offered any reason or pretext to intervene violently against the strikers. Likewise, all other striking companies across the country declared their solidarity with the inter-company strike committee on the coast. In particular, by including intellectuals in the work of the strike committees, it was possible to wrest more far-reaching concessions from the state than before. This cooperation was initiated in 1976 with the establishment of the Committee for the Defense of the Workers (KOR), but other intellectuals also support the trade union movement.

Lech Wałęsa has been the chairman of Solidarność since it was officially founded on September 17, 1980. State recognition was sealed on November 10, 1980 by the official state registration of Solidarność. In the course of its existence the union has become more and more politicized. Solidarność continued to grow (at its peak approx. 9.5 million members). Many members of the communist party PVAP also became members of the free trade union. Ultimately, up to 1 million party members (approx. 30% of the members of the PVAP) were also members of Solidarność; most of them were lower ranks. After the IX. At the PVAP congress in July 1981, 20% of the members of the Central Committee were also Solidarność members.

The 1st National Congress of Solidarność took place in two sessions in September and October 1981. On it Wałęsa was elected chairman. After difficult discussions, a program was also adopted. Towards the end of 1981, two opposing wings emerged more and more clearly in Solidarność: The pragmatic wing, led by Lech Wałęsa, was supported by various intellectuals and was interested in a moderate confrontation with the communist rulers. The national-conservative wing around Jan Rulewski and Andrzej Gwiazda wanted a more open confrontation with the government and the PZPR .

Martial law

With the declaration of martial law in Poland on the night of December 13, 1981, the leaders of the union were interned and the union's work was banned. So it could only continue to exist underground. On October 8, 1982 Solidarność was finally banned by a new trade union law. In 1984 the Catholic priest and supporter of Solidarność Jerzy Popiełuszko was murdered by the Polish secret service .

In the meantime, Solidarność groups in exile were formed abroad, which were politically active in trade unions through the establishment of offices. The foreign activities were coordinated by Solidarność's Brussels office. The Bremen coordination office of Solidarność carried out a coordination function in Germany .

In addition to the offices, there were intensive contacts with partner unions abroad in the 1980s, for example in Sweden.

Solidarność during the revolutions of 1989/90

From August 1988, there were talks between the communist leadership and the still banned underground Solidarność, which then led to the round table talks that took place from February 6 to April 5, 1989 in Magdalenka near Warsaw. Solidarność was not officially recognized again until April 5, 1989.

As a result of the round table, elections were held on June 4, 1989, some of which were free , which Solidarność won overwhelmingly. Nevertheless, the distribution of seats in the Sejm had already been negotiated at the round table (65% of the seats for the PZPR and its block parties and a maximum of 35% for free, i.e. opposition candidates). Under the slogan "Your President, our Prime Minister" ( Wasz prezydent, nasz premier ), the opposition Citizens' Committee , the political representation of Solidarność, now demanded participation in the government. With Tadeusz Mazowiecki , Solidarność provided the first non-communist prime minister after the Second World War , but key ministries (interior and defense) remained in the hands of the PVAP . In December 1990 Lech Wałęsa was elected President.

The emergence of this labor movement, as well as glasnost and perestroika , brought about a change in Poland and the political solution from the Soviet Union-dominated Eastern Bloc.

Pope John Paul II from Poland also had a great influence on these political developments . He achieved this not only indirectly through theological and socio-ethical statements, but also directly through his three trips to Poland (between 1979 and 1987) and his continuous support of Solidarność.

The early phase of the so-called Third Republic was shaped by the policy of the gruba kreska (" line of closure ", lit. "thick line"), which provided for an orientation towards the future and no accounting for the communist past. To this day, this has repeatedly led to discussions in Polish politics.

Solidarność after the turnaround

Fountain of Neptune Gdansk - 25 years of Solidarność

In the years that followed, Solidarność lost its political influence, as it was made responsible for the economic and social consequences of the turnaround. In the parliamentary elections in 1993 , she lost participation in the government. In 1996 the electoral alliance AWS ( Akcja Wyborcza “Solidarność” ) was formed, which was once again involved in a coalition government from 1997 to 2000. After the election defeat in 2001 , AWS disintegrated.

The Solidarność trade union no longer plays a partisan role. Nevertheless, it continues to exist as a strong and independent union . On August 30, 2005, opposition members from numerous countries met in Gdansk on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the founding of Solidarność. The former co-founder Lech Wałęsa announced his resignation from the union on August 31, 2005.

Solidarność's loss of importance in the 1990s

If the relative loss of importance of Solidarność is noted, then the point of reference lies in 1980, when the first independent trade union within the former Eastern Bloc was founded at the Gdańsk shipyard. Today only around 15% of workers in Poland are members of a trade union. This is one of the lowest values ​​in all of Central and Eastern Europe. In the Czech Republic twice as many and in Romania three times as many employees are organized in companies. Reasons for the union's loss of importance in Poland lie in the negative assessment of Solidarność's participation in government in the early 1990s, in the fragmentation of the trade union movement, in the privatization of state-owned companies and the emergence of new lifestyle concepts that imply a different way of spending free time.

Archive and Museum

The union's archive has been located in the Gdańsk European Solidarność Center since 2014 . The center also includes a museum on the history of upheaval in Poland and neighboring countries.

Election results in elections to the Sejm

1991:  5.1% as NSZZ "S" 27 seats
1993: 4.9% as NSZZ "S"  
1997: 33.83%    as part of AWS 202 seats
2001: 5.6% as part of AWSP     

Chair of Solidarność

Membership fee

Solidarność members have to pay 0.82% of their gross wage membership fee. With an average wage of PLN 3,500, this is around PLN 29 or EUR 6.50 per month (as of September 2020). 60% of the contribution goes to the works commission and 40% to the regional level. The regions pass on 12.5% ​​of this part to the state commission. That leaves 27.5% for the regional administration. Of the 12.5 and 27.5% of the state commission and the regional administration, 2.5% each go to the strike fund.

Other Polish unions

literature

  • Timothy Garton Ash: The Polish Revolution, Solidarity 1980–1982. New York 1984, ISBN 0-684-18114-2 .
  • Rainer Deppe, Melanie Tatur: Reconstitution and Marginalization. Transformation processes and trade unions in Poland and Hungary. Frankfurt am Main / New York 2002, ISBN 3-593-37009-3 , pp. 94-253.
  • Jerzy Holzer : Solidarity. The story of a free trade union in Poland. Munich 1985, ISBN 3-406-30603-9 .
  • Joachim Jauer : Urbi et Gorbi. 2nd Edition. Verlag Herder, 2009, ISBN 978-3-451-32253-2 .
  • Anthony Kemp-Welch: The birth of Solidarity. The Gdańsk Negotiations 1980. London 1983, ISBN 0-312-08187-1 .
  • Christoph Kotowski: There is no freedom without solidarity. The program of Solidarność during the election campaign in Poland in 1989. GRIN Verlag, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-656-55515-5 .
  • Hartmut Kühn : The decade of Solidarność. The political history of Poland 1980–1990. Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-86163-087-7 .
  • Thomas Lorenen: The Solidarność movement through the ages. From the beginning until today. Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-638-94302-4 .
  • Anna Walentynowicz : Solidarnosc - a personal story (= reports and studies of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research . No. 62). Edited and edited by Tytus Jaskulowski, V&R unipress, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89971-980-2 .
  • Agnieszka Zaganczyk-Neufeld: The successful revolution. The Political and Upheaval in Poland 1976–1997 , Paderborn 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-76619-9 .
  • Anna Herbich : Dziewczyny z Solidarności , Verlag Znak Horyzont, 2016, 304 p. (German girls from Solidarność), ISBN 978-83-240-3464-2 .

Web links

Commons : Solidarność  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marek Wąs: Nie ma już Solidarności. Rozmowa z Jerzym Borowczakiem. [In:] Gazeta Wyborcza from August 20, 2010.
  2. ↑ Maciej Sandecki, Marek Wąs: Duda za Śniadka? [In:] Gazeta Wyborcza of August 24, 2010.
  3. ↑ List of the national member associations in the ETUC , accessed on May 23, 2018
  4. ↑ IGB Membership List , accessed on May 23, 2018
  5. ↑ Idesbald Goddeeris: Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych "Solidarności". Biuro Koordynacyjne NSZZ “Solidarność”, 1982–1989.
  6. ^ Rüdiger Ritter: Solidarity with difficulties. The Bremen coordination office of the Polish trade union Solidarność and Bremen's commitment to Poland in the 1980s . Edition Falkenberg, Rotenburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-95494-219-0 .
  7. ↑ See Klaus Misgeld: Part of a worldwide support - The Swedish trade unions and Solidarność, in: Year Book for Research on the History of the Labor Movement , Volume III / 2011.
  8. ↑ ZB: Johannes Paul II .: The value of work and the path to justice , Freiburg i. Br. 1981; see also the Polish social ethicist: Józef Tischner : Ethik der Solidarität , Graz 1982.