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Solidarity

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Solidarity
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Polish trade union. A workers' strike in 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk inspired other labour strikes in Poland and compelled the government to agree to the workers' demands for independent unions. Solidarity was founded to unite the regional trade unions, and Lech Walesa was elected chairman. The movement won economic reforms and free elections before pressure from the Soviet Union forced the Polish government to suppress the union in 1981. The focus of worldwide attention, it continued as an underground organization until 1989, when the government recognized its legality. In the free elections of 1989, Solidarity candidates won most of the contested seats in the assembly and formed a coalition government. In the 1990s the union's role diminished as new political parties emerged in a free Poland.

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Political Dictionary: Solidarity
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An independent union formed in Poland in 1980 under the leadership of Lech Walesa, Solidarity tapped into the public's disaffection with communist power. Following mass strikes, the communist regime was forced into unprecedented concessions to society. Although after martial law in 1981, the union was banned, its legacy devastated communism in Poland. It was allowed to re-form in 1986, and was a partner in the Round Table talks which led to the orderly withdrawal of one-party rule beginning in 1988. Lech Walesa was elected president of Poland in 1990, and although party politics saw a fracturing of the Solidarity organization, the Solidarity Electoral Action coalition, formed in 1996, emerged as the largest party grouping in the 1997 election.

— Stephen Whitefield

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Solidarity
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Solidarity, Polish independent trade union federation formed in Sept., 1980. Led by Lech Wałęsa, it grew rapidly in size and political power and soon posed a threat to Poland's Communist government by its sponsorship of labor strikes and other forms of public protest. Rural Solidarity, a Polish farmers' union, was recognized in May, 1981. By the middle of 1981, Solidarity had an estimated 9 million members. Although it was able to block government initiatives, it had no means of attaining governmental power. On Dec. 13, 1981, the new party leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, with Moscow's support, launched a crackdown by declaring martial law, suspending Solidarity, and imprisoning most of its leaders. By the end of 1982, the Solidarity movement had died down enough for Wałęsa to be released from prison and for martial law to be lifted.

During the mid-1980s, Solidarity persisted as an underground organization supported by the Catholic Church, and by the late 1980s it was again a major force in Poland. The union succeeded in frustrating Jaruzelski's attempts at reform, and nationwide strikes in 1988 led to the first governmental attempts to open a dialogue with Solidarity. On Apr. 5, 1989, Solidarity and the government signed an agreement legalizing Solidarity and allowing it to campaign for the upcoming elections. In limited free elections that followed, candidates supported by the union won a resounding victory. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed. In Dec., 1990, Wałęsa was elected president and resigned his union post; he failed to win reelection in 1995. Solidarity has since placed greater emphasis on traditional trade union matters, but the political bloc Solidarity Electoral Action, an outgrowth of the union founded in 1996, governed Poland from 1997 to 2001. In late 1990s Solidarity had 1.3 million members.

Bibliography

See T. G Ash, The Polish Revolution: Solidarity, 1980-1982 (1984).

Politics: Solidarity
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A labor union in Poland, independent of the government and of the Polish Communist party, that grew to a membership of several million in the early 1980s. Led by Lech Walesa, Solidarity pushed for many reforms and played a major part in the ouster of communism in Poland and its replacement by a multiparty, democratic government. The movement's influence began to decline in the 1990s.

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Politics. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.  Read more