Conditions fostering the Movement:

Geopolitical conditions
Economic conditions
Civil Society/anti-Politics
Election of Pope John Paul II

 
Solidarnosc!

1980 - Summer Gdansk
 Lenin Shipyard
 Anna Walentynowicz - fired for encouraging  workers to strike, resist
 her firing becomes pre-text for protest

**sit-down or “Italian” strike

21 Demands -
 reinstatement of Walentynowicz and  Walesa (who had been fired in 1976)
 pay raise
 family allowances same as for police
 memorial to victims of 1970 strikes (3  workers killed)
 **right to independent union with right to  strike (as in 1970)

 
KOR/Michnik
 thought demand for indep. union
 dangerous, impossible, ridiculous
tries to go to Gdansk to talk sense into Walesa

Fortunately, I was arrested.  I could not go to Gdansk and convince them and Solidarity was created,  [It was good] they arrested Jacek [Kuron] and me…because we probably could have shown them that Solidarity simply “had no right” to exist.  We knew that independent, self-governing trade unions were impossible in a communist system, but the workers didn’t know. That’s how Solidarity arose, without us and against us, although we always considered it to be our [KOR’s] child.  An illegitimate one, you might say” (Ost, 77).

Walesa as charismatic leader
 electrician, strong nationalist, Catholic
 large family, car plastered with May 3 1791  constitution

Form Interfactory Strike Committee
Supported by KOR
Refuse to accept just the pay raise (Gierek had counted on being able to buy them off or “stuff a sausage in their mouths”)

Aug. 31, 1980
workers granted right to independent union in exchange for recognizing the leading role of the party in the state

*Solidarity legal for 469 days!
**First and only independent organization in any East European country during state socialism
]
***One-fourth of the Polish population becomes a member of Solidarity
 

 
Dénouement of the Movement
Gierek replaced as Prime Minister Sept. 5, 1980 by Stanislaw Kania

Solidarity heading for direct political confrontation with the regime

Starts demanding pluralism/democratization
 local elections, lower chamber in legislature
 continued strikes, wild cats

Kania replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski in February 1981

Dec. 12-13 1981 Martial Law declared
  curfews, no tv, no alcohol, censorship
  back to 6-day work week
  coal mines under military control
  military courts