The History of Solidarity Movement in Poland

The Solidarity movement, which emerged in Poland in 1980, did not appear out of thin air. Its roots stretch back decades, nourished by worker uprisings, intellectual dissent, and a population increasingly unwilling to accept the false promises of communist rule. Understanding this history helps explain why Solidarity became one of the most powerful nonviolent movements of the twentieth century-and why it ultimately succeeded where earlier rebellions had failed.

The Polish October of 1956: seeds of discontent
Workers’ uprisings: Poznań, Gdańsk, and Radom
The 1956 Poznań protests
December 1970: bloodshed on the Baltic coast
The 1976 strikes and the limits of protest
The birth of worker-intellectual alliance
Legacy of the pre-Solidarity struggles

The Polish October of 1956: seeds of discontent

When Joseph Stalin died in March 1953, cracks began appearing in Moscow’s control over Eastern Europe. After his death, Poland’s rigid communist regime began relaxing some policies, abolishing its feared Ministry of Security and releasing thousands of political prisoners. This thaw stimulated popular desire for more radical reforms, though the party leadership remained reluctant to act.

The death of Poland’s hardline leader Bolesław Bierut in March 1956-allegedly from shock at Nikita Khrushchev’s secret speech denouncing Stalin-gave further fuel to calls for change. Debates emerged about following a more independent national path to socialism rather than copying the Soviet model precisely. This period, sometimes called the “Polish October,” saw a distinct class of educated Poles-the intelligentsia-re-emerge after years of suppression. However, these intellectuals remained largely disconnected from workers, a division that would prove critical in the years ahead.

Workers’ uprisings: Poznań, Gdańsk, and Radom

The Solidarity movement had deep roots in earlier workers’ rebellions that demonstrated both the power and the limitations of uncoordinated protest.

The 1956 Poznań protests

At 6:00 in the morning on June 28, 1956, workers walked out of the Cegielski engineering plant in Poznań, ignoring the sirens that signaled the start of the work day. Under excessive quotas, poor health and safety conditions, low wages, high food prices, and secret police terror, strikers demanded “bread and freedom.”

A crowd of approximately 100,000 people gathered in the city center near the local Ministry of Public Security building. The demonstrators demanded lower food prices, wage increases, and the revocation of recent changes that had eroded workers’ conditions. What began as an economic protest quickly became something larger-an impromptu demonstration for liberty.

The situation escalated when rumors spread that negotiating delegates had been arrested. The strike evolved into an anti-communist revolt that shook the Stalinist regime. Soviet Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, Poland’s Defence Minister, took personal control and ordered troops to suppress the demonstration. The uprising caused a crisis among Polish communist leadership and resulted in a new regime headed by Władysław Gomułka.

The authorities used the army to suppress the protests, killing at least 58 people and injuring several hundred. A thirteen-year-old boy named Romek Strzałkowski was among the dead. Though the uprising failed in its immediate aims, it forced the regime to recognize that changes had to be made. Gomułka, who had previously been arrested for “nationalist deviation,” convinced Khrushchev that Poland needed more autonomy to follow a “Polish road to socialism.”

December 1970: bloodshed on the Baltic coast

By December 1970, fourteen years had passed since Gomułka came to power, and the hope for reforms he had promised was a fading memory. The government announced sudden price increases for basic consumer goods, including food, clothing, and coal. For workers already struggling with stagnant wages, this was devastating-the proposed increases would have meant a reduction of nearly 45% in real wages.

On the morning of December 14, 1970, thousands of workers from the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk put down their tools and marched toward the city’s Communist Party headquarters. They sang the Internationale as they walked. The mood was angry but peaceful. Along the way, shipyard workers were joined by others until they numbered over ten thousand.

The authorities’ response was brutal. Gomułka ordered the army to surround the Trójmiasto (the “Triple City” of Gdańsk, Sopot, and Gdynia) and authorized the use of firearms against protesters. Fighting erupted in the streets. In Gdańsk, strikers set fire to the building of the Provincial Party Committee, which became an iconic moment of the protests.

The worst violence came on December 17 in Gdynia. As workers arrived at the shipyard in the early hours, they were met by soldiers and tanks. Without warning, the military opened fire on the crowd. Many were killed on the spot, while others were fatally wounded attempting to flee. This day became known as “Black Thursday.”

The government mobilized 5,000 members of special police squads and 27,000 soldiers equipped with tanks and machine guns. Official reports claimed 45 people were killed and over 1,000 wounded, though some investigations suggest the actual death toll was far higher.

The massacre forced change at the top. Gomułka and his associates became the primary victims of the resulting political shakeup. Edward Gierek replaced him as First Secretary. Gierek promised economic reforms and greater dialogue with workers, but the fundamental structures of authoritarian rule remained intact.

The memory of December 1970 would prove crucial ten years later. Workers in 1980 learned an important lesson: stay inside the shipyards rather than marching into the streets where they could be attacked. As Lech Wałęsa later recalled, the 1970 experience taught workers to “fight off attacks on their own territory.”

The 1976 strikes and the limits of protest

Gierek’s government initially brought prosperity through massive Western loans, but by the mid-1970s, the debt burden had become unsustainable. On June 24, 1976, Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz announced a plan to increase retail prices-meat and meat products by 69%, poultry by 30%, butter and dairy by 50%, and sugar by 100%.

The reaction was immediate and widespread. On June 25, 1976, some 80,000 people across Poland took to the streets in protest. The largest demonstrations occurred in Radom, Płock, and Warsaw’s suburb of Ursus.

In Radom, workers from the Łucznik metalworks led a march to the city center, joined by employees from other factories. Dramatic street fighting broke out, resulting in two fatalities. In Ursus, nearly all workers at the tractor factory went on strike, and protesters blocked the railway tracks connecting Warsaw with other major cities, disrupting train traffic across the country.

By the end of the day, 60,000 workers at 97 workplaces in 24 provinces had joined the strike. Facing this overwhelming response, Gierek quickly backed down and withdrew the price increases that same evening. The speed of the government’s reversal demonstrated the latent power of the working class-but it also revealed the movement’s weakness. The protests had no unified leadership, no coherent vision for systemic change. Workers focused on economic grievances within the existing socialist framework rather than challenging the system itself.

The birth of worker-intellectual alliance

What made 1976 different was what happened afterward. The authorities brutally suppressed the protests, arresting approximately 2,500 people. Workers were beaten, imprisoned, and dismissed from their jobs. Those identified as leaders faced sentences of up to ten years.

The extent and harshness of government repressions energized Poland’s intellectual elites. For the first time, workers and intellectuals found common cause. Three months after the protests, on September 23, 1976, a group of dissident intellectuals founded the Workers’ Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników, or KOR). Its founders included Jacek Kuroń and other prominent figures.

KOR provided legal and financial aid to dismissed workers and their families, maintained lists of those needing help, and collected money both domestically and from trade unions abroad. Many opposition activists, including Lech Wałęsa, later said that June 1976 marked a turning point in how they perceived Polish reality and the concept of social activism.

Beyond immediate relief work, KOR expanded into underground publishing, lectures, and research, all aimed at overcoming the state monopoly of information. As historian Timothy Garton Ash observed, KOR served as an “icebreaker”-within three years, Poland had developed a whole opposition counter-culture without parallel in the Soviet bloc.

By 1978, the first units of free trade union movements were established by workers in mining and shipping centers. These aimed to serve as the nucleus of a future independent movement. The stage was set for what would come in August 1980-when Solidarity would emerge at the Gdańsk Shipyard under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa and ultimately grow to encompass 10 million members.

Legacy of the pre-Solidarity struggles

The uprisings of 1956, 1970, and 1976 each ended in defeat or partial victories at best. Workers won temporary economic concessions but could not change the fundamental nature of the communist system. Yet each rebellion taught valuable lessons. From Poznań came the understanding that workers could shake the regime. From December 1970 came the tactical wisdom to occupy factories rather than take to the streets. From 1976 came the crucial alliance between workers and intellectuals that would prove essential to Solidarity’s success.

These events demonstrated something the regime never fully grasped: that a workers’ state which repeatedly shoots its own workers had lost any claim to legitimacy. It is an indication of the resolve of Poland’s workers that they persisted for so long and finally achieved their objective.

What do you think? How did the combination of worker power and intellectual support make the Solidarity movement more effective than earlier protests? What lessons from Poland’s history of resistance might apply to contemporary nonviolent movements?

References

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The History of Solidarity Movement in Poland

Table of Contents

The Polish October of 1956: seeds of discontent 🔗

Workers’ uprisings: Poznań, Gdańsk, and Radom 🔗

The 1956 Poznań protests 🔗

December 1970: bloodshed on the Baltic coast 🔗

The 1976 strikes and the limits of protest 🔗

The birth of worker-intellectual alliance 🔗

Legacy of the pre-Solidarity struggles 🔗