Story of Poland: Solidarity movement [individual assignment]
STORY OF POLAND: SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT
The election of Poland’s John Paul II as the head of the Roman Catholic Church gave a new boost and impetus to the dissident movement launched in Poland in the early 1970s. John Paul II enjoyed wide popularity and respect, not only in Poland, but also among Catholics in general. On June 2, 1979, during his first official visit to Poland, Pope John Paul II urged thousands of people attending his mass in Warsaw to protect freedoms and religious traditions. Highlighting Poland as a great defender of Catholicism and Christianity in general, and a country with an important spiritual mission amid communist governance, was certainly perceived as a threat to the system. The historic speech of John Paul II in Victory Square in Warsaw and his nine-day long visit to Poland is considered the moral basis for revolution, soon followed by comprehensive political and social transformation. His speech became a symbol of the start of Polish People’s fight for freedom.
Amid the economic crisis that started in 1980 in Poland, shipyard factory workers went on a strike in the city of Gdansk in the early spring, led by an electrician Lech Walesa. The workers were seeking higher wages and the reinstatement of workers who unfairly lost their jobs. As word traveled about the strikers, workers from nearly 200 factories joined the strike. Fearing the strike would spread across the nation, the Communist government was forced to make concessions and meet requirements of protesters as part of the Gdansk Agreement, which ended the strike. It was signed by Lech Walesa on behalf of the workers, using a pen bearing a massive picture of Pope John Paul II. Soon the first independent trade union led by Lech Walesa was established in the communist system, named Solidarity – a movement also dubbed as a “giant tree planted by awakened conscience.” In about two years, the number of Solidarity members reached 10 million. It was a unique event considering that about one-fourth of Poland’s population voluntarily joined the first independent organization created in the country. Jan Rulewski, one of the leaders of Solidarity, declared during a meeting of the organization: “Solidarity as a giant hammer must smash the totalitarian system.” After the rise of the wave of mass rebellion, the Polish communist government instituted martial law, arrested Walesa, the leader of the movement, and prohibited Solidarity. After another visit of Pope John Paul II in 1983 in Poland, the communist government lifted martial law, Solidarity was legalized and Walesa was set free.
As a result of increasing public discontent and civic activism, roundtable negotiations were launched between the communist government and Solidarity, initiated and mediated by the Polish Catholic Church. The church carried a lot of weight with the population and played a decisive and most crucial role in a peaceful resolution of the situation between the two opposing forces, which eventually resulted in holding of independent elections in 1990. A friend of Pope John Paul II and a clergyman named Mycheslav Malinksi highlighted the positive role of church as a civil institution in these processes by saying that Gdansk protesters were once children who took lessons about freedom, religion and morality from the clergymen, which they later utilized remarkably during civil activism.
Expert questions
1. What are the facts of the case?
2. What was the outcome?
3. What factors appear to have been significant in the outcome? Explain your reasoning.
4. What does each of the cases (Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Ukraine) have in common?
5. How are the cases (Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Ukraine) different?
6. What can be learned from both the similarities and differences of the cases?