17 September 1980: The birth of Solidarity

Lech Walesa was elected president of Solidarity

In 1980, life in Poland was getting expensive. The price of food was rising fast, and wages werent keeping up. Workers began to strike in protest.

The Baltic city of Gdansk had grown into something of a hotbed of resistance to the Communist government. And it was the workers in the Lenin Shipyards who were the most rebellious.

The firing of crane operator and activist Anna Walentynowicz was the last straw. And on 14 August, 17,000 workers went on strike and took control of the shipyard. They were led by the impressively mustachioed electrician Lech Walesa.

The Gdansk strike inspired others throughout Poland, and soon workers in 200 factories across the country had downed tools. They handed a list of 21 demands to the government, including the right to strike and the right to form independent trade unions.

The government caved in, and on 31 August, agreed the Gdansk Accords, conceding many of the workers demands.

And so, on 17 September, a group of workers representatives formed Solidarity, the first independent trade union the Soviet bloc had ever seen, and Lech Walesa was elected president.

Over the next 18 months or so, membership grew to nearly ten million. It soon became a social and political force, demanding economic reform and greater freedom.

General Wojciech Jaruzelski, under pressure from the Soviet Union, imposed martial law in 1981, and in 1982 declared Solidarity illegal. It spent the next few years as an underground organisation.

But support flooded in from overseas. Confusingly for many, world-class union-basher Margaret Thatcher became a fan, along with top lefty Tony Benn, plus Ronald Reagan, and the Pope.

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17 September 1980: The birth of Solidarity