2024-08-31 15:18 update: 2024-08-31, 15:24
Photo PAP/Marcin Gadomski
Polish officials commemorated on Saturday the 44th anniversary of the historic August Agreements between Poland’s communist rulers and the rising Solidarity, the first independent trade union in then-communist Eastern Europe.
The milestone accord of August 31, 1980, which paved the way to the ultimate collapse of communism, followed strikes at the shipyard in the northern Polish city of Gdansk, led by a former employee, Lech Walesa, over an unfair dismissal of their colleague, Anna Walentynowicz.
The Saturday ceremonies held in front of the gate to the Gdansk Shipyard were attended by Minister of Culture and National Heritage Hanna Wroblewska, Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar, Mayor of Gdansk Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski, wife of the historic leader of Solidarity movement and later President Lech Walesa - Danuta Walesa and one of the activists of the then Free Trade Unions, and currently senator, Bogdan Borusewicz.
"Today is a special moment in our national and social memory. We are celebrating the 44th anniversary of the August Agreements, which forever changed the course of history in Poland and all of Europe," Wroblewska said at the ceremony.
"While commemorating those historic moments, let us remember the strength that solidarity gives us, she added.
"It allowed Poles to break the shackles of oppression, and today, it reminds us how important it is to act together for the common good."
Later on Saturday, in Gdansk, Prime Minister Donald Tusk attended a ceremony to unveil a statue of Lech Badkowski, a signatory of the Gdansk Agreement and the first press spokesman of the Solidarity trade union.
He said that no one realises how much today's Poland owes to "that cool mind and at the same time warm heart" of Badkowski.
"There would be no Solidarity, there would be no independent Poland, there would be no peaceful and very responsible process of building this new Poland if not for Lech Badkowski," Tusk added.
The Gdansk Shipyard workers who were protesting 44 years ago issued a list of 21 demands to the government for more freedoms in the communist-dominated political system, including the legalisation of independent trade unions, ensuring freedom of speech, releasing political prisoners, removing party privileges for managerial staff and introducing a five-day working week.
They were joined by workers from other cities, forcing the communist regime to make concessions.
On August 31, after 18 days of a sit-in strike at the Gdansk Shipyard and protests in over 700 workplaces across the country, the historic agreements were signed, marking the birth of Solidarity. (PAP)
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