Mainstream Weekly[ Note from the Editor of Mainstream: The post 1968 left circles in Western Europe played a valuable role in defending and amplifying the leading voices of Polish left opposition like Adam Michnik and Jacek Kuron, who were among the co-founders of KOR (Komitet Obrony Robotnikow) - a committee for social defence of workers & their families facing repression. Posted below is a summary of discussions 45 years ago on the strikes in communist Poland in the pages of Echanges, a bulletin of a far-left network in Western Europe. This strike wave was driven by a self-managed independent workers’ movement that led later to the formation of the Solidarnosc trade union. The sacking of Anna Walentynowicz, a national leader of Polish workers, six months before her retirement, sparked a strike movement in August 1980. This was followed by a movement led by Lech Walesa, an electrician at the Lenin shipyard workers in mid-August 1980, who took over the shipyards, and called for labour reforms and civil rights
; this call triggered solidarity strikes in multiple cities giving workers greater bargaining power; leading to successful negotiation of the historic Gdansk Agreement that for the first time recognised the right to form independent trade unions beyond the control of the ruling Communist party. The regime led by General Jaruzelski cracked down in December 1981 and banned Solidarnosc and declared martial law. This trade union movement provided much impetus to voices for democratisation in Poland and across the socialist states of Eastern Europe & the USSR. At that time, the official left parties in India had bitterly criticised the movement in Poland as a CIA-funded conspiracy, whereas India’s small independent left circles tried to give a small voice to Polish workers’ struggles. Co-founders of Solidarnosc later on criticised the betrayals of workers in Post-communist Poland. We invite readers of the below article to watch the 1981 film ’Iron Man’ by the widely acclaimed Polish film director Andrzej Wajda that depicts the events around the Polish workers’ movement of that time and its first achievements —HK (Aug 23, 2025) ]
__0__
The text below is reproduced from: Echanges et Mouvement, Number 23, November 1980
__0__
On the first of July 1980 the Polish government tried to manipulate meat prices and to alter the food supply system in the industrial areas of the country. As a result, workers were faced with price rises of up to 60%, uncertain meat supplies and a fall in their living standards. Indeed for the last four years, since the last attempt to raise food prices, the workers