History of Solidarity History of Solidarity The history of Solidarity (, pronounced ), a Polish non-governmental trade union, began on August 14, 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards (now Gdańsk Shipyards) at its founding by Lech Wałęsa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country. Solidarity gave rise to a broad, non-violent, anti-communist social movement that, at its height, claimed some 9.4 million members. It is considered to have contributed greatly to the fall of communism. Poland's communist government attempted to destroy the union by instituting martial law in 1981, followed by several years of
Solidarity Movement with Chile and performed around the world to educate about Latin American social struggles. The Nueva Canción group's members included Rafael Manriquez, Quique Cruz, Fernando "Feña" Torres, Hector Salgado, and Elizabeth Lichi Fuentes. In 1982, the group sang with Pete Seeger for a movement solidarity concert at the Berkeley Community Theatre. La Esmeralda is a Chilean Naval ship known to be a site of torture and detention during the dictatorship. It was docked in the port of Valparaiso, Chile then sent to tour around the world. On Friday morning, June 21, 1974, La Esmeralda was set to dock at the Oakland Naval