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
Jail solidarity of the anti-nuclear movement in the United States was jail solidarity. Some activists have viewed jail solidarity as being very important for their states of mind while imprisoned. Jail solidarity can also refer to non-prisoners holding rallies outside prisons or otherwise helping to provide moral support to prisoners, especially imprisoned activists or colleagues. It has been hypothesized that prison administrations throughout the United States might be overwhelmed by prisoner organizing across racial lines. Per Herngren, recounting his prison experience, writes: A number of prisoner advocacy organizations, including PrisonerSolidarity.org, which serves as a news portal, are part of the prisoner solidarity