Solidarity Citizens' Committee as their own candidate. This cleavage continues to shape the Polish political landscape until this day. Solidarity Citizens' Committee The Solidarity Citizens' Committee ("Komitet Obywatelski "Solidarność"", acronym KO "S"), also known as "Citizens' Electoral Committee" ("Obywatelski Komitet Wyborczy"), previously named "Citizens' Committee with Lech Wałęsa" ("Komitet Obywatelski przy Lechu Wałęsie") was an (initially semi-) legal political organisation of the democratic opposition in communist Poland. Formed on 18 December 1988 in the premises of the Divine Mercy church in Warsaw, it spontaneously evolved into a nationwide movement attracting a vast majority of supporters of radical political change in the country after
History of Solidarity excuse to bring security forces into play. After 27 Bydgoszcz Solidarity members, including Jan Rulewski, were beaten up on March 19, a four-hour warning strike on March 27, involving around twelve million people, paralyzed the country. This was the largest strike in the history of the Eastern bloc, and it forced the government to promise an investigation into the beatings. This concession, and Wałęsa's agreement to defer further strikes, proved a setback to the movement, as the euphoria that had swept Polish society subsided. Nonetheless the Polish communist party—the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR)—had lost its total control over society.