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
Nationalist Revolutionary Movement of the People sector would be complemented by a true national bourgeoisie. It was advocated an alliance of classes (and not the Marxist idea of class struggle) because the formation of a national state "requires the consensus of all classes"; and relations with all countries according to the national need, and "militant solidarity" with the non-aligned countries of the third world. The MNRP took part in elections in 1966 backing Mario Díez de Medina and in 1978 backing Jaime Arellano Castañeda. In 1979 the MNRP reintegrated with historical Revolutionary Nationalist Movement led by Víctor Paz Estenssoro. Nationalist Revolutionary Movement of the People The