Solidarity

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Solidarity (Polish ') is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gda?sk Shipyards, originally led by Lech Wa??sa. In the 1980s, it gathered a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church down to members of the anti-communist Left. The union was backed by a group of intellectual dissidents - the Workers' Defence Committee or Komitet Obrony Robotników - KOR in Polish (formed in 1976). This was renamed the following year - Committee for Social Self-defence (KSS-KOR). Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members activities.

Related Topics:
Polish - Polish - Trade union - Federation - 1980 - Gda?sk Shipyard - Lech Wa??sa - 1980s - Anti-communist - Social movement - Catholic Church - Left - Workers' Defence Committee - Komitet Obrony Robotników - 1976 - Committee for Social Self-defence - Nonviolence

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The survival of the Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a satellite state of the USSR ruled by a (in practice) one-party Communist regime, but also in the whole Eastern bloc (Warsaw pact).

Related Topics:
Satellite state - USSR - One-party - Communist regime - Eastern bloc - Warsaw pact

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It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the Party which in another protest in 1970 had ended in bloodshed with dozens of people killed by machine gun fire and over 1,000 injured. In 1968, the Prague Spring was crushed by Soviet-led invasion in the streets of the capital of Czechoslovakia.

Related Topics:
1970 - 1968 - Prague Spring - Czechoslovakia

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