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( Solidarity)
Solidarity (Polish Solidarnosc (help·info) IPA&_160;[s?li'darn??t??]; full name Independent Self-governing Trade Union "Solidarity" — Niezalezny Samorzadny Zwiazek Zawodowy "Solidarnosc" IPA&_160;[?eza'l??n? sam?'??ndn? 'zvj?~z?k zav?'d?v? s?li'darn??t??]) is a Polish trade union federation founded in September 1980 at the Gdansk Shipyard, and originally led by Lech Walesa. It was the first non-communist trade union in a communist country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-communist social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union. The Roundtable Talks between the government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Walesa was elected President of Poland. Since then it has become a more traditional trade union. Solidarity was founded in September 1980 at the Lenin Shipyards, where Lech Walesa and others formed a broad anti-communist social movement ranging from people associated with the Catholic Church[2] to members of the anti-communist Left. Solidarity advocated nonviolence in its members' activities.[3][4] In September 1981 Solidarity's first national congress elected Lech Walesa as a president[5] and adopted a republican program, the "Self-governing Republic"[6]. The government attempted to destroy the union with the martial law of 1981 and several years of repression, but in the end it had to start negotiating with the union. In Poland, the Roundtable Talks between the government and Solidarity-led opposition led to semi-free elections in 1989. By the end of August a Solidarity-led coalition government was formed and in December Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected Prime Minister. Since 1989 Solidarity has become a more traditional trade union, and had relatively little impact on the political scene of Poland in the early 1990s. A political arm founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) won the parliamentary election in 1997, but lost the following 2001 election. Currently, as a political party Solidarity has little political influence in modern Polish politics.
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