“The August Agreements with the consent for the registration of the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union ‘Solidarity’ were a breakthrough on the path from communist People’s Republic of Poland to a free Poland. The regime’s concessions negotiated by the strikers ultimately led to the fall of communist power”, wrote President Andrzej Duda in a letter to participants in the celebrations commemorating the 43rd anniversary of the 1980 strikes and the creation of the NSZZ Solidarność (Trade Union Solidarity)”, which was read out by Minister Andrzej Dera in Gdansk.
President Duda recalled that the shipyard workers of Gdańsk and Szczecin, followed by the workers of Jastrzębie-Zdrój and Dąbrowa Górnicza, paved the path of freedom that we have been following for 43 years. “The new, modern free Poland emerged from the teaching of St John Paul II and the demands of August ’80,” he wrote.
In the Polish president’s opinion, August ’80 was the most important of the post-war “Polish months”, because it “collected the experiences of March ’68, December ’70, June ’76 – and at the same time it transcended them”.
“That is why it gave rise to the 1989 breakthrough. At each of these historical stops on the Polish path to freedom, there were working people who, with their faith and deeds, crumbled the wall separating us from the free world at the time”, Andrzej Duda recalled and pointed out that 43 years ago working people “united with the intellectuals, students and farmers stood together – and won”.
“Our sovereign and democratic Polish Republic today grows out of the legacy of that unity and Solidarity – a movement inspired by the Pope’s message of freedom and peace”, said the President.
On the occasion of Solidarity and Freedom Day, a commemorative illumination was displayed on the façade of the Presidential Palace.
Solidarity and Freedom Day is celebrated annually on 31 August, the anniversary of the August Agreements. The Day was established to commemorate the historic 1980 uprising of Poles for freedom and independence.
Adrian Andrzejewski