Solidarność
Triumph and Tragedy in History
The Project
The Polish Solidarity Movement
In Soviet controlled Poland, a movement grown out of labor worker strikes in the port of Gdansk led to the fall of the Iron Curtain. Strike leader Lech Walesa leveraged the country's Catholicism to unite Poland behind democracy. The success of the Solidarity movement inspired similar movements in other Eastern Bloc countries.
The Theme
Triumph and Tragedy
The fall of the Iron Curtain was a great triumph at the cost of many tragedies. The Solidarity Movement did what governments and international entities failed to do, use collective action to influence political change. The lasting impact of the Soviet Union and the success of democracy in Eastern Europe continue. Both current conflicts in Ukraine and the increases of conservatism in Poland show the continued need for social change and collective action.