"The path to freedom which started 40 years ago was tough, rocky and tragic, but the Poles never lost hope" - U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher wrote on Twitter to mark the 40th anniversary of signing of the Gdańsk Agreement.
"Without the agreement signed in August which led to the creation of Solidarity, communism would not have fallen in Europe. The path to freedom which started 40 years ago was tough, rocky and tragic, but the Poles never lost hope" - Mosbacher wrote on Twitter.
40 years since Gdańsk Agreement
40 years ago, in the summer of 1980, Poland saw a wave of mass protests sparked by the increase of meat prices. First strikes broke out in the seaside cities. On August 30, 1980, an agreement was signed in Szczecin, ending the strikes in West Pomerania. The first agreement between the striking workers and the government was followed the next day by the Gdańsk Agreement, signed by Interfactory Strike Committe chief Lech Wałęsa and Deputy PM Mieczysław Jagielski, inside the legendary BHP Hall of the Lenin Shipyard.
The Gdańsk Agreement, also known as August Agreement(s), led to the establishing of the Solidarity - the first legal and independent trade union in communist states - and spurred the systemic changes of 1989, toppling of communism and the post-Yalta order.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English