Poland
Solidarność
solidarity; organised collective action grounded in dignity, freedom and responsibility for others
Resilience Mechanism
People with different views, experiences and interests can unite in the face of injustice, share risk and build an organised movement. Solidarity becomes a source of resilience when empathy is translated into trust, defined roles and sustained collective action.
What It Means
In this context, Solidarność is the name of the independent Polish trade union and broad social movement that emerged in 1980. It brought together workers, activists, intellectuals, democratic opposition groups, and others around labour rights, human dignity, freedom, and democratic change.
Its wider mechanism is not simply sympathy or unity: people cross group boundaries, recognise others’ needs, accept common risk, and organise around concrete demands.
How It Works in a Crisis
Solidarity emerges when people treat threat or injustice as a reason for shared responsibility.
Trust and moral concern are translated into practical roles: organising, sharing information, maintaining communication, and providing housing, transport, food, and legal support. In 1980 this turned local labour protests into a democratic movement. In 2022, households, local authorities, civil society, schools, transport networks and businesses organised help for people fleeing Russia’s war against Ukraine. These were different events, not one continuous tradition.
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What happens
Threat or injustice is no longer someone else’s
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What we focus on
Trust and a shared moral position
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How we act
Information, housing, transport and aid are organised
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What it gives
Shared responsibility becomes action
A Lesson for Other Countries
The Polish experience shows that solidarity can connect people without a shared identity, common interests, or complete agreement.
It requires trust, open disagreement, shared risk, and practical ways to contribute. Mobilisation is usually temporary. To preserve its results, emergency action must turn into durable procedures, sustainable organisations, public policy and everyday inclusion; otherwise, earlier divisions and conflicts return when the immediate threat subsides.
To preserve its results, emergency action must turn into durable procedures, sustainable organisations, public policy and everyday inclusion; otherwise, earlier divisions and conflicts return when the immediate threat subsides.
Where It Comes From
The movement grew from socialist workers’ protests and workplace self-organisation in the Polish People’s Republic. The decisive moment came with the August 1980 strikes, particularly at the Gdańsk Shipyard. The Twenty-One Demands combined labour rights with freedom of expression, independent trade unions and wider democratic reform.
Banned after martial law in 1981, the movement continued through underground publications, informal networks, families, parishes, and international support. After communist rule fell, its internal unity fractured.
What It Looks Like Today
The historical Solidarność is interpreted through trade-union institutions, archives, museums and public memory, including the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk. Solidarity as a broader social form appears in mutual aid, civic responsibility and readiness to act for people in danger.
The large-scale reception of displaced Ukrainians in 2022 may illustrate this wider social mobilisation. It should not be presented as proof that contemporary civic action derives directly from the movement founded in 1980.
Limits of the Concept
Solidarność should not be presented as a conflict-free heroic myth or proof of permanent Polish unity.
This obscures its working-class roots, women’s contributions, diversity of its participants and post-1989 divisions. Assistance to Ukrainians in 2022 was not a direct continuation of the 1980 movement. It demonstrated civic capacity but did not automatically guarantee lasting political commitment, equality or full cultural integration.
Dictionary Links
Related Terms
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NSZZ Solidarność
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the 21 Demands
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Gdańsk Agreement
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samorządność
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workers’ emancipation
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democratic opposition
Sources
Useful Links
- European Solidarity Centre, “How Did Solidarność Come To Be?”
- UNESCO Memory of the World, “Twenty-One Demands, Gdańsk, August 1980.”
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Institute of National Remembrance, The Encyclopedia of Solidarity portal.
- Michał Duszczyk and Paweł Kaczmarczyk, “The War in Ukraine and Migration to Poland: Outlook and Challenges,” 2022
- UNHCR Operational Data Portal, Ukraine Refugee Situation: Poland
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Katarzyna Kalinowska et al., Społeczeństwo łatwopalne. Praktyki pomagania uchodźcom wojennym z Ukrainy w roku 2022 w Polsce, 2023.
Act
Other Terms in This Dimension
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Civic volunteerism
United States
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Getting on with it
United Kingdom
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Polder model
Netherlands
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Prostovoljno gasilstvo
Slovenia
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Šauliai
Lithuania
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Sozialpartnerschaft
Austria
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Tiigrihüpe
Estonia
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Totalförsvar
Sweden
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Tripartite
Luxembourg