Multiple articles concerning Poland’s Solidarity have appeared in press around the world as part of the “We tell the world about Poland” project commemorating the 40th anniversary of the famous strikes in Gdańsk, including one from Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
“Solidarity must become a project for all of Europe – it is our proposal for the upcoming decade of development,” Morawiecki wrote in an article which appeared in new outlets such as Italy’s La Repubblica, France’s L’Opinion, Spain’s ABC, Sweden’s Goeteborgs-Posten, and Czechia’s Lidovych Novinach.
Other participants in the “We tell the world about Poland” project included professor Wojciech Roszkowski, who wrote for L’Opinion that between August 1980 and December 1981, when “Solidarity” was born, processes which decided the fate of Poland and the world were initiated.
Other global media outlets participated with articles on the historic events associated with the rise of the Solidarity trade union movement, which was involved in anti-Soviet protests widely seen as contributing to the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of communist occupation in Europe.
The movement is generally seen as securing its first major victory on Aug. 31, 1980, when after the start of the strikes in Poland in Gdańsk’s shipyard, an agreement was signed which established Solidarność (Solidarity) as first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc.
American historian Timothy Snyder, on the other hand, wrote for the French paper that “the countries of Central Europe perfectly used the opportunities given to them by the fall of communism.”
Snyder’s text was also published by Emerging Europe. The American historian also emphasized that the creation of Solidarity was one of the most important events in Poland and the world at the end of the 20th century.
Venezuela’s El Nacional published a memoir of Michael Dobbs, who was a Washington Post correspondent in Poland in 1980.
Belarusian Section of Radio Swoboda published material concerning Poland’s road to freedom based off of, among others, Morawiecki’s articles. The title of the article was: “40 years of Solidarity: A lesson for Belarus and the world about Poland’s successful opposition to a totalitarian system.”
Morawiecki’s article was also shared by Moldovia’s largest press agency and the Ukrainian portal European Truth. Polish foreign ministry Secretary of State Paweł Jabłoński’s article on Solidarity also appeared in one of Russia’s biggest new websites, NEWSru.com.
All the texts of the project can be read at the special portal: Solidarnosc40.pl.
