Editing Solidarity (Polish trade union) (section)

==Influence abroad==
[[File:A T-55 on Václavské náměstí, Prague.jpg|thumb|The logo of ''Solidarność'' painted on an overturned Soviet era [[T-55]] in [[Prague]] in 1990]]
[[File:Solidarity petition, Edinburgh.JPG|thumb|Students in Scotland collect signatures for a petition in support of Solidarity in 1981]]
[[File:ETUC, Solidarity Trade Union - Budapest, 2011 (2).JPG|thumb|Solidarity, ETUC Demonstration—Budapest 2011]]The survival of Solidarity was an unprecedented event not only in Poland, a [[People's Republic of Poland|satellite state]] of the [[USSR]] ruled in practice by a one-party [[Communist state]], but the whole of the [[Eastern bloc]]. It meant a break in the hard-line stance of the Communist [[Polish United Workers' Party]], which had bloodily ended a 1970 protest with machine-gun fire (killing over thirty and injuring over 1,000), and the broader Soviet Communist government in the Eastern Bloc, which had quelled both the 1956 [[Hungarian Revolution of 1956|Hungarian Uprising]] and the 1968 [[Prague Spring]] with Soviet-led invasions.

Solidarity's influence led to the intensification and spread of anti-Communist ideals and movements throughout the countries of the Eastern Bloc, weakening their Communist governments. As a result of the [[Polish Round Table Agreement|Round Table Agreement]] between the Polish government and the Solidarity-led opposition, elections were held in Poland on 4 June 1989, in which the opposition was allowed to field candidates against the Communist party—the first free elections in any Soviet bloc country. A new upper chamber (the Senate) was created in the Polish parliament and all of its 100 seats were contestable in the election, as well as one-third of the seats in the more important lower chamber (the Sejm). Solidarity won 99 of the 100 Senate seats and all 161 contestable seats in the Sejm—a victory that also triggered a chain reaction across the Soviet Union's satellite states, leading to a mostly bloodless chain of [[anti-communism|anti-communist]] events in [[Central and Eastern Europe]]<ref name="Manfred" /> known as the [[Revolutions of 1989]] ({{langx|pl|Jesień Ludów|lit=Autumn of Nations}}), which ended in the overthrow of each Moscow-imposed regime, and ultimately to the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] in the early 1990s.

Given the union's support from many western governments, relations with trade unions in capitalist countries could be complicated. For example, during the [[UK miners' strike (1984–1985)|UK miners' strike]] of 1984–85, Wałęsa said that "The miners should fight, but with common sense—not with destruction" and said of Margaret Thatcher "With such a wise and brave woman, Britain will find a solution to the strike." However, David Jastrzębski, the president of Upper Silesia Solidarity, voiced his support of the striking miners: "Neither the British government's mounted police charges nor its truncheon blows, any more than the Polish junta's tanks or rifle fire, can break our common will to struggle for a better future for the working class."<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2009/10/08/workers-unite-east-and-west|title=Workers unite, east and west!|date=2009-10-08|publisher=[[Alliance for Workers' Liberty]]|newspaper=Workers' Liberty|language=en|access-date=2017-01-29}}</ref> This was despite the fact that [[Arthur Scargill]], president of the British [[National Union of Mineworkers (Great Britain)|National Union of Mineworkers]] had been highly critical of Solidarity, condemning it as an "anti-socialist organization which desires the overthrow of a socialist state".<ref name="Herald">{{cite news|last1=McKinlay|first1=John|title=Scargill angers unions with Solidarity attack|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19830908&id=hfU9AAAAIBAJ&pg=2345,1392758|access-date=1 September 2014|newspaper=The Glasgow Herald|date=8 September 1983}}</ref> In 2005, the trade union [[Solidarity – The Union for British Workers]] was created by the far-right [[British National Party]] in honour of the original Polish union.

During the late 1980s, Solidarity had attempted to establish connections with the [[internal resistance to apartheid]] in South Africa. However, according to Wałęsa, attempts to develop links between the two forces were hampered by their geographical distance, the dearth of media coverage of events outside Poland's borders and especially in South Africa. As a result, relatively little engagement took place between the two groups.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Macqueen |first1=Ian |date=15 March 2022 |title=Shaka Zulu in the Polish People's Republic (PRL): exploring South African-Polish links in the late Cold War |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14682745.2022.2027913 |journal=[[Cold War History (journal)|Cold War History]] |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=265–286 |doi=10.1080/14682745.2022.2027913 |hdl=2263/84873 |s2cid=247510454 |access-date=31 January 2023|hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In late 2008, several democratic opposition groups in the Russian Federation formed [[Solidarnost|a Solidarity movement]].<ref>[https://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hVkTJkESxuu6x3qpAjxPQrkik3ZAD951R7BG0 Kasparov starts new Russian opposition movement]. ''The Associated Press''. 13 December 2008. {{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

In the United States, the [[American Solidarity Party]] (formerly the Christian Democratic Party USA), a [[Christian democratic]] political party, attributes its namesake to Solidarity.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2016/08/could-the-u-s-finally-get-a-significant-christian-democratic-party/|title=Could the U.S. Finally Get a Significant Christian Democratic Party?|last=Gehrz|first=Chris|date=16 August 2016|publisher=[[Patheos]]|language=en|access-date=16 August 2016|quote=The nominees of the American Solidarity Party (ASP), which takes its name from the Polish movement of the late Cold War and calls itself "the only active Christian Democratic party in the United States."}}</ref>

In a 2011 essay "The Jacobin Spirit" in the American magazine ''[[Jacobin (magazine)|Jacobin]]'', philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]] called Solidarność' one of the "free spaces at a distance from state power" that used "defensive violence" to protect itself from state control. The notion of "defensive violence" runs in the vein of ideas postulated by [[Alain Badiou]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2011/05/the-jacobin-spirit|title=The Jacobin Spirit}}</ref> In a conflict summary commissioned by the [[International Center on Nonviolent Conflict]], Maciej Bartkowski wrote that "Solidarity always pursued its political objectives with a high degree of nonviolent discipline as well as self-imposed limitations."<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/polands-solidarity-movement-1980-1989/|title= Poland's Solidarity Movement (1980-1989)}}</ref>