Poland marks 31 years since Solidarity was legalised

Workers killed during Communist crackdowns in Poland have been remembered, exactly 31 years after the Solidarity movement was legalised.

President Bronislaw Komorowski laid flowers at a ceremony in Gdansk where memories of the historic strike at the shipyard run deep.

Former Polish president and anti-Communist icon Lech Walesa also marked the occasion. The leader of the Solidarity union during the protests, he paid tribute separately, having voiced discontent at Poland’s plight since the regime’s fall.

On August 31, 1980 he signed a strike-ending agreement with representatives of the Communist regime. The deal also legalised ‘Solidarity’, the first independent trade union in the former Communist Eastern Bloc.

Walesa went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.

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