Anna Walentynowicz
Polish trade union activist, co-founder of the "Solidarity" (1929-2010) · Poland · On the map · Journalists · Died at 80
Anna Walentynowicz was a Polish trade unionist and co-founder of Solidarity, the first recognised independent trade union in the Eastern Bloc.
Anna Walentynowicz is read about 144 times a day, in 23 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 126 days, one point a day.
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Photos 6
President Lech Kaczyński decorates Anna Walentynowicz (3 May 2006)
Plaque dedicated to Walentynowicz, seen on the house where she lived until her death.
Building in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz where Anna Walentynowicz lived (2010 photo)
Anna Walentynowicz and Lech Wałęsa attend a mass at the Lenin Shipyard in August 1980
The mass for the homeland. In the first row: Anna Walentynowicz (Warsaw, 1983)Awards
About this person
Her firing from her job at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk in August 1980 was the event that ignited the strike at the shipyard, set off a wave of strikes across Poland, and quickly paralyzed the Baltic coast. The Interfactory Strike Committee (MKS) based in the Gdańsk shipyard eventually transformed itself into Solidarity; by September, more than one million workers were on strike in support of the 21 demands of MKS, making it the largest strike ever.
