Zarys działalności zagranicznej pierwszej Solidarności w świetle polskich dokumentów
Outline of the foreign Activity of the first Solidarity in the Light of Polish Documents

Summary/Abstract: In the years 1980–1981, the Solidarity Trade Union conducted activities abroad, encroaching upon areas that up to then had been the sole domain of the PRL authorities. The goal of this article is to answer the question: what was the direction and specific nature of those activities, and did they get results? A secondary issue is how the PZPR leadership reacted to the union’s foreign initiatives. Documents of Solidarity, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Political Bureau of the PZPR Central Committee are analysed. The foreign activities of Solidarity grew after the trade union was registered in November 1980. The main addressees of its ‘foreign policy’ were the key trade unions in democratic states and centres of the Polish diaspora. Solidarity’s internationalisation of the movement was successful – the union corresponded with syndicates in 18 countries around the world. It sent delegations on at least 40 trips abroad in connection with study, trade unions and promotion; its members attended audiences with Pope John Paul II. The union gained material support, particularly deliveries of printing equipment. Its “To the Rescue” Medicine Bank was effective, bringing in foreign medical aid valued at 3,650,000 dollars. The foreign activities of Solidarity were not a subject of discussion among the party leadership, which did have access, however, to reports by state institutions that were observing what the union was up to abroad.

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