page_title: Anna Walentynowicz
hierarchical_section_title: Anna Walentynowicz
caption_attribution_description: English: Anna Walentynowicz
context_page_description: Anna Walentynowicz was a Polish free trade union activist and co-founder of Solidarity, the first non-communist trade union in the Eastern Bloc. 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 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.
  Walentynowicz's arrest became an organizing slogan in the early days of the Gdańsk strike. She is referred to by some as the "mother of independent Poland." She was among the dignitaries killed in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash near Smolensk in Russia, which also claimed the lives of the President of Poland and his wife, and the senior commanders of the Polish Armed Forces.
  In 2006, she was awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle. In 2020, Time magazine included her on the list of 100 Women of the Year who influenced the world over the last 100 years.
context_section_description: Anna Walentynowicz ([ˈanna valɛntɨˈnɔvʲit͡ʂ]; 15 August 1929 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish free trade union activist and co-founder of Solidarity, the first non-communist trade union in the Eastern Bloc. 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.
  Walentynowicz's arrest became an organizing slogan (Bring Anna Walentynowicz Back to Work!) in the early days of the Gdańsk strike. She is referred to by some as the "mother of independent Poland." She was among the dignitaries killed in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash near Smolensk in Russia, which also claimed the lives of the President of Poland and his wife, and the senior commanders of the Polish Armed Forces. 
  In 2006, she was awarded Poland's highest honour, the Order of the White Eagle. In 2020, Time magazine included her on the list of 100 Women of the Year who influenced the world over the last 100 years.
caption: Anna Walentynowicz (2005)
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