caption death_date death_place birth_place birth_date image article_title name occupation
anna walentynowicz -lrb- 2005 -rrb- 10 april 2010 smolensk , russia równe , poland -lrb- now rivne , ukraine -rrb- 15 august 1929 anna walentynowicz with paula dobriansky cropped.jpg anna walentynowicz
 anna walentynowicz free trade union activist
anna walentynowicz

anna walentynowicz -lrb- ; 15 august 1929 -- 10 april 2010 -rrb- was a polish free trade union activist .
her firing in august 1980 was the event which ignited the strike at the lenin shipyard in gdańsk , set off a wave of strikes in poland , and quickly paralyzed the baltic coast .
the interfactory strike committee -lrb- mks -rrb- based in the gdańsk shipyard eventually transformed itself into solidarity trade union , of which she became a prominent member .
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 -lrb- bring anna walentynowicz back to work ! -rrb-
in the early days of the gdansk strike .
she is now widely regarded as the `` mother of independent poland . ''
