The tablets list the 21 demands put forward by Solidarity under Mr. Walesa’s leadership in August 1980. The first of these was the right to establish an independent trade union, followed by demands that the government respect constitutional rights and freedoms and improve economic conditions. The boards are on loan to the European Solidarity Center from a Gdansk maritime museum, to which Solidarity activists gave them for safekeeping in the 1980s. After Law and Justice took power in 2015, it demanded the boards be returned to the museum, which it controls through the Culture Ministry. For anyone seeking political legitimacy and support in Poland, Mr. Hall added, “Solidarity is a great asset.”

Source: International New York Times July 28, 2021 15:54 UTC