Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (MKS)
공장간파업위원회 (MKS)
An inter-factory strike-coordination body formed at the Gdańsk Lenin Shipyard in August 1980 that turned scattered factory strikes into a single movement with unified demands. Delegates from each striking enterprise constituted a presidium that elected electrician Lech Wałęsa as chairman, and on 17 August it issued the 21 Demands. The 31 August Gdańsk Agreement with the government created the Eastern Bloc's first independent trade union, Solidarity, and the MKS model was then reproduced by the Szczecin and Jastrzębie committees.
In depth
Structure and operation
The MKS came into being on the night of 16 August 1980 in Gdańsk, when the City Strike Committee (Miejski Komitet Strajkowy) was expanded. The shipyard strike had nearly been called off once its own demands were largely met, but as neighbouring plants joined in, the shipyard workers turned it into a solidarity strike and needed a body to unite the striking enterprises of the Gdańsk–Sopot–Gdynia 'Tricity'.
The core principle was that each striking enterprise elected and sent delegates, who met as a plenary session and chose a standing presidium. Shipyard electrician Lech Wałęsa became chairman, joined by Andrzej Gwiazda, Bogdan Lis, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, Anna Walentynowicz and Henryka Krzywonos among roughly seventeen presidium members. By mid-August the MKS represented 156 enterprises, and soon after about 350 enterprises and millions of workers.
This structure drew the lesson of 1956 Poznań and the 1970 coastal strikes: without a central coordinating body, those uprisings had dispersed and been bought off with small concessions. By asserting a single set of 21 Demands instead of workplace-by-workplace grievances, the MKS prevented the authorities from dividing the movement. The same model spread to Szczecin and to the Jastrzębie-Zdrój colliery MKS in Upper Silesia, and after the 31 August agreement the Gdańsk MKS became the founding committee of Solidarity.
Related people
Related historical events
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) formation on 16 Aug 1980 at the Lenin Shipyard, Wałęsa elected chair, the 21 Demands of 17 Aug, representation of 156 enterprises by 18 Aug, and transformation into Solidarity after the 31 Aug Gdańsk Agreement.
- pl.wikipedia.org full list of the MKS presidium, confirming the delegate structure and its origin in the City Strike Committee.
- encysol.pl Encyklopedia Solidarności (IPN): documents that the 31 Aug 1980 protocol was signed by the MKS presidium and that the Gdańsk MKS became the founding committee of the new independent unions.