1980 Event

Solidarity

Name: Solidarity
Start: 1980

At the Gdańsk shipyards the Soviet bloc’s first free trade union is born. Communism loses its workers’ legitimacy.

What leads to what

Declared chains of causation — debatable, like any reading of history.

Downstream

leads to Fall of the Berlin Wall 1989 Neuf ans entre le syndicat interdit et le mur ouvert.

Meanwhile, elsewhere

Within twenty-five years of 1980 — the context national timelines leave out.

2 years earlier Democratic constitution of Spain Spain
5 years later Schengen Agreement
6 years earlier Carnation Revolution Portugal
6 years earlier Division of the island Cyprus
8 years later Singing Revolution Estonia
9 years later Pan-European Picnic Hungary
9 years later December revolution Romania
9 years later Velvet Revolution Czechia

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Which long period

Periods overlap: they are landmarks, not boxes.

European integration 1950 – 2030 From coal and steel to a Union of twenty-seven.
Cold War 1947 – 1991 A continent cut in two, from Yalta to 1991.

Countries involved

Poland

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What was written of it

Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.

Déclaration du 9 mai 1950 1950

Schuman Declaration, Salon de l’Horloge, Paris