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But just 10 years earlier such a change was unthinkable. Communism held the states of Eastern Europe in an iron grip and with force used to subdue uprisings in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, there seemed little hope of an end to the status quo. But often from such a hopeless state of


affairs an unlikely hero emerges and that was the case with Anna Walentynowicz. Orphaned during the war, Anna started work at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, as it was then known, in 1950. A hard worker, Anna was seen as a Stakhanovite (someone the rest should seek to emulate) and she began what was a 16 year career on site as a welder.


Although never a member of the Communist party, it was because of her skills as a welder that Anna was favoured by the system. But her disillusionment grew as freedoms were increasingly restricted, and after protesting workers were killed at the shipyard in a protest in 1970, she joined colleagues including Lech Walesa in the Interfactory Strike Committee (MKS) which went on to become the Solidarity trade union.


Anna, who in the final days of her career became a crane operator, saw her date with destiny come on August 7 1980 when she was sacked because of her work as a free trade union activist, just weeks before she was due to retire.


WELDING WORLD


Those who are involved in the welding industry know full well the profound impact this process has on all of our lives. But while many of the population will be unaware of the effect welding has on their day-to-day existence, there may be many leaders in the industry who may also be unaware of the key role welders played in one of the biggest moments in post-war history.


IN GDANSK


Welding World paid a visit to Gdansk last month to the European Solidarity Centre at the home of the historic shipyard and found out just how influential the welders of the Baltic city were in changing history. The collapse of the Berlin wall in 1988 and with it the Communist system still has repercussions today to our own politics and the way in which states


As a result a wave of strikes at the Lenin Shipyard led to more than a million people going out in support of her and the famous 21 demands made by the MKS. In a year of increased freedoms the people of Poland and Solidarity saw their power grow as their call for basic human rights such as food and free government were heard on a global stage. With the die already cast, communism in Poland struggled on for a decade more, thanks largely to the terror of martial law that was imposed in 1981. But by 1989 and with the winds of democratic change across Europe in the air, Poland held the closest thing to a free election since 1928. It was here that Solidarity came into its own and the activities of all the workers at the Gdansk shipyard, including welders such as Anna, came to fruition as freedom finally prevailed. l


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