Kalendarium wydarzeń strajkowych w Kombinacie Metalurgicznym Huta Im. Lenina wiosną i latem 1988 roku

Striking as the main method of fi ghting the communist regime peaked in the spring and summer of 1988, when workers’ protests affected the some of the most important companies in the country. The main reason for the strikes were government price increases introduced a few months earlier. During the two strikes employees stopped working at several facilities including: the Regional Transport Company in Bydgoszcz, the Vladimir Lenin Steelworks in Krakow, the Gdańsk Shipyard, the Steelworks at Stalowa Wola and tseveral coal mines (the Manifest Lipcowy, the Moszczenica, and the XXX-lecia PRL.) The immediate consequence of that ferment was the initiation by the authorities to talk with the leaders of the opposition leading to the Round Table agreements. The Vladimir Lenin Steelworks, played a very important role in this process where, on April 26th, the Strike Committee was formed, led by Andrzej Szewczuwianiec. The protests in the steelworks, in which a few thousand workers participated, were brutally suppressed by the communist authorities on the night of 4 to 5 May. But the course of the protests showed that the only way out of the current situation were deep political, social and economic reforms which culminated with the talks at the Round Table, and resulted in the partially free parliamentary elections of 1989.