It was the first independent mass political movement to emerge in the Soviet bloc.
But the debate continues over Solidarity's significance for the ultimate collapse of East European communism.
On 31 August 1980, Polish government representatives signed an agreement with striking shipyard workers, authorising the establishment of a new trade union free of communist control.
Sixteen months later, the experiment in political co-existence came to an end, with tanks on the streets and mass arrests.
Re-legalised in 1989, Solidarity soon took over Poland's government from the communists - but then rapidly disintegrated amid acrimony and mutual recriminations.
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