Poland : "We've caught God by the arm" /
"In August, 1980, workers at the Gdansk shipyard went on strike. Their main demand, free trade unions, was unprecedented in a country where communist party supremacy did not allow the existence of any independent organizations. Lech Walesa, a wily 37-year-old electrician, was the chief negotiat...
| Corporate Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Video DVD |
| Language: | English |
| Language Notes: | Closed-captioned. |
| Published: |
Princeton, NJ :
Films for the Humanities,
[2000]
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| Subjects: |
| Summary: | "In August, 1980, workers at the Gdansk shipyard went on strike. Their main demand, free trade unions, was unprecedented in a country where communist party supremacy did not allow the existence of any independent organizations. Lech Walesa, a wily 37-year-old electrician, was the chief negotiator for the workers, who avoided the mistakes of earlier strikes by maintaining strict nonviolent discipline and by occupying their shipyard, to deter a violent crackdown by authorities. The strike quickly spread to factories and workers throughout the country, magnifying their leverage. Their persistence paid off as government granted most of their demands. A new union was born, named 'Solidarity.' A year and a half later, the government imposed martial law and banned the union. It continued its work underground until 1989, when the communist government asked Lech Walesa's help to settle a new wave of strikes and unrest. Solidarity re-emerged as a revitalized political force, and won decisively in Poland's first free parliamentary elections in 60 years, taking power as the ruling party"--Container. |
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| Item Description: | Major funding provided by Susan and Perry Lerner. Additional funding by The Albert Einstein Institution, Elizabeth and John H. van Merkensteijn, III, Abby and Alan Levy, and The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations. "A force more powerful is a greatly-expanded version of the producing team's award-winning, critically acclaimed feature-length documentary film of the same title, which was released to select theaters in New York, Washington DC, and Los Angeles in 1999"--PBS Web site. Series originally broadcast on PBS in 2000. Videorecording. |
| Physical Description: | 1 DVD-video (31 min.) : sound, color with black and white sequences ; 4 3/4 in. |
| Format: | DVD; stereo. |
| Production Credits: | Camera, Richard Gibb ; editor, Joseph Wiedenmayer ; original music composed and conducted by John Keltonic. |