EMBASSY EVENTS 2009

20th Anniversary of Round Table Talks

6 February 2009

Round Table Talks

February 6, 2009 marks the 20th Anniversary of the beginning of Round Table Talks in Poland when the communist government initiated discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność in a response to growing social unrest.  The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, Poland from February 6 to April 4, 1989.  The fifty-seven negotiators at the talks included representatives from the ruling PZPR, Solidarność, and various PZPR-sanctioned quasi-parties and mass organizations, such as the United Peasant Party, the Democratic Party, the Christian Social Union, the Association of Polish Catholics, and the All-Polish Alliance of Trade Unions.  The document signed by the participants on April 4, 1989, laid the groundwork for a pluralistic society that in theory would enjoy freedom of association, freedom of speech, an independent judiciary, and independent trade unions.

Following the factory strikes of the early 1980s and the subsequent formation of the – then still underground – Solidarity movement (Solidarność) under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa, the political situation in Poland started relaxing somewhat. The government tried to crack down on the anti-Communist sentiments but the movement had gained too much momentum and it became impossible to hold off change anymore. When the government convened round table talks with the opposition in early 1989, it was prepared to make certain concessions, including the legalization of Solidarność.  It had no intention, however, of granting Solidarity the status of an equal partner.  The Polish Communists, led by Gen. Jaruzelski, hoped to co-opt prominent opposition leaders into the ruling group without making major changes in the political power structure. In reality, the talks radically altered the shape of the Polish government and society. The events in Poland precipitated and gave momentum to the fall of the entire Communist bloc; the Yalta arrangement collapsed soon after the events in Poland.

The Aftermath – the 1989 Elections
After months of haggling, the round table talks yielded a historic compromise in early 1989: Solidarity would regain legal status and the right to post candidates in parliamentary elections (with the outcome guaranteed to leave the communists a majority of seats). Although to many observers the guarantee seemed a foolish concession by Solidarity at the time, the election of June 1989 swept communists from nearly all the contested seats, demonstrating that the PZPR's presumed advantages in organization and funding could not overcome society's disapproval of its ineptitude and oppression.

Solidarity used its newly superior position to broker a coalition with various small parties that until then had been silent satellites of the PZPR. The coalition produced a noncommunist majority that formed a cabinet dominated by Solidarity. Totally demoralized and advised by Gorbachev to accept defeat, the PZPR held its final congress in January 1990. In August 1989, the Catholic intellectual Tadeusz Mazowiecki became prime minister of a government committed to dismantling the communist system and replacing it with a Western-style democracy and a free-market economy. By the end of 1989, the Soviet alliance had been swept away by a stunning succession of revolutions partly inspired by the Polish example. Suddenly, the history of Poland, and of its entire region, had entered the post communist era.

[Source: U.S. Library of Congress]