The Centre for Doctoral and Student Activities of the University of Gdańsk invites you to participate in a meeting related to one of the most important organisations of the pre-August opposition - the Free Trade Unions of the Coast. The occasion for the conference is the 45th anniversary of the organisation. The event will be attended by: dr Piotr Abryszeński (Institute of National Remembrance), dr Piotr Brzeziński (Solidarity Heritage Institute), and Dominik Bień (University of Gdańsk). The meeting will take place on April 24 at 1.15 p.m. in auditorium S208 at the Faculty of Social Sciences.

The Free Trade Unions of the Coast were established in 1978 and represented a break in the state's previous monopoly on trade union activity. The organisation's activists tackled issues of labour law, workplace safety, the dysfunctions of the communist system, workers' traditions and those associated with December 70'. One of the primary channels by which they communicated with society was the periodical Robotnik Wybrzeża [Worker of the Coast], of which seven issues were published.

WZZ activists included Andrzej Gwiazda, Joanna Duda- Gwiazda, Anna Walentynowicz, Andrzej Kołodziej, Bogdan Borusewicz, Lech Wałęsa, Lech Kaczyński, Krzysztof Wyszkowski, Andrzej Bulc. In 1980, WZZ activists had a significant impact on the start of the strike in the Gdańsk STOCZNIA and other Tricity plants and on the subsequent formation of the Solidarity Trade Union.

IPN, Progress and CASID organise the meeting.