MAKING HISTORY:

Negotiation Lessons from Solidarnosc

By Mark Young,

President, Rational Games, Inc.

October 2024

Last month, I took the occasion of a touristic visit to Gdansk to visit the truly impressive European Solidarity Center there.

While the significance of what happened here has always been clear to me, and the courage of Lech Walesa and others is deeply inspiring, I never thought of it as also quite an interesting example of negotiation success.

Solidarnosc, only founded in 1980, quickly became the largest union in the world making history.

Truly grassroots, democratic, noncapitalist and a participatory social experiment, it was indeed an exciting venture. Strictly nonviolent, with stringent self-imposed rules, it went on to spark major systemic change, starting from the negotiation table.

From what I understand, the key success factors for this negotiation were:

1. Stamina

A full ten years elapsed between the first success of Solidarnosc, with the government formally recognizing them in 1980 but dragging their feet on further discussions until 1989. At that point, things happened quickly, with the government requesting the Round Table agreement negotiations, and even scheduling free elections thereafter, an election that Solidarnosc won overwhelmingly with 99 out of 200 seats after a breathtaking campaign. Like Gorbachev in the USSR, this Polish government had sought to make minor changes within the system, without upturning it. That did not succeed. By now the pent-up transformation of the country took everyone by surprise.

2. Judicious selection of negotiation team

The large negotiation team on the Solidarnosc side was not only deep in talent but also broad in constituencies, including white-collar workers, intellectuals, academics, people from all walks of life, also, politicians from the anti-Soviet left to Polish nationalists and American liberals. This created tremendous coalition power.

3. Sticking to clear values

It was clear from the outset what Solidarnosc stood for. An open, participatory, nonpartisan assemblage of citizens demanding free expression, union representation and improved well-being for all, but especially the workers. There was not much not to like there.

4. Help by a third party (the Catholic Church)

Through skilful back-channel negotiation with the Holy See, as well as profiting from the wildly popular two visits of the Polish Pope, the Solidarnosc negotiators created an unshakeable coalition with overwhelming moral authority. Negotiating with them was also negotiating with the Pope.

Success was overwhelming and transformative. Alas, it did not last long. Once in power, the Solidarnosc government proved to be inept and powerless. A puzzling shift to neoliberalism with a new emphasis on property rights went along with admiration for the West (Margaret Thatcher was deemed a “wise and brave woman”).

Unmoored from what it stood for, the movement evaporated quickly, From a 10 million membership peak in September 1981by 2010 Solidarnosc had suffered a 90% decline. Reduced to campaigns for blue laws to forbid Sunday shopping, the movement is now all but subsumed by the PiS.

As impermanent as it all turned out to be, these negotiators changed the country and also the world. They deserve our respect.

Comments welcome.