Censoring Solidarity: Freedom of Speech and its Denial in Poland, 1980–1981
As a result of the nationwide strike wave in August 1980 that gave birth to the Solidarity trade union, the Polish state authorities conceded to the reform of state censorship and to Solidarity creating union bulletins that were not subject to preventative censorship. This article analyses the Solidarity press to explore its censoring through direct state censorship and self-censorship in 1980–1. It argues that Solidarity's dual commitment to truth and legality were irreconcilable and that the state cultivated this conflict, contributing to the undermining of Solidarity's moderate leaders and the treatment of history as an arena for politicisation and state control. It posits that these conflicts have contributed to the current Polish government's frontal assault on the legacy of the Solidarity leadership.