Free Trade Unions of the Coast
Free Trade Unions of the Coast (WZZW) were a government-independent trade union in Poland. They started in Gdańsk on 29 April 1978, founded by Andrzej Gwiazda, Krzysztof Wyszkowski, and Antoni Sokołowski. They called themselves the Initiating Committee of the Free Trade Unions and criticized state-controlled unions as tools of exploitation. WZZW worked only in the coastal Tricity area and was not a national group. They were one of several free unions in Poland in the late 1970s and were likely the most important before Solidarity.
The idea for independent unions came from workers during the coastal protests of 1970. WZZW was a non-governmental movement that defended the right to form independent organizations and pushed for democratic reforms. It published an underground newspaper, Robotnik Wybrzeża (Worker of the Coast). By 1980, they drew support from ROPCiO and KOR and became a key force in the free trade union movement.
WZZW organized the August 1980 strike at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk and helped form the Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee, which issued 21 demands. These demands led to the Gdańsk Agreement and helped give rise to Solidarity (Solidarność).
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 18:30 (CET).