You are invited to the documentary screening of ‘Citizens’ (1986) followed by a discussion with Director/Producer Richard W. Adams.

This film portrays human dimensions of Poland’s Solidarity movement in 1980-81 that were obscured by Cold-War rhetoric: the efforts of workers, artists and intellectuals who joined together to create a thriving civil society within a totalitarian state. Solidarity activists describe how they learned that to protect their own interests they had to fight for the interests of Polish society as a whole. Their self-governing trade union won the trust and support of virtually all segments of society by providing the only available channel for the local grass-roots initiatives, open debate, and democratic action that ultimately led to non-violent systemic change in Poland and beyond.

Lead image:  The Gdańsk Shipyard, strike, August 1980