The 21 demands of MKS ( pl, 21 postulatów MKS) was a list of demands issued on 17 August 1980 by the

Interfactory Strike Committee Inter-Enterprise Strike Committee (or ''Inter-Factory Strike Committee'', pl, Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy, MKS) was an action strike committee formed in Gdańsk Shipyard, People's Republic of Poland on 16 August 1980. It was led by Lec ...

(''Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy, MKS'') in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Strajk sierpniowy w Stoczni Gdańskiej im

The first demand was the right to create independent

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

s. Other demands called the government to respect the constitutional rights and freedoms, dismantling the privileges for

Polish United Workers' Party The Polish United Workers' Party ( pl, Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza; ), commonly abbreviated to PZPR, was the communist party which ruled the Polish People's Republic as a one-party state from 1948 to 1989. The PZPR had led two other lega ...

members, and taking actions to improve the economic conditions of Polish citizens. The demands eventually led to the

Gdańsk Agreement The Gdańsk Agreement (or ''Gdańsk Social Accord(s)'' or ''August Agreement(s)'', pl, Porozumienia sierpniowe) was an accord reached as a direct result of the strikes that took place in Gdańsk, Poland. Workers along the Baltic went on strike in ...

and creation of Solidarity. The charter was written up on two wooden boards and hung on the gates of the shipyard on 18 August 1980. To mark the first anniversary of the August unrest, the demands were put on display in Gdańsk’s Maritime Museum. The day after Martial Law was declared one museum worker hid them in his loft, where they remained forgotten until 1996. Now added to the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Memory of the World Register Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...

, they can be found housed in Gdańsk’s Roads to Freedom exhibition.

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External links

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Jak robotnicy tworzyli 21 postulatów
Polskie Radio, 17.08.2012 1980 in Poland Solidarity (Polish trade union) Memory of the World Register in Poland 1980 documents {{Poland-stub