April 17, 1989

Solidarity (Polish trade union)

Warsaw court re-registers Solidarity as a legal trade union

The union's leader was not in the courtroom when Solidarity became legal again. About 200 supporters chanted his name anyway.

17 April 1989, Warsaw Voivodeship Court

On 17 April 1989, a three-judge panel presided over by Judge Danuta Widawska entered the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union “Solidarity” in the register of trade unions, restoring its ability to operate publicly.

The ruling rested on amendments to trade-union law enacted after the Round Table settlement of 5 April. This was a provincial court, not the Supreme Court.

The anthem in the courtroom

About 200 supporters rose after the decision was announced, chanted the names of Solidarity and Lech Wałęsa, and sang the Polish national anthem.

Wałęsa was elsewhere. Afterward he called on Polish workers to join the restored union.

Solidarity had been formally dissolved by legislation in October 1982, after martial law, and had operated underground for more than six years. Bronisław Geremek, one of its Round Table negotiators, was present in the court.

A union, not a party

The registration covered a trade union. Solidarity-backed election activity ran through the Citizens' Committee, with candidates formally standing as independents for the June elections.

The separate Rural Solidarity union was registered three days later, on 20 April.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 7 sources 2 audit passes

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What the sources leave uncertain

Solidarity activists debated whether the action should be called “legalization” of a new entity or “re-legalization” of the continuously existing 1980 union. The uncontested event is the court's April 17 entry in the union register.
A KARTA photograph is miscaptioned with the judge's first name as Maria; contemporary Reuters, UPI and Los Angeles Times reports, corroborated by another contemporary photo catalog, identify her as Danuta Widawska.