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Top Polish officials celebrate milestones in anti-communist movement

PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek 31.08.2017 13:33
Polish President Andrzej Duda and Prime Minister Beata Szydło have on Thursday taken part in commemorative activities for two significant communist-era events.
Beata Szydło places a candle on the grave of one of the victims of 1982 clashes between militia and demonstrators in Lubin. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński.Beata Szydło places a candle on the grave of one of the victims of 1982 clashes between militia and demonstrators in Lubin. Photo: PAP/Maciej Kulczyński.

On 31 August, 1982, three men were killed in clashes between communist militia and peaceful demonstrators who were marking two years since a slight thaw in the oppressive regime.

The deaths occurred in the city of Lubin, in Poland's south, where Szydło and Duda attended a special church service.

Demonstrations in 1982 also took place in a number of Polish cities to celebrate the so called-August Agreements of 1980, which led to more lax censorship and employment rules, and legal, independent trade unions.

This ultimately allowed the Solidarity Trade Union to gain ground and helped lead to the end of communism in Poland in 1989.

Events commemorating those agreements are to take place at shipyards in the northern city of Gdańsk, the epicentre of anti-communist strikes, and at nearby Gdynia's monument to the victims of 1970 clashes between militia and protesters in which 45 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. (vb)

tags: communism
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