The idea of solidarity returned to post‑war intellectual discourse thanks to the social and trade union movement Solidarity (Solidarność), which was born in Poland in 1980. Its originality lies primarily in the renewal of the ideal of freedom and democracy at the end of the 20th century. To understand the uniqueness of that event, I interpret the turn of the 1970s and 1980s as a new phase in the development of modernity, which is moving into late modernity. It consists of economic fundamentalism with a neo‑liberal market economy (Thatcher, Reagan, Deng Xiaoping), anti‑leftist politics, as well as the return of religion in political life (Ayatollah Khomeini, John Paul II). Solidarity was born as a counterpoint to the first two phenomena, drawing inspiration from leftist traditions and Christian ethics. I then reconstruct the meaning of the idea of solidarity as it took shape in 1980–1981, analysing the notion of emancipatory, agonistic and political solidarity. Interpreting Lech Wałęsa’s Nobel Prize speech and excerpts from the most important programmatic document of the Solidarity movement, the Self‑governing Republic, I reconstruct the notion of political solidarity. Concepts of freedom, equality, dignity, truth and non‑violence allow to reconstruct the core content of the political notion of solidarity. Thus the Solidarity trade union movement is interpreted as the renewal of the Enlightenment promise of freedom –the universal freedom of every citizen.

The idea of solidarity returned to post‑war intellectual discourse thanks to the social and trade union movement Solidarity (Solidarność), which was born in Poland in 1980. Its originality lies primarily in the renewal of the ideal of freedom and democracy at the end of the 20th century. To understand the uniqueness of that event, I interpret the turn of the 1970s and 1980s as a new phase in the development of modernity, which is moving into late modernity. It consists of economic fundamentalism with a neo‑liberal market economy (Thatcher, Reagan, Deng Xiaoping), anti‑leftist politics, as well as the return of religion in political life (Ayatollah Khomeini, John Paul II). Solidarity was born as a counterpoint to the first two phenomena, drawing inspiration from leftist traditions and Christian ethics. I then reconstruct the meaning of the idea of solidarity as it took shape in 1980–1981, analysing the notion of emancipatory, agonistic and political solidarity. Interpreting Lech Wałęsa’s Nobel Prize speech and excerpts from the most important programmatic document of the Solidarity movement, the Self‑governing Republic, I reconstruct the notion of political solidarity. Concepts of freedom, equality, dignity, truth and non‑violence allow to reconstruct the core content of the political notion of solidarity. Thus the Solidarity trade union movement is interpreted as the renewal of the Enlightenment promise of freedom –the universal freedom of every citizen.