On this day in 1980 workers in Gdansk, Poland seized the Lenin Shipyard and demanded pay raises and the right to form a union free from communist control. The labor leader was named Lech Walesa and he would become a key figure in bringing an end to communist rule in Poland.

Lech Walesa would form Solidarity the Soviet bloc’s first independent trade union. In 1983 Lech Walesa would win the Nobel Peace Prize. Later he would serve as President of Poland from 1990 to 1995. Walesa and his Solidarity movement played a big role in the fall of communism in eastern Europe. Just goes to show how people can change the world. This guy had no higher education, he was an electrician by trade, after he began working in the Lenin Shipyards be became a trade unionist. He faced a lot of personal hardships for his decision but he was willing to put himself out there on the line. The rest is history.