Opposition initiatives among school youth in the Opole voivodeship in the years 1972–1989

Abstract

This article describes various initiativesvarious opposition initiatives that emerged among school youth in the Opole province in the last twenty years of communist rule in Poland. Such initiatives contributed significantly to shaping the social foundation for the revolutionary transformations in the life of the country that began in the summer of 1980, known as the „Solidarity” revolution. Later, throughout the period of 1980–1989, they were an important thread of these changes. Active opposition school youth were a source of staff for „Solidarity” and its organizational counterparts in various social environments. The oppositional activity of school youth was an important complement to the fight waged by trade unionists under the banner of „Solidarity” or more advanced oppositionists. To a large extent, thanks to this, the end of the 1980s brought a flourishing of various forms of opposition activity, mainly in youth environments.