This high-profile and award-winning work shows the organic working-class character of the Polish Solidarność revolution of 1980–81 and thus debunks the canonical idea that the movement was orchestrated primarily by intellectuals from the democratic opposition, who brought consciousness to the workers ‘from the outside’. Siermiński traces the origins of the Polish revolution to the self-activity and self-organisation developed by the Polish working class during earlier protests, strikes, and occupations. The author convincingly demonstrates that Solidarność was driven by the working class's own aims, experiences and revolutionary instinct—often in direct opposition to the efforts of intellectuals to contain its radicalism.