On the 8 of July 1980 a strike started in the WSK PZL Świdnik factory. The straw that broke the camel's back was the price of the meal in the factory canteen rising 80% in one day. The atmosphere quickly spread over 150 companies in Lublin and the whole voivodeship. The range of the strikes forced the authorities to stop the silence and take a stand regarding the production interruptions that the apparatus of propaganda kept referring to as the "work breaks". The Lublin protests were peaceful. The workers demanded mostly social and economic changes. As a result, during the July strikes the protesters managed to get the authorities to fulfill numerous conditions regarding the improvement of working conditions.
Subsequent to the Lublin protests was the outbreak of the strike in the Gdańsk Shipyard that started on the 14 of August and changed the reality of the Polish People's Republic and the whole Middle-East Europe.
The events of the Lublin July are commemorated by: the Gratitude Monument standing by the Droga Męczenników Majdanka street, the Locomotive Monument at the main train station, and a mural by Mełgiewska street.
Today, four decades later, the people of the Lublin region thank their heroes and remind that #ItStardedInLubelskie. Official ending of the celebrations will take place on the 26th of July.
