On August 14, 38 years ago, Lech Wałęsa led shipyard workers in Gdansk, Poland, in a successful strike to protest the dismissal of activist worker Anna Walentinowicz.

Part of a growing campaign to gain political freedom and improve economic conditions for Poland’s labor force, the 16,000 workers secured Miss Walentinowicz’s swift reinstatement and then elected her to the workers’ committee to negotiate with the Polish authorities and shipyard management.

Let’s all remember the power of the People to fight injustice in peaceful ways. Ordinary people can become extraordinary.

“We must not wait passively. A free Poland is our aim, but no one will give us that freedom. Our passivity will result in their murdering more and more of us, in more and more people suffering. We must educate, because even when a free Poland is achieved, the nation will be so exhausted that there will be no one to lead it.”