The Polish Round Table Talks took place in Warsaw, communist Poland, from 6 February to 5 April 1989. The government initiated talks with the banned trade union Solidarity and other opposition groups to defuse growing social unrest.
Following the factory strikes of the early 1980s and the subsequent formation of the (then still underground) Solidarity movement under the leadership of Lech Wałęsa, the political situation in Poland started relaxing somewhat. Despite an attempt by the government to crack down on trade unionism, the movement had gained too much momentum, and it became impossible to hold off change any more. In August 1988, the Polish People's Republic authorities started a dialogue with the opposition under the influence of multiple internal and external factors. The main reasons were the many social protests, lasting from May 1988 in different regions of Poland, the increasing crisis of the Polish economy, the pressure of the Polish Catholic Church to begin negotiations with the opposition, support of the Western states for Solidarity, and simultaneous internal transformations of the USSR provoked by the politics of perestroika of Gorbachev, ultimately decided about initiating the talks. Also the changes in the attitude of both ruling party and the opposition were vital to the process; the contemporary authorities knew that they need social permission to conduct required economic reforms, and for that reason, they wanted to share the political responsibility with Solidarity, whereas the opposition prioritized the need to reorganize public life over continuation of resisting the Polish United Workers Party (PZPR).
In September 1988, when a wave of strikes was ending, a secret meeting was held, which included Lech Wałęsa and Minister of Internal Affairs Czesław Kiszczak. They agreed to hold the so-called "Round Table" talks in the near future to plan out the course of action to be undertaken in the country. The Round Table talks began on 6 February 1989 at 14:23 CET. They included the Solidarity opposition and the government (also referred to as the ruling coalition due to participation in the talks of PZPR's bloc parties, like United People's Party (ZSL), Alliance of Democrats (SD), and other PZPR-dependent organizations). The talks were held in the Council of Ministers Office. Wałęsa and Kiszczak co-chaired the meetings.
The Polish communists, led by General Jaruzelski, hoped to co-opt prominent opposition leaders into the ruling group without significantly changing the political power structure. In reality, the talks radically altered the shape of the Polish government and society. The events in Poland precipitated and gave momentum to the fall of the entire European communist bloc; the Yalta arrangement collapsed soon after the events in Poland.
The sessions were divided into three main committees:
Trade unions pluralism committee
Economy and social politics committee
Alongside main committees subcommittees and working groups were established:
Subcommittee on housing policy
Subcommittee on science, education and technical progress
Subcommittee on law and court reforms
Subcommittee on associations and local government
Working group on wage and income indexation
Working group on property rights of trade unions
Working group on amending the Trade Union Act
Working group on local government
Working group on assumptions for the draft act on the rights of certain employees to re-establish an employment relationship
Working group on the act on trade unions of individual farmers.