Thousands Attend Solidarity Anniversary Concert

27 August 2005 -- Tens of thousands of people attended a concert in Poland last night to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Solidarity trade union which helped bring down communism.

The concert featuring French composer Jean-Michel Jarre was held at the naval shipyards in the northern town of Gdansk, where Solidarnosc, led by Lech Walesa, was born in August 1980.

It was the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc.

In remarks to the crowd, Walesa referred to the Gdansk shipyard's current financial troubles, noting that there are now only some 3,000 workers there compared to some 15,000 earlier.

(AFP/Reuters)