This enormous monument was built in 1980, shortly after the strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard that led to the founding of the Independent Solidarity (Solidarność) Trade Union, headed by Lech Wałęsa, and ultimately the fall of communism. It commemorates the workers who were killed in the strike of 1970, which was brutally put down by the police, and is located where the first three workers fell. It was designed by the shipyard workers and a group of artists.