Singer Macy Gray

Soul singer Macy Gray, British songstress Marianne Faithfull and US stage director Robert Wilson will lend their talents to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Poland\'s freedom fighting Solidarity trade union.

"Solidarity is one of the most important social movements, it shook an empire and our aim is to remind everyone of its place in history," Catholic priest Father Maciej Zieba, director of the European Solidarity Centre, told reporters in Warsaw Friday.

After an unprecedented two-week-long strike at the Lenin Shipyard in the Baltic Sea port of Gdansk, Poland\' communist regime signed an agreement on August 31, 1980 with strikers lead by shipyard electrician Lech Walesa that paved the way for the creation of Solidarnosc (Solidarity), the first and only independent trade union in the entire Soviet bloc.

Solidarity went on to negotiate in 1989 a peaceful end to communism in Poland, making the country the first to escape Moscow\'s grip.

American avant garde stage director Robert Wilson is to create an open-air show at the Gdansk Shipyard August 31, include music, drama and poetry.

The highlight will be fireworks by France\'s Group F, creators of Paris\' millennium display and the display at 2004 Athens Olympic games.