[3] Walentynowicz was born in 1929 in the village of Sinne, Poland (today Sadove, Ukraine) in Rivne oblast, as Anna Lubczyk, to a family of Ukrainian Shtundists.

[6] Recognized as a "Hero of Socialist Labor" or Stakhanovite for her hard work, Walentynowicz became disillusioned with the communist system in Poland, especially after the bloody events in December 1970 on the Baltic Coast.

Anna was a devout Catholic, who believed in social justice and standing up against oppression, and who became deeply moved in her later years by the teachings of Pope John Paul II, with whom she developed a personal relationship.

One of the last letters which John Paul II wrote was to Anna Walentynowicz wishing her speedy recovery from a back injury.

[7] Anna began her quest for justice by speaking out publicly when one of her supervisors stole money from the workers' bonus fund to play the lottery.

[5] Walentynowicz joined the newly formed WZZ or Free Trade Unions of the Coast in 1978, and in the early 1980s came to symbolize the opposition movement, along with her colleagues from the WZZ, Lech Wałęsa, Andrzej Gwiazda, Bogdan Borusewicz, Alina Pienkowska, Bogdan Lis, the Wyszkowski brothers and Andrzej Kołodziej.

[10][11] For participation in the illegal trade union, Walentynowicz was fired by the shipyard on 7 August 1980, 5 months prior to her plan to retire.

This management decision enraged the workers, who staged a strike action on 14 August, defending Anna Walentynowicz, and demanding her return.

In early coverage of the Gdańsk strike by Western press (which was permitted into the shipyard), Anna Walentynowicz is mentioned earlier than Lech Wałęsa.

[14][15] The Gdańsk Agreement was signed on 31 August 1980, recognizing the right to organize free trade unions independent of the Party for the first time in the Communist bloc.

[18] After the strike, she became a member of the Presidium of Inter-Institute Founding Committee (MKZ – Międzyzakładowy Komitet Założycielski) of NSZZ Solidarity in Gdańsk.

[19] As a commission of inquiry determined, not only were all of these charges false, but the KZ Presidium had no jurisdictional right to remove Walentynowicz from her MKZ position.

Europe-Asia Studies journal noted, "The case stood as an alarming example of how Solidarity's new activists were instantly ready not only to support each other in any dramatic new initiative but also to believe the worst about one of the First Wave strike leaders.

That such a situation would arise concerning Walentynowicz, the very person for whose reinstatement at the Lenin Shipyard was the main point on which the strike originally began, goes beyond mere irony.

[28] In September 1986, Lech Wałęsa created the first public and legal Solidarity structure since the declaration of martial law, the Temporary Council of NSZZ Solidarity (Tymczasowa Rada NSZZ Solidarność), with Bogdan Borusewicz, Zbigniew Bujak, Władysław Frasyniuk, Tadeusz Jedynak, Bogdan Lis, Janusz Pałubicki, and Józef Pinior.

In October 1987, the Country Executive Committee of NSZZ Solidarity (Krajowa Komisja Wykonawcza NSZZ Solidarność) was created by Lech Wałęsa (chairman), Zbigniew Bujak, Jerzy Dłużniewski, Władysław Frasyniuk, Stefan Jurczak, Bogdan Lis, Andrzej Milczanowski, Janusz Pałubicki, Stanisław Węglarz.

Walentynowicz criticized Wałęsa for taking too much individual credit, and not sufficiently acknowledging that the Solidarity union triumph was a group effort involving millions, saying that his "cult of personality" greatly damaged the movement.

[34][35][36] French journalist Jean-Marcel Bouguereau, who witnessed the events in Poland in 1980 and was expelled twice, wrote one of the first articles critical about Wałęsa in Libération.

On 13 December 2005, Walentynowicz accepted the Truman-Reagan Medal of Freedom in Washington on behalf of the first free trade union Solidarity and was personally honored along with John Paul II and General Edward Rowny,[45] Chief US Nuclear Arms Control Negotiator with the Soviets.

[13] The columnist Georgie Anne Geyer called her the Rosa Parks of Solidarity and in the column, compared her to the likes of Indira Gandhi and Corazon Aquino.

[53][54][55] Walentynowicz died in a plane crash near Smolensk on 10 April 2010, along with President Lech Kaczyński, First Lady Maria Kaczyńska, and many other prominent Polish leaders, while en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre during World War II.

[58] Michael Szporer, Professor of Communications at University of Maryland wrote about her: "Her life was very much like Poland's, never nothing, but if you are not afraid to speak up for yourself and care for others, just look what you can become, Pani Ania, a worthier role model than most, because an honest one.

In 2013, the Anna Walentynowicz Square was ceremonially opened in Wrocław in order to commemorate her role in bringing an end to communism in Poland.

Sixteen years as a welder, later as crane operator in W-2 section, awarded bronze, silver and in 1979 Gold Cross of Merit (Krzyz zaslugi).

This matter demonstrates that the administration of the shipyard does not care about public opinion or legal procedure, which it violates forcing people to bend with its whims.

Signed Founding Committee of Independent Trade Unions and the editorial board of THE COASTAL WORKER: Bogdan Borusewicz, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, Andrzej Gwiazda, Jan Karandziej, Maryla Płońska, Alina Pienkowska, Lech Wałęsa