Its creation was in response to the de-legalization of the Solidarity movement and associated communist government repression of the opposition symbolized by the imposition of martial law in 1981.

[5] The Polish secret police found it extremely hard to infiltrate the new organization, even though they employed various tactics, including the kidnapping of the founder Morawiecki's children in an attempt to blackmail him.

Thousands of residents took to the streets of Wroclaw at the urging of the editorial board of the magazine "Solidarność Walcząca" (against the position of the Regional Strike Committee).

In August 1985, SB chief, Gen. Władysław Ciastoń made a decision[8] to "identify, work out and liquidate the Solidarity Fighting Organization," engaging "all organizational units of the Security Service" in action against it.

After a political trip to several countries (UK, France, Italy, USA), Morawiecki returned illegally to Poland and to the underground, once again assuming leadership of the Fighting Solidarity.

In 1989, Fighting Solidarity opposed the agreement with the communists, which was joined by part of the opposition in Poland (the "round table"), motivated by moral and political reasons.

Leading activists outside Lower Silesia were Maciej Frankiewicz (Poznań), Marek Czachor, Andrzej Kołodziej, Roman Zwiercan and Ewa Kubasiewicz (Tricity), Sławomir Bugajski (Katowice), Janina Jadwiga Chmielowska (Sosnowiec), Krzysztof Korczak (Szczecin), Antoni Kopaczewski and Janusz Szkutnik (Rzeszów), Seweryn Jaworski, Krzysztof Wolf, Adam Cymborski and Adam Borowski (Warsaw), Marian Stachniuk and Piotr Hlebowicz (Cracow), Włodzimierz Domagalski-Łabędzki (Łódź).

"Solidarność Walcząca" cells also existed in many other cities, including Zgorzelec, Częstochowa, Jelenia Góra, Kalisz, Kielce, Konin, Opole, Wałbrzych.

[19] Outside of Poland, Fighting Solidarity was represented by foreign representatives Tadeusz Warsza[20] (Great Britain), Andrzej Wirga[21] (Germany), Ewa Kubasiewicz (head of representation)[22] and Rafał Gan-Ganowicz[23] (France), Jerzy Jankowski[24] (Norway), Kazimierz Michalczyk[25] (West Berlin), Zbigniew Bełz[26] (Canada), Jaroslaw Swiatek[27] (USA).

In proposing a vision of Poland after the collapse of communism, Solidarność Walcząca emphasized the need for social solidarity and self-government, and appealed to values derived from the teachings of the Catholic Church.