It was a student arm, or suborganization, of Solidarity,[1] and together with it, as well as other similar organizations, was banned after the implementation of martial law in Poland (December 13, 1981).

After the fall of Communism in 1989, the organization was recreated, and its focus was changed from political to cultural, although it still stands by its origins, as seen by Polish students’ support for the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

[5] On September 2, the Temporary Founding Committee of the University of Gdańsk was created, followed by similar bodies in other Polish cities, such as Warsaw, Poznań, and Kraków.

During the meeting, it was decided that the NZS would be seated in Warsaw, and the National Founding Committee was established, with eleven members (among them Maciej Kuroń, and Piotr Bikont).

[6] The NZS associated itself with the late 1970s organization, Student Committee of Solidarity, created in 1977, following the murder of Stanisław Pyjas.

[8] Desperate students of the Warsaw University began to occupy the college in late November 1980, but due to the mediation of rector Henryk Samsonowicz, the protest was terminated.

Its Coordinating Commission was planning to open an independent students’ magazine, but the government refused, explaining that there was "lack of paper".

NZS was a very active association, which organized meetings with key members of the opposition movement (such as Adam Michnik, Lech Wałęsa, Jacek Kuroń).

[5] In November 1981, 55 000 students of 81 Polish colleges declared a general strike to demand the ouster of a newly appointed rector at the Radom Engineering School.

On November 25, students of Warsaw's School of Fire Service Officers went on strike to protest their college's being subjected directly to the Ministry of Interior and Administration versus the Higher Education Bill.

The number of self-published magazines grew, new chapters were created, and finally, in September 1988, during the Third Meeting of NZS Delegates in Gdańsk, new leaders were elected.

This resulted in the creation of the National Student Strike Committee, which consisted of: Tomasz Ziemiński, Mariusz Kamiński, Przemysław Gosiewski, P. Nycz, W. Kiliński, Sławomir Skrzypek, R. Kosiorek, Grzegorz Schetyna, B. Pichur, Artur Olszewski, Igor Wójcik, P. Janiszewski, A. Jasionowski, K. Zemler, R. Bitner, A. Szczepkowski and P. Swaczyna.

Among the most prominent are Donald Tusk, Grzegorz Schetyna, Waldemar Pawlak, Cezary Grabarczyk, Bogdan Zdrojewski, Maciej Płażyński, Marek Jurek, Włodzimierz Julian Korab-Karpowicz, Jan Maria Rokita, Maciej Kuroń, Bronisław Wildstein, Marcin Meller, Paweł Piskorski, Adam Bielan, Tadeusz Nowicki.