1. Recognition of free trade unions, independent of parties and employers, based on Convention 87 of the International Labour Organization, referring to the freedom to form trade unions, which has been ratified by the Polish People's Republic. 
2. A guarantee of the right to strike and guarantees of security for strikers and those aiding them. 
3. Compliance with the freedom of speech, the press and publication guaranteed in the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic, including freedom for independent publishers, and the availability of the mass media to representatives of all faiths. 
4. Reinstatement of former rights to: 
   • people dismissed from work after the 1970 and 1976 strikes, and students expelled from school because of their views. 
   • the release of all political prisoners

That particular sequence of demands was aimed to impose tactics of negotiations. From the most difficult point to the easiest one - and the points were to be discussed in that order. Even if, for tactical reasons, the first point had been ignored and left aside for future discussions, one would have had to return to it as the key point anyway. […]

It was important at that time not to give the Soviets any pretext for intervention, as in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The 21 demands and their point number one became a pattern for strikers - for work establishments without opposition cadres.

Tricity residents started to gather in front of gate number two early in the morning, while the Shipyard area was silent and empty, only a few people were finishing decoration of the altar. Workers in individual departments of the Shipyard were also preparing themselves - all were shaving and putting clean overalls on. This is how they wanted to manifest their belief in God and the Homeland. Still before the mass there were those who could not come to terms with such changes and even maintained that tanks will enter during the mass - but what they said was unimportant because, with 9 o’clock coming closer, we could feel the spirit of victory and peace that we lacked so much on Saturday 16 August.