 Basic goods were being heavily rationed which acted as a stimulus for the establishment of a first anti-communist trade union in the Eastern Bloc, known as Solidarity, in 1980.Gierek, who permitted the trade union to appear per the Gdańsk Agreement, was dismissed from his post less than a month later under pressure from the USSR and confined to house arrest.Poland's already somewhat liberal policies concerning the opposition were worrisome for hardliners in the neighbouring Soviet Union, who feared that the Poles may overthrow communism and ally themselves with the Western Bloc.