Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsa (; in
English often ; born
September 29 1943,
Popowo,
Poland) is a
Polish politician, a former
trade union and
human rights activist, and also a former electrician. He co-founded
Solidarity (
Solidarność), the
Soviet bloc's first independent
trade union, won the
Nobel Peace Prize in
1983, and served as
President of Poland from
1990 to
1995 (succeeded by
Aleksander Kwaśniewski).
Lech Wałęsa was born on
September 29,
1943 in Popowo,
Poland, to a carpenter and his wife. He attended primary and vocational school, before entering
Lenin Shipyard in
Gdańsk (
Stocznia Gdańska im. Lenina, now
Stocznia Gdańska) as an electrical technician in
1967. In
1969 he married
Danuta Gołoś, and the couple now have eight children.
He was a member of the illegal
strike committee in Gdańsk Shipyard in
1970. After the bloody end of the strike, resulting in over 80 workers killed by the riot police, Wałęsa was arrested and convicted of "anti-social behaviour", spending one year in prison.
In
1976 Wałęsa lost his job in Gdańsk Shipyard for collecting signatures for a petition to build a memorial for the killed workers. Due to his being on an informal blacklist, he couldn't find another job and was supported, for a time, by close personal friends.
In
1978, together with
Andrzej Gwiazda and Aleksander Hall, he organized the illegal underground
Free Trade Union of Pomerania (
Wolne Związki Zawodowe Wybrzeża). He was arrested several times in
1979 for organizing an "anti-state" organization, but not found guilty in court and released at the beginning of
1980, after which he re-entered the Gdańsk shipyard.
On
August 14,
1980, after the beginning of an occupational
strike in the Lenin Shipyard of Gdansk, Wałęsa illegally scaled the wall of the Shipyard and became the leader of this strike. The strike was spontaneously followed by similar strikes across
Poland. Several days later he stopped workers who wanted to leave Gdańsk Shipyard, and persuaded them to organize the Strike Coordination Committee (
Międzyzakładowy Komitet Strajkowy) to lead and support the naturally occurred general strike in Poland.
In September of that year, the
Communist government signed an agreement with the Strike Coordination Committee to allow legal organization, but not actual free trade unions. The Strike Coordination Committee legalized itself into National Coordination Committee of
Solidarność Free Trade Union, and Wałęsa was chosen as a chairman of this Committee.
Wałęsa kept this position until December 11
1981, when he, along with more than one thousand other Solidarity members and leaders, were arrested. General
Wojciech Jaruzelski declared a state of
martial law on December 13. Walesa was interned for 11 months in south-eastern Poland near the
Soviet border until
November 14,
1982.
 |
Wałęsa's importance is clearly shown by the international recognition he received. He was featured in many international media: here he is depicted on the cover of TIME magazine, January 4, 1982. |
In
1983 he applied to come back to Gdańsk Shipyard to his former position as a simple electrician. While formally treated as a "simple worker", he was practically under house arrest until
1987.
1983 also saw Wałęsa being awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize. He was unable to receive the prize himself, fearing that the government would not let him back in. His wife, Danuta Wałęsowa, received the prize in his place. Wałęsa donated the prize money to the Solidarity movement's temporary headquarters, exiled in
Brussels.
From
1987 to
1990 Wałęsa organized and led the "half-illegal" Temporary Executive Committee of Solidarity Trade Union.
 |
Round-table negotiations |
In
1988 Wałęsa organized an occupational strike in Gdańsk Shipyard, demanding only the re-legalisation of the
Solidarity Trade Union. After eighty days the government agreed to enter into round-table talks in September. Wałęsa was an informal leader of the "non-governmental" side during the talks. During the talks the government signed an agreement to re-establish the Solidarity Trade Union and to organize "half-free" elections to Polish parliament.
In
1989 Wałęsa organized and led the Citizenship Committee of the Chairman of Solidarity Trade Union. Formally it was just an advisory body, but practically it was a kind of a political party, which won parliament elections in
1989 (Opposition took all seats in the
Sejm that were subject of free elections and all but one seats in the newly re-established
senate; according to
the Round Table agreements only members of the Communist Party and its allies could stand for the remaining 64% of seats in Sejm).
While technically just a Chairman of Solidarity Trade Union at the time Wałęsa played a key role in Polish politics. At the end of
1989 he persuaded leaders from formally communist ally parties to form a non-communist coalition government, which was the first non-communist government in the Soviet Bloc's sphere of influence. After that agreement, to the big surprise of the Communist Party, the parliament chose
Tadeusz Mazowiecki for prime minister of Poland. Poland, while still a communist country in theory, started to change its economy to a semi-capitalist system.
On
December 9,
1990 Wałęsa won the
presidential election to become
president of Poland for the next five years. During his presidency he started a so-called "war at the top" which practically meant changing the government annually. His style of presidency was strongly criticized by most of the political parties, and he lost most of the initial public support by the end of
1995. However, during his presidency Poland was completely changed, from an oppressive communist country under strict Soviet control and with a weak economy to an independent and democratic country with a fast growing market-based economy.
|
Wałęsa paying his respects to former U.S. president Ronald Reagan as he lies in state |
Wałęsa lost the
1995 presidential election. After that he claimed to go to "political retirement", but he was still active, trying to establish his own political party. In
1997 Wałęsa supported and helped to organize a new party called "
Solidarity Electoral Action" (
Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność) which won the parliamentary elections. However, his support was of minor significance and Wałęsa held a very low position in this party. The real leader of the party and its main organizer was a new Solidarity Trade Union leader,
Marian Krzaklewski.
Wałęsa again stood for the
presidential election in 2000, but he received only 1% of votes. Many Polish people were dissatisfied with the fact that once again he wanted to regain his political power. After that Wałęsa again claimed his political retirement. From that time on he has been lecturing on the history and politics of
Central Europe at various foreign universities.
In
May 10,
2004, the
Gdańsk international airport has been officially renamed to
Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport to commemorate the famous Gdańsk citizen. His signature has been incorporated into the airport's logo. There was some controversy as to whether the name should be spelled
Lech Walesa (without diacritics, but better recognizable in the world) or
Lech Wałęsa (with Polish letters, but difficult to write and pronounce for foreigners). A month later, Wałęsa went to the U.S., representing Poland at the
state funeral of Ronald Reagan.
Wałęsa continues to appear in the media, being often asked to comment on current events. Of late, he also declared he is interested in
information technology, and likes to use new developments in that field. He claimed to have put together a few computers on his own to find out how they work, and declared he takes a
smartphone, a
palmtop and a
laptop with him when travelling. [
1] At the beginning of 2006, he revealed that he is a registered user of the Polish
instant messaging service Gadu-Gadu, and was granted a special user number by the service provider -
1980. His previous number was
5606334, and was made public on the website of the Lech Wałęsa Institute. [
2] Later that year, he also declared he uses
Skype, where his handle is
lwprezydent2006. It was reported that he uses it extensively, also because he sees it a measure of saving money, claiming that his wife spends more than he earns anyway [
3].
Apart from his Nobel Prize, Wałęsa received several other international prizes. He has been awarded
honorary degrees from several
United States and
European Universities.
*Wałęsa plays himself in
Andrzej Wajda's
1981 fictional film about Solidarity,
Man of Iron.*He frequently is avaiable at
Skype under nickname
lwprezydent2006.
*
Solidarity*
History of Poland*
Gdańsk*
Bezpartyjny Blok Wspierania Reform (BBWR)
*
Cold War"The Shaming of Lech Walesa: Why the defeater of communism finds himself defeated by ex-communists--and why he and the American public haven't noticed" by Agnieszka Tennant.
Books & Culture magazine; September 1, 2002. http://www.ctlibrary.com/bc/2002/sepoct/15.30.html
* "We lived through some absolutely hopeless situations in history."
* "I had conversations with all the powerful people of the world: with presidents, with prime ministers, chancellors and kings, too. None of them believed that there was any chance of us toppling communism before the year 2000. I didn't meet a single person among those people who would believe that was possible. Not a single one in the whole world."
*
CNN Cold Warâ€"Profile of Lech Walesa* Academy of Achievement Profile http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wal1pro-1
* Academy of Achievement Biography http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wal1bio-1
* Academy of Achievement Interview http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wal1int-1
* Academy of Achievement Photo Gallery http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wal1gal-1
*
BRITANNICA Guide to the Nobel Prizes*
Lech Walesa Biography info*
Lech Walesa Institute*
Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport*
Wałęsa speech*
Lech Walesa â€" Nobel Lecture*
Wałęsa speech (after signing the agreement with the Strike Coordination Committee to allow legal organization on August
1980)
*
BBC interview with Lech Walesa on the 20th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity
*
Independent movie about Walesa (Polish)*
Lech Walesa's booking agent page
