Lech Wałęsa

"Wałęsa" redirects here. For other uses, see Wałęsa (disambiguation).

Lech Wałęsa
President of the Republic of Poland 1st elected President of the Third Republic
In office 22 December 1990 – 22 December 1995
Prime Minister	Tadeusz Mazowiecki, Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, Jan Olszewski, Waldemar Pawlak, Hanna Suchocka, Józef Oleksy
Preceded by	Wojciech Jaruzelski (in country) Ryszard Kaczorowski (in exile)
Succeeded by	Aleksander Kwaśniewski
1st Chairman of Solidarity
In office 1980 – 12 December 1990
Preceded by	N/A
Succeeded by	Marian Krzaklewski
Personal details
Born	(1943-09-29) 29 September 1943 Popowo, Poland)
Political party	Solidarity
Spouse	Danuta Wałęsa
Profession	Electrician

Lech Wałęsa (IPA:; born 29 September 1943) is a Polish politician and trade-union and human-rights activist. A charismatic leader, 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 1990−95.

Wałęsa was an electrician by trade, with no higher education. Soon after beginning work at the Gdańsk (then, "Lenin") Shipyards, he became a trade-union activist. For this he was persecuted by the Polish communist government, placed under surveillance, fired in 1976, and arrested several times. In August 1980 he was instrumental in negotiations that led to the ground-breaking Gdańsk Agreement between striking workers and the government, and he became a co-founder of the Solidarity trade-union movement. Arrested again after martial law was imposed and Solidarity was outlawed, upon release he continued his activism and was prominent in the establishment of the 1989 Round Table Agreement that led to semi-free parliamentary elections in June 1989 and to a Solidarity-led government.

In 1990 he successfully ran for the newly re-established office of President of Poland. He presided over Poland's transformation from a communist to a post-communist state, but his popularity waned. After he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential election, his role in Polish politics was diminished. His international fame remains, however, and he speaks and lectures on history and politics in Poland and around the world.

Life

Wałęsa was born in Popowo, Poland, on 29 September 1943. His father Bolesław was a carpenter who died shortly after World War II. Lech graduated from primary school and vocational school in nearby Chalin and Lipno, and did his obligatory stint of military service, attaining the rank of corporal, before beginning work at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk (Stocznia Gdańska im. Lenina, now the Gdańsk Shipyard, Stocznia Gdańska) as an electrician in 1966 or 1967 (sources vary). On 8 December 1969 he married Danuta Gołoś. The couple have eight children: Bogdan, Sławomir, Przemysław, Jarosław, Magdalena, Anna, Maria-Wiktoria, Brygida.

Solidarity

From early on, Wałęsa was interested in workers' concerns; in 1968 he encouraged shipyard colleagues to boycott official rallies that condemned recent student strikes. A charismatic leader, he was an organizer of the illegal 1970 strikes at the Gdańsk Shipyard (the Polish 1970 protests) when workers protested the government's decree raising food prices; he was considered for chairman of the strike committee. The strikes' outcome, involving over 30 worker deaths, galvanized his views on the need for change. In June 1976, Wałęsa lost his job at the Gdańsk Shipyards for his continued involvement in illegal unions, strikes and a campaign to commemorate the victims of the 1970 protests. Afterwards, he worked as an electrician for several other companies, but was continually laid off for his activism and was jobless for long periods. He and his family were under constant surveillance by the Polish secret police; his home and workplace were always bugged. Over the next few years, he was arrested several times for participating in dissident activities.

Wałęsa would work closely with the Workers Defense Committee (KOR), a Polish civil society group that emerged under communist rule to give aid to prisoners detained after labor strikes in 1976 and their families. In June 1978, he became an activist of the the underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast (Wolne Związki Zawodowe Wybrzeża). On 14 August 1980, after another food price spike led to an occupational strike in the Lenin Shipyard of Gdańsk, of which he was one of the main instigators, Wałęsa famously scaled the shipyard fence and once inside he quickly became one of the strike leaders. The strike was spontaneously followed by similar actions, first in Gdańsk, and then across Poland. Wałęsa headed the Interfactory Strike Committee, coordinating the workers at Gdańsk and at the 20 other factories in the region. On 31 August that year, the Communist government, represented by Mieczysław Jagielski, signed an agreement (the Gdańsk Agreement) with the Strike Coordination Committee. The agreement, as well as giving the workers of the Lenin Shipyard the right to strike, also allowed them to form their own independent trade union. The Strike Coordination Committee legalized itself into National Coordination Committee of Solidarność (Solidarity) Free Trade Union, and Wałęsa was chosen as a chairman of this Committee. The Solidarity trade union quickly grew, claiming over 10 million members - more than a quarter of Poland's population. Wałęsa's role in the strike, negotiations and the newly formed independent trade union gained him fame on the international stage.

Wałęsa kept this position until 13 December 1981, when General Wojciech Jaruzelski declared a state of martial law. Wałęsa, like many other Solidarity leaders and activists, was arrested; he would be incarcerated for 11 months in eastern Poland in several villages (Chylice, Otwock and Arłamów near the Soviet border) until 14 November 1982. On October 8, 1982, Solidarity was delegalized and banned. In 1983, he applied to come back to Gdańsk Shipyard as a simple electrician. The same year, he was also 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 Wałęsa, received the prize in his place.

Throughout the mid-1980s Wałęsa continued underground, conspiratorial Solidarity-related activism. Each edition of the leading underground weekly, Tygodnik Mazowsze, carried his quote: "Solidarity will not be divided or destroyed." Following an amnesty for Solidarity activists in 1986, Wałęsa cofounded the first public, legal Solidarity entity since the declaration of martial law—the Temporary Council of NSZZ Solidarity (Tymczasowa Rada NSZZ Solidarność). From 1987 to 1990, Wałęsa organized and led the "half-illegal" Temporary Executive Committee of Solidarity Trade Union. In late summer of 1988, Wałęsa inspired occupational strikes in Gdańsk Shipyard. After months of ongoing strikes and political deliberations, at the conclusion of the 10th plenary session of the Polish United Workers Party (the Polish communist party) (PZPR), the government agreed to enter into negotiation, known as the Round Table Agreement, that lasted from February to April of 1989. Wałęsa was an informal leader of the "non-governmental" side during the Round Table talks. During the talks, he traveled through Poland giving speeches in support of the negotiations. At the end of the talks, the government signed an agreement to re-establish the Solidarity Trade Union and to organize "half-free" elections to the Polish parliament (half-free, as according to the Round Table Agreement only members of the Communist Party and its allies could stand for 65% of seats in the Sejm).

In December 1988 Wałęsa also cofounded the Solidarity Citizens' Committee. Formally, it was just an advisory body, but, practically, it was a kind of a political party, which won the parliament elections in June 1989 (Solidarity took all seats in the Sejm that were subject of free elections and all but one seat in the newly re-established senate). Wałęsa was one of the most public figures of the Solidarity, although he did not run for the parliament himself, he was an active campaigner, appearing on many dissident posters. In fact, the Solidarity winners of the Sejm elections were known as the "Wałęsa's team" or "Lech's team", as all who won the vote appeared on their elections posters with him.

thumb|right|Round-table negotiations While technically just a Chairman of Solidarity at the time, Wałęsa played a key role in Polish politics. At the end of 1989, he persuaded leaders from formerly 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 the parliament chose Tadeusz Mazowiecki for Prime Minister of Poland - the first non-communist Polish prime minister in over four decades.

Presidency

[[Plik:Walesa and Santorum.jpg|thumb|left|Wałęsa with former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum]] After the June 1989 parliamentary elections, Wałęsa was disappointed that some of his former colleagues were satisfied running the government together with former communists. He decided to run for the newly reestablished office of the President of Poland, with a famous slogan "I don't want to, but I must" ("Nie chcem, ale muszem."). On 9 December 1990, Wałęsa won the presidential election, defeating Prime Minister Mazowiecki and other candidates, to become the first democratically elected president of Poland. In 1993 he founded his own political party, the Nonpartisan Bloc for Support of Reforms (BBWR).

During his presidency he saw Poland through industrial privatization and economy transformation to a market-based system (see Balcerowicz Plan), Poland's first completely free parliamentary elections in 1991, and the period of redefining the Poland's foreign relations. He successfully negotiated the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the Polish territory and winning a substantial reduction of Polish foreign debt.

Wałęsa supported Poland's entry into NATO and the EU (both of those would be realized after his presidency - in 1999 and in 2004, respectively). In the early 1990s, Wałęsa had proposed a "NATO-bis" as a subregional security framework. The concept, though supported by Polish right-wing as well as populist movements, gained little support abroad, as Poland's neighbors, some of whom (like Lithuania) had only recently regained independence, tended to perceive the concept as imperialistic.

He has been criticized for his confrontational style and for instigating the so-called "war at the top", in which various former Solidarity allies clashed with one another, resulting in the government changing annually.. Over time, this also resulted in Wałęsa becoming increasingly isolated on the political scene. As he lost more and more political allies, he became surrounded by people seen by the public as incompetent and disreputable. Mudslinging during the election campaigns tarnished his reputation. Some criticized the former electrician, without a higher education diploma, for plain speech and as too undignified for the post of the president. Others noted he was too erratic in his views; or complained about him being too authoritarian, trying to strengthen his own power at the expense of the parliament (Sejm). Finally, Wałęsa's problems were compounded by the difficult transition into the market economy, that while seen as highly successful in the long run, resulted in Wałęsa's government loosing much of its popular support.

Wałęsa's BBWR party performed poorly in the 1993 parliamentary elections, at times the popular support for him dwindled to about 10%, and he narrowly lost the 1995 presidential election, collecting 48.72% of the votes in the run-off election against Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who represented the resurgent Polish post-communists (Democratic Left Alliance (SLD)). During the 1995 election, Wałęsa's fate was sealed by his poor handling of the media, as exemplified by his disastrous performance in the pre-election television debate, where he came off as incoherent and rude; in response to Kwaśniewski's extended hand at the end of the first of the two debates, he replied that the post-communist leader could "shake his leg". In the election's aftermath, Wałęsa claimed to go into "political retirement" and his role in politics became increasingly marginal.

Later years

Since the end of Wałęsa's presidency, he has been lecturing on the history and politics of Central Europe at various universities and organizations. That year he also founded the Lech Walesa Institute, a think tank whose mission is to support democracy and local governments in Poland and throughout the world. In 1997 Wałęsa helped to organize a new party, the Christian Democracy of the 3rd Republic of Poland; he also supported to coalition Solidarity Electoral Action (Akcja Wyborcza Solidarność) which won the 1997 parliamentary elections. However, the real leader of the party and its main organizer was a new Solidarity Trade Union leader, Marian Krzaklewski. Wałęsa again ran in the presidential election in 2000, but he received only 1% of votes. During Poland's 2005 presidential elections, Wałęsa supported Donald Tusk, saying that he was the best of all the candidates.

In 2006, Wałęsa quit Solidarity, citing differences with the union's support of the Law and Justice party, and the rise to power of Lech and Jarosław Kaczyński. On 27 February 2008 in Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, Wałęsa had a stent placed in his heart to open a partially blocked artery and had a pacemaker implanted. In the run up to the 2009 European elections Wałęsa appeared at a rally in Rome to make a speech and endorse the pan-European eurosceptic party Libertas, describing the party and its founder Declan Ganley as "a force for good in the world". Wałęsa admitted to being paid to give the speech but claimed to support the Civic Platform, whilst expressing a hope that Libertas members were elected to the European Parliament.

Over the years, Wałesa has been accused of being a secret informer of the Polish communist secret police, Służba Bezpieczeństwa, in the early 1970s under the codename "Bolek". On 11 August 2000, the Appellate Court of Warsaw, V Wydział Lustracyjny, declared that Wałęsa's lustration Statement is true, meaning he did not collaborate with the Communist regime. Nonetheless, the issue periodically resurfaces. A 2008 book written by historians from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Sławomir Cenckiewicz and Piotr Gontarczyk, received substantial coverage in the media, provoked a hot nationwide debate and was noted by international press. The book is seen as highly controversial. Walesa himself denies any collaboration and others have noted that the Polish secret police commonly falsified its documents. In Niovember 2009 Wałęsa sued the current president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, over repeating the collaboration allegations.

Views

Wałęsa is a strong supporter of the traditional family. He is also a devout Roman Catholic and a staunch critic of abortion, and stated that he would rather have resigned twenty times as president than sign a law allowing abortion in his country.

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 . 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 new special user number by the service provider - 1980.. Later that year, he also declared he uses Skype, where his handle is lwprezydent2006.. It is rumored that around 1980 Gillette offered him $1,000,000 to shave off his trademark moustache in a commercial, but he refused. A couple of years later though, to a big public surprise, Wałęsa did shave off his mustache, for personal reasons.

Honors

Apart from his Nobel Prize (1983), Wałęsa received many other international prizes. He was named "Man of the Year" multiple time, including by: Time Magazine, 1981; The Financial Times, 1980; The Observer, 1980. He was also the first recipient of the Liberty Medal on 4 July 1989 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He is the third foreigner and the first non-head of state to address a joint session of the United States Congress, which he did on 15 November 1989.A History of Foreign Leaders and Dignitaries Who Have Addressed the U.S. Congress, The Office of the Clerk </ref>

On 8 February 2002, Wałęsa represented Europe in carrying the Olympic flag at the opening ceremonies of the XIX Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, joining Archbishop Desmond Tutu (Africa), John Glenn (The Americas), Kazuyoshi Funaki (Asia), Cathy Freeman (Oceania), Jean-Michel Cousteau (Environment), Jean-Claude Killy (Sport), and Steven Spielberg (Culture). Two years later, on 10 May 2004, the Gdańsk international airport was officially renamed Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport to commemorate the famous Gdańsk citizen and his signature was incorporated into the airport's logo. A month later, Wałęsa went to the U.S. representing Poland at the state funeral of Ronald Reagan. On 11 October 2006 Wałęsa was the keynote speaker at the launch of the "International Human Solidarity Day" proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 at the United Nations Trusteeship Council. In January 2007, Wałęsa spoke at the event "Towards a Global Forum on New Democracies" in Taiwan in support of democracy and peace along with other prominent world leaders and President Chen Shui-bian of Taiwan. Next year, on 25 April 2007 Wałęsa represented the Polish government at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin, former President of the Russian Federation. On 23 October 2009 he spoke at a conference in Gdansk of the Presidents of all European Senates commerating the 20th anniversary of the first free parliamentary elections in a former Communist country, the elections to the Senate of Poland in 1989.

Awards

Partial list of his honours and awards includes

• Medal of Merit of the Polish American Congress, 1981
• Nobel Prize
• International Democracy Award, 1982
• Social Justice Award, 1983
• American Friendship Medal, 1983
• Humanitarian Public Service Medal, 1984
• Pro Fide et Patria Medal, Poland, 1985
• International Integrity Award, 1986
• Liberty Medal, 1989
• Countries of Europe Human Rights Prize, 1989
• Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1989
• George Meany Human Rights Award, 1989
• 1st class Order of Francisco de Miranda, 1989
• Honorary Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, 1991
• Grand Cross of Legion of Honour, 1991
• Grand Order of Merit, Italy, 1991
• Cavaliere di Gran Corce decorato di Gran Cordone, Italy 1991
• Honorary Citizen of London, 1991
• Grand Sash of Order of Leopold, 1991
• Order of H.H. Pius XII
• Order of Merit of Federal Republic of Germany
• Order al Merito of Republic of Chile
• National Order of the Southern Cross, Brazil
• Grand Cross of the Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana of Estonia
• Medal of Independence of the Republic of Turkey
• Military Order of St. James with Swords, Portugal
• Order of Henry of Portugal
• Order of Korea
• Order of the Netherlands Lion of the Netherlands
• Medal of Republic of Uruguay
• Medal UNESCO
• Grand Colar da Ordem da Libertad
• Grand Cross Knight of the Order of Polonia Restituta, 1992 (ex officio)
• Knight of Order of White Eagle, Poland, 1992 (ex officio)
• Commander Grand Cross of the Order of the White Rose, Finland, 1993
• Knight of the Swedish Order of the Seraphim, 1993
• Knight of the Danish Order of the Elephant, 1993
• Grand Cross of Order of Merit, Republic Hungary, 1994
• Path for Peace Award, Apostolic Nuncio to the United Nations, 1996
• Freedom Medal of National Endowment for Democracy, Washington, 1999
• International Freedom Award, Memphis, 1999
• Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion, Czech Republic, 1999
• Pacem in Terris Award, 2001
• Gran Gruz Placa de Oro de la Orden Heraldica do Cristobal Colon, Republica Dominicana, 2001.
• One of A Different View's 15 Champions of World Democracy, 2008
• Legion of Liberty (IPEA).
• Northeastern Illinois University named one of the campus building - Lech Walesa Hall, 2009

Doctorates

Wałęsa has been awarded over 30 honorary doctorates by universities around the world, including:

• Alliance College, Pennsylvania - 1981
• Columbia University - 1981
• Catholic University, Louvain - 1981
• MacMurray College, Illinois - 1982
• University of Notre Dame - 1982
• Providence College - 1981
• St. Senis University, Paris - 1982
• Seton Hall University - 1982
• L'Université de Paris - 1983
• Harvard University - 1983
• Fordham University - 1984
• University of Dundee, Scotland - 1984
• McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - 1989
• Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada - 1989
• Gdansk University - 1990
• Copernicus University, Torun, Poland - 1990
• Connecticut State University - 1996
• Universidad Anahuac del Sur, Mexico City - 1996
• Universidad del San Salvador, Buenos Aires - 1997
• Universidad de Mendoza, Mendoza - 1997
• Korea University (hon. prof.)
• Seul - 1997
• Meiji University, Tokyo - 1997
• Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri - 1998
• Lynn University, Miami - 1998
• Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania - 1999
• University of Hawaii, Manoa/Honolulu - 1999
• Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon
• Middlebury College, Vermont - 2000
• University of Oregon, Eugene - 2001
• Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic - 2001
• Saint Ambrose University, Davenport, Iowa - 2001
• Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ - 2001
• University of North Carolina at Charlotte, NC - 2002.
• Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Canada - 2005

Popular culture

Wałęsa has been portayed in various works of popular culture. In Volker Schlöndorff's film Strike, a character based on Wałęsa is played by the Polish actor Andrzej Chyra. Wałęsa also playd himself in Andrzej Wajda's 1981 Golden Palm-winning film about Solidarity, Man of Iron. While perhaps this was the best known of his movie appearances, he has appeared as himself in about 20 other productions.

Two satirical Polish songs, "Nie wierzcie elektrykom" ("Don't Trust Electricians") by Big Cyc and "Wałęsa, gdzie moje 100 000 000" ("Wałęsa, Where's My 100,000,000 [złotych]?") by Kazik Staszewski were big hits in Poland in the 1990s and another song about Wałęsa was composed in 2009 by Holy Smoke. He also inspired U2's song "New Year's Day" on the album War. Coincidentally, Polish authorities lifted martial law on 1 January 1983, when this single came out. Patrick Dailly's "Solidarity", starring Kristen Brown as Lech Walesa, was premiered by San Francisco Cabaret Opera in Berkeley and Oakland in September and October 2009.

Wałęsa has been the subject of dozens of books and articles. He himself has authored three books: Droga nadziei (A road of hope), (1987), Droga do wolności (A road to freedom) (1991), Wszystko, co robię, robię dla Polski (All I do I do for Poland) (1995).

See also

• History of Poland
• Bezpartyjny Blok Wspierania Reform (BBWR)
• Cold War

External links

Films

• Signing of the Gdansk Agreement
• Presidential Inauguration

Other

• Stephen Engelberg, Man in the News; The Grandmaster of Polish Politics: Lech Walesa, New York Times, December 11, 1990
• Stefan Chwin, God must have parachuted him to Earth originally published in Tygodnik Powszechny, December 2008
• New Statesman interview with Lech Walesa by Mark Seddon
• Wałęsa speech (mp3)
• Lech Walesa – Nobel Lecture
• BBC interview with Lech Walesa on the 25th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity
• Interview on WTTW
• Lech Wałęsa Institute
• 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 Agnieszka Tennant, Books & Culture magazine, 2002
• Lech Walesa, NNDB.com

Further reading

• Walesa, Lech. (1992). The Struggle and the Triumph: An Autobiography, with the collaboration of Arkadius Rybicki, tr. Franklin Philip, in collaboration with Helen Mahut. New York: Arcade Publishers.

Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:People from Lipno County Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates Category:Polish Nobel laureates Category:Polish Roman Catholics Category:Presidents of Poland Category:Knights of the Elephant Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Recipients of Honorary British Knighthoods Category:Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Category:Roman Catholic activists Category:Scholars and leaders of nonviolence, or nonviolent resistance Category:Solidarity (Polish union movement) activists Category:Time magazine Persons of the Year Category:Order of Leopold recipients Category:Articles including recorded pronunciations (Polish)