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Lech Wałęsa (born on
September 29, 1943 in Popowo,
Poland) is a Polish politician,
a former trade union and human
rights activist. 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.
 Solidarity
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 behavior"
and spent 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. Since he was on an
informal blacklist, he could
not find another job and was
supported, for a time, by
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
Gdańsk, 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 occurring 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 was
arrested. General Wojciech
Jaruzelski declared a state of
martial law on December 13.
Wałęsa was interned for 11
months in south-eastern Poland
near the Soviet border until
November 14, 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. 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 the 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
(the 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 the 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
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, 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 market-based system.
Presidency
and
afterwards
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.
Wałęsa lost the 1995
presidential election. This was
by less than 1%, a margin which
many people considered would
have been comfortably
overturned if the revelation
had come earlier that his
opponent had falsely claimed to
have a university degree - and
used Wałęsa's lack of higher
education as a political
weapon. Calls for a new
election were dismissed.
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, and by
politicians such as Leszek
Moczulski, gained little
support abroad, as Poland's
neighbors, some of whom had
only recently regained
independence, tended to
perceive the concept as
imperialistic.
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. Although
not politically engaged
anymore, Wałęsa is still
publicly addressed as
President.
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, the closest English
phonetic approximation being
"Vowensa"). A month later,
Wałęsa went to the U.S.,
representing Poland at the
state funeral of Ronald Reagan.
In April 25, 2007 Wałęsa
represented the Polish
government at the funeral of
Boris Yeltsin, former President
of the Russian Federation.
In 2001 Walesa was awarded the
Pacem in Terris Award. It was
named after a 1963 encyclical
letter by Pope John XXIII that
calls upon all people of good
will to secure peace among all
nations. Pacem in Terris is
Latin for 'Peace on Earth.'
In 2006, Wałęsa quit
Solidarity. In an Associated
Press report, he cited
differences with the party's
support of the Law and Justice
party, and the rise to power of
Lech and Jarosław
Kaczyński.
On October 11th, 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. The Day,
to be observed on 20 December,
aims to raise awareness of the
importance of solidarity for
advancing the international
development agenda, especially
for poverty eradication. In the
Millennium Declaration, Heads
of State and Government
identified solidarity as one of
the “fundamental values…
essential to international
relations”. Mr. Wałęsa received
a long applause from the
audience after delivering an
emotional speech on the impact
of the day in human
relationships and how his own
movement "Solidarność"
succeeded in getting support
from people from various
countries.
In January of 2007, Walesa
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.
On May 30, 2007, Walesa
received the title Defender of
the Faith, Defensor Fidei, from
the Italian Cultural
Association.
Other
activities
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 . 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.
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.
Beside online media,
Wałęsa plays himself in
Andrzej Wajda's 1981
fictional film about
Solidarity, Man of Iron
and footage of him appears
in Michael Jackson's video
- "Man In The Mirror". In
the late 1990s he was
offered $1,000,000 to
shave his trademark
moustache in a Gillette
commercial, but he
refused. A couple of years
later though, to a big
public surprise, Wałęsa
did shave his mustache for
a brief period 'just for
fun'.
Honors
Apart from his Nobel Prize,
Wałęsa received several other
international prizes. He has
been awarded honorary degrees
from several United States and
European Universities.
Knight Grand Cross of the Royal
Norwegian Order of St. Olav
(1995)
Knight of the Danish Order of
the Elephant
Knight of the Swedish order of
the Seraphim
Pacem in Terris Award
(2001)
Source : Some
of the information on this page
came from a Wikipedia
article and is
licensed under the GNU
Documentation License.
©2008
www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Lech
Walesa - Generator
- Biography