• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Lech Walesa - 22 Dec 1990 22 Dec 1995

Born on 29 September 1943 in Popowo, Region of Dobrzyn, in the family of a small farmer. For seven years he attended the primary school in Chalin, and then the agricultural engineering class of the Vocational Trade School in Lipno which he completed three years later and started working as an electrician in the State Machinery Centre in Lochocin. After nearly two years he was called up to the army where he did his military service in Koszalin, and after basic training was directed to the N.C.O.s School in Swiecie. Having completed the school he was sent back to his home unit and was discharged from the army as Corporal. Returned to work in the State Machinery Centre.

On 30 May 1967, he started working at the Gdansk Shipyard as a ship electrician. After December 1970, when he was recognised as a promising activist, he became the occupational safety supervisor on behalf of the trade unions in his department. He was fired for having delivered an unwelcomes speech in April 1976. Then became an opposition activist. Frequently changed jobs gaining increasing popularity as a social activist and was arrested several times. In 1980 he led the strike in the Gdansk Shipyard. On 31 August, he signed the agreement between the Inter-Establishment Strike Committee with the Government Commission.

Walesa was employed as a marine electrician at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk. He was fired for having participated in demands for independent labor unions. These were wanted by the workers after several of them had been killed by police and soldiers while demonstrating for better living conditions. During a strike in 1980, Walesa managed to enter the Lenin yard, and led the negotiations with the authorities. These ended in a victory for the Solidarity union because workers, intellectuals and the Catholic church had formed a united front. During 1980-1981, for 16 months was the head of the Independent Self-Governed "Solidarity" Trade Union. Attempted to sustain permanent talks with the government in order to alleviate the rising social tension.

After the imposition of the martial law on 13 December 1981, he was kept in seclusion in government villas. On 26 January 1982 he was handed in the decision on his internment dated 13 December 1981. Remained in isolation in a government centre in Arlamowo. On 15 November he returned to Gdansk, and on 22 November he met Cardinal Glemp. He was called on in Gdansk by representatives of western countries.

In 1981 the Polish authorities banned Solidarity, alleging that this was the only way of preventing a Soviet invasion. After a couple of years they abandoned that policy, and Poland was gradually liberalized.

In 1983, was awarded the Peace Nobel Prize. When Lech Walesa received the Peace Prize for his campaign for freedom of organization in Poland, he had just been released from internment. The Communist party had tried in vain to break him, the symbol of the revolt against the party's monopoly on power. In reaching this decision the Bubek Committee had taken into account Walesa’s contribution, made with considerable personal sacrifice, to ensure the workers’ right to establish their own organisations. This contribution is of vital importance in the wider campaign to secure the universal freedom to organise – a human right as defined by the United Nations.

Lech Walesa’s activities had been characterised by a determination to solve his country’s problems through negotiation and cooperation without resorting to violence. He attempted to establish a dialogue between the organisation he represents – Solidarity – and the authorities. The Committee regarded Walesa as an exponent of the active longing for peace and freedom which exists, in spite of unequal conditions, unconquered in all the peoples of the world.

In 1989 Solidarity won free elections, and in the following year Walesa was elected President of Poland. On 9 December 1990 was elected President of the Republic of Poland in general elections and acceded to the highest office on 23 December. After a five-year term of office, he lost to Aleksander Kwasniewski in the second general presidential elections.

Walesa, one of 12 members of the EU Reflection Group established to make recommendations on major challenges facing the EU, expressed frustration with the eflection Group. "I had hoped we would talk about new structures and programs," Walesa said in 2009. "Now I see there are limits to what we can accomplish." Walesa said his 11 colleagues were more inclined to suggest minor reforms. "I tried to shake them up," Walesa complained, "but they are all lawyers." Asked what was needed, Walesa responded excitedly, "We need another revolution to wake people up. Ours -- Solidarity -- was too small."

By 2009 the ongoing "historical debate" about former President Lech Walesa's role in the Solidarity movement included the recurring, largely baseless allegations propagated by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) -- controlled by appointees of the 2005-2007 PiS Government -- that he collaborated with Communist-era security services. Solidarity trade union leaders have increasingly distanced themselves from Walesa. In recent years, Walesa had misrepresented the Solidarity struggle, according to Solidarity National Committee deputy chair Jerzy Langer. Solidarity was first and foremost an organization of workers fighting for the right to organize a union. Poland's struggle for freedom was greater than Walesa and Solidarity.