With the Solidarność union, labor leader Lech Wałesa defied the communist system in Poland in the early 1980s with previously unthinkable freedoms. He later became the country’s president. Today Wałesa turns 80 years old – and shows off when visiting the star-Reporter combative.
Lech Wałesa, his hair and distinctive bushy mustache no longer dark brown as in 1980, but snow white, is sitting on the second floor of the European Solidarity Center in his hometown of Gdansk on a sunny Friday morning. The building is used as an educational center and museum, one could almost say the Wałesa Museum, because downstairs in the shop Wałesa dolls, Wałesa shirts and Wałesa hoodies are sold, but the Solidarity Center is dedicated to the fight of the trade union of the same name against the Soviet one dedicated to regime.
Mr Walesa, You will soon be 80 years old…
That is the question? Yes thank you.
How do you celebrate?
I don’t know it. My friends organize something for me without my help.
Who is invited?
I do not know who. Next question. Pace pace.
Lech Wałesa is a figure of the century, and not just for Poland. The pictures of the legend hang down in the museum. In 1980, the young trade union leader on the shoulders of his buddies at the Gdansk shipyard, he had just wrested freedoms from his country’s government that were unique for the socialist bloc, above all the permission to found a trade union, the “Solidarność”. Black and white film footage flickers across the walls, thousands cheer him on, shout his pet name: “Leschek, Leschek!” The simple worker Walesa, who stands up to the gray socialist dictators, becomes world famous, receives the Nobel Peace Prize and later becomes president.
Today Europe is looking at Poland again. The war in neighboring Ukraine. The erosion of the rule of law by the right-wing nationalist PiS government. The upcoming elections in October. And you ask yourself: What does Wałesa say about this? Can he show the country the way? Can the grainy black and white images contain the granular material for solving current problems?
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
