Polish workers' 1980 struggle achieved 'more than expected': Lech Walesa
Thu Aug 11, 3:38 AM ET
GDANSK, Poland (AFP) - Twenty-five years ago, sacked electrician and workers' rights activist Lech Walesa scaled the gate of the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk to lead a strike that was to change the face of his native Poland and Europe.
Although one of many strikes around Poland in 1980, the Gdansk action focussed the world's attention on the central European country, and ended with the creation of the first free trade union in the communist bloc, Solidarity.
"There was something behind our struggle, something like the will of God, especially if you talk about my part in the struggle," Walesa, a devout Catholic, told AFP in an interview early this month at his office in Gdansk's old town.
"The agreement was to begin the strike at around 6:00 am on August 14 but when the time came, something prevented me from coming on time," he said.
"But if I had come at the right time, I would never have been able to jump over the fence to join my colleagues, because the secret services would have arrested me," said Walesa, who had been in and out of prison -- and work -- in the 1970s because of his activism.
Seventeen days after the start of the strike, Walesa declared victory for the workers, proclaiming: "We have independent, self-governing trade unions."
The strike was over, Solidarity was born, and the first chink had been taken out of the ideological wall that had divided Europe into the communist east and free west since the end of World War II.
"We achieved greater things than I ever predicted. I was prepared for a smaller victory," said Walesa.
But he was apprehensive about the future.
"When the strike ended, amid the euphoria, I said: 'There is a very difficult future ahead of us, and I am afraid of what lies ahead'.
"I knew that the people who carried me on their shoulders could easily turn against me and throw rocks at me," said Walesa, who will turn 62 on September 29.
"We were organising this huge proletarian monopoly, Solidarity, which would lead to the end of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, and create capitalism. But it's impossible to create capitalism with what we had.
"What do you do about the destruction of initiative? Because that is what happened during 50 years under the communists.
"How do you make people think for themselves and use their freedom when they expect to be led, they lack initiative?" he said.
In the eyes of the man who helped create Solidarity, the union has three chapters in its ongoing story.
"The first chapter is the time of greatness... We created this 10-million-people monopoly and we defeated communism. And all these demonstrations and protests and the solidarity of the people was great, and everyone saw it all over the world."
The second chapter was the chapter of divisions.
"In this chapter we had to create democracy and pluralism. And capitalism. All the huge factories and steelmills and shipyards -- would they allow us to create democracy and capitalism? Take one of those huge factories and try to impose a system of firing employees.
"The third chapter is about defending group interests. Capitalists defend their interests, union workers defend their interests and party officials defend their interests.
"Of course, I would have preferred to stay in the first chapter, but how would we have changed the system?" he pondered.
Since the heady days of the birth of Solidarity, Walesa has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and was elected president of Poland in 1990, in the country's first free elections after World War II.
Both honours were light years away from his simple upbringing amd days at the shipyard.
"My goal was never a high position; my life pushed me toward certain choices," he told AFP.
"Sure, as kids we all dreamed about being king, but in Poland, we never got our kingdoms," said Walesa, his hair and trademark handlebar moustache white as the Polish countryside in winter.
"I had a very simple upbringing. White was white, black was black. This governed my relationships with others."
His cut and dried vision of the world also made a protester of Walesa.
"In the beginning, they were small, childhood protests. At school, they told us to cry for Stalin or some other Soviet leader who died and I told them, 'I don't feel like it.' So the teacher hit me on the head, and I cried because it hurt!
"A similar thing happened with a priest, who said something that didn't fit with my understanding. So for about a month I would go to him, and I pushed him until he agreed he was wrong and I was right.
"And he told me, "Kid, you'll end up really high or you'll end up in jail," Walesa said, chuckling at the irony.
"It's a funny thing, but there are people who say that I didn't jump that fence," he mused, returning to the more recent past.
"There are many who don't want me to be totally defeated but they don't want me to be too great. I am necessary, but they don't want me to be too strong. It irritates or upsets me, but I accept it."
On August 31, when world leaders join Walesa in Gdansk to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of Solidarity, the former electrician will resign from membership of the union that changed the world.
"I'm not saying who is right or wrong, but this is a different union. This is a union of professionals, a proper union. I was more of a revolutionary. We are no longer compatible," he said.
"Solidarity will go on to a new chapter, but we have to find new points, not the 21 postulates" formulated by the 1980 strike committee, he said, urging the movement to broaden its horizons and keep pace in a world of globalisation.
