20 Years Later, Solidarity Pioneers Look Back on the History They Made

GDANSK, Poland —  Marking the 20th anniversary of Solidarity’s birth, many key figures from the first independent trade union in the Soviet bloc gathered here Wednesday to celebrate their victory over communism and to ponder the future.

“We changed the face of this world,” Lech Walesa, the onetime Lenin Shipyard electrician who won a Nobel Prize and served as Poland’s president, told a special Solidarity congress. “We carried freedom to many countries, and we got freedom ourselves. All those changes had their beginning here in Gdansk 20 years ago.”

The three-day celebration here in the birthplace of the movement will wrap up today with a wreath-laying to honor shipyard workers killed during a 1970 protest that was a precursor to the Solidarity movement, then a Roman Catholic Mass and a concert featuring Polish pop stars.

Walesa led the strike that won a 1980 agreement under which the government legalized Solidarity, boosted wages and benefits, relaxed censorship, freed political prisoners and allowed Mass to be broadcast on Sundays.

In 1981, strongman Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski tried to end the experiment by proclaiming martial law and imprisoning Walesa and thousands of Solidarity activists. But change had taken root, and after years of struggle, Solidarity won an agreement in 1989 that led to free elections. Poland’s democratic transition helped speed the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe.

While celebrating their successes, speakers at Wednesday’s congress examined the shortcomings of a decade of democracy and expressed bitter fears that former Communists, who remain politically influential and popular, may recapture dominance.

Solidarity remains Poland’s leading trade union. Its political wing, Solidarity Election Action, has run the government since 1997, pushing through tough economic reforms that have promoted strong growth but proved painful for many workers.

However, the nation’s president--who has limited power but can veto legislation--is a former Communist, Aleksander Kwasniewski, whose smooth political skills and current support for democracy and capitalism have won him strong public backing.

A recent poll by the OBOP polling institute showed Kwasniewski with 64% support in his bid for reelection Oct. 8. Next were former Foreign Minister Andrzej Olechowski with 10% and Marian Krzaklewski, the current head of the Solidarity union, with 8%. Walesa, who has very little political support now despite his hero status as a historical figure, had just 3%.

With Kwasniewski heavily favored to win reelection, many in the Solidarity bloc fear that the former Communists of the Democratic Left Alliance might also win parliamentary elections due by late next year--a combination that could give the former Communists political dominance.

Such a prospect weighed heavily on the mood at Wednesday’s Solidarity congress, which brought together many onetime allies who have split over political differences. Those in attendance put on a display of unity. But in a reflection of bitter divisions, some important former Solidarity figures--such as Adam Michnik, now the editor of Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading daily newspaper that was born out of the movement--were not present.

The Democratic Left Alliance “is a party that has its roots in the totalitarian system and has never fully accounted for its heritage,” Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek, a former activist, told the congress. “What we need is unity--so that political pluralism is not pushed aside.”

“There is no freedom without Solidarity--then, now and in the future,” he said.

Krzaklewski, the current Solidarity leader, struck a populist tone in his speech to the congress.

“The weakest people, and the weakest social groups and regions of our country, are not sufficiently protected and helped by the state,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the former elites of the Polish People’s Republic have in the new Poland unjustified privileges in the access to property, money, to the media, to power, and to special pensions and retirement benefits.”

The celebrations also had some lighter touches. Among the souvenir T-shirts offered for sale at the congress, one showed a famous image of Jaruzelski declaring martial law.

“Young people like it,” explained Iwona Dawicka, a woman working at the sales table.

“When I was little I saw this on television. I remember it clearly.”

On Tuesday, an exhibit on Solidarity’s history opened at the shipyard. Among the items on display is a section of the 10-foot-high brick wall surrounding the facility that Walesa climbed in August 1980 to join the strikers and become their leader. Next to it is part of the Berlin Wall, a gift from that city.

“Everything started in Gdansk,” Eberhard Diepgen, the mayor of Berlin, said in praise of Walesa and Solidarity at the exhibit’s opening.

“What was started by his jumping over the fence of this shipyard ended in the collapse of the Berlin Wall.”