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After a summer of
strikes in 1980,
Polish workers
won unprecedented 
concessions from 
the communist 
government. In an
agreement signed
by Lech Walesa, an 
electrician at the 
Lenin shipyard, 
Gdansk, workers 
were given the 
right to form
free trade unions
and to strike 
#
Walesa's rise
from unemployed 
electrician to 
workers' hero 
was swift. He 
emerged as a 
union leader at 
the Lenin ship-
yard (where he
started work at
18) during the
first workers' 
rebellion, in 1970.
Ten years later,
he was negotiating
on behalf of all 
Poland's workers 
#
Solidarity, the
new trade union
led by Walesa, 
demanded further
concessions from 
a weak Polish 
government. The 
union was on the
way to becoming
a political party
to rival the Polish
communists. The 
USSR warned that 
further upheaval 
would not be 
tolerated. General 
Jaruzelski was 
the strong man 
appointed to deal 
with Walesa
#
A power struggle 
consumed Poland 
during 1981 as 
hardliners in the 
government tried 
to resist the new 
reforms, while the
Solidarity union
orchestrated fresh
strikes. At the end
of the year the
Polish government
imposed martial
law under pressure
from Moscow. Lech
Walesa was placed
under house arrest
and Solidarity was
banned outright 
#
Although martial 
law was lifted in 
1983, Solidarity 
remained banned. 
In 1988 came the
biggest outbreak
of unrest in Poland
since 1980. Angry
workers at the
Lenin shipyard led
a fresh wave of
strikes in 1988 to
demand recognition
of the free union.
Solidarity was on
the move again 
#
The political land-
scape of eastern
Europe changed 
dramatically with 
the arrival of 
Mikhail Gorbachev
in the Soviet Union.
In April 1989, the 
eight-year ban on 
Solidarity was 
lifted, and the 
way cleared for 
the trade union to 
compete in free 
national elections, 
the first ever in 
the Soviet bloc
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At the height of
his struggle with
the communist
regime Walesa
was awarded the 
Nobel peace prize. 
It was a tribute
to the leading role
the Polish people,
and Walesa in 
particular, had 
played in challen-
ging oppression 
in eastern Europe
#
In the national 
elections of June 
1989, Solidarity 
won all the seats 
it was allowed to 
contest (one third 
of the total) in 
Poland's Lower 
House, and 99 out 
of the 100 seats 
in the Senate. The 
old government 
was humiliated: 
even unopposed 
communist candi-
dates failed to
win their seats
#
Walesa's destiny
was fulfilled when
in 1990 he won a
victory in Poland's
first free presi-
dential elections.
It was the culmi-
nation of a nation's
long struggle for 
freedom, and it 
set the pattern 
for other nations 
in eastern Europe
#
Walesa inspired a movement strong enough to bring down a communist regime. Vaclav
Havel was a similar case, in that his moral authority derived from the fact that he
had been a dissident under the communists
#
Walesa, 'the Great
Electrician', is a 
born fighter who
seems to thrive on
battling an enemy
who is stronger
than himself. As an
oppressed citizen,
the living symbol
of Poland's longing
for freedom, he
was magnificent;
as president of a
free Poland he
was a disappoint-
ment. In the end
he could not be a
great man and a
powerful one at
the same time
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