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Jeff Jacoby: Walesa's reflections Jeff Jacoby The Boston Globe THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2006 BOSTON His hair is white now and the day is long gone when his legs could propel him over a shipyard wall, as they did in Gdansk, Poland, in August 1980. But Lech Walesa's face is as familiar as ever and his personality just as brash and charismatic. Even now, to experience Walesa in person is to sense the gifts of leadership and daring that enabled a simple electrician to parlay a workers' protest into the Communist world's first free-trade union, and that union - Solidarity -...

"Total chaos" would be rocking the world if the United States had not reacted to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, former Polish leader Lech Walesa told a Hutchinson audience Friday. Without a counterattack on Afghanistan, the terrorists would have assaulted Moscow, burning the unprepared city "completely," in Walesa's view. Perhaps London would have been the third target, he said. The U.S. "should take the glory" for responding to terrorism, Walesa said. He faulted European countries for not uniting to analyze their role and deciding whether to favor or oppose action in Iraq. Europe should take the greatest blame for problems...

Walesa says Americans have new chance to reshape the world The Associated Press, Apr. 7, 2006 WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa credits the United States with bring about the end of communism in Europe. Poland's first democratically elected president told an audience of more than 1,000 at Purdue University Thursday night that while he was thankful for what Americans did during the Cold War, he believes they have another chance to help reshape the world through globalization and new ideas. "Don't waste that opportunity," Walesa said. "Participate more in that effort." Walesa won the 1983 Noble...

Walesa: America needs to lead The Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke at Roanoke College about peace in a post-Cold War world. David Harrison Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Polish President Lech Walesa came to the Roanoke Valley on Monday and told his American audience that the United States is in danger of losing its position as a beacon of hope for the rest of the world. As the sole remaining superpower, the United States needs to take charge and confront the "new dangers," he told a packed house at Roanoke College's Bast Center. Speaking without notes and through an...

In search of an Iranian Lech Walesa? Letter from Poland By Peter Gentle 21.02.06 Regime change in Iran – Polish Solidarity style - is now officially on the Whitehouse agenda. The Christian Science Monitor reported last weekend: ‘With Poland's Solidarity movement of the 1980s as its model, the Bush administration wants to boost support for opposition groups inside Iran as a way to counter the actions of the Tehran government.’ Maybe having learnt from the unstable results of trying to liberate Iraq from without and set up democracy from above, the Bush administration is now looking at ways of fermenting...

Walesa becomes US' man in Havana From correspondents in Havana January 22, 2006 US diplomats arranged for Cuban dissidents to get a pep talk from former Polish President Lech Walesa today in the latest chapter of Washington's long-running ideological battle against President Fidel Castro's communist government. "The system will fall because nobody believes in communism," said Mr Walesa, the founder of Poland's Solidarity movement which toppled Poland's communist government and led to the collapse of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. "You are close to your goal," he said in Warsaw in a video conference with dissidents gathered at the Havana...

Lech Walesa tells his story of faith at Seton Hall Former Polish president finally accepts honorary degree conferred in 1982 Friday, December 02, 2005 BY SARA K. CLARKE Star-Ledger Staff Former Polish President Lech Walesa said yesterday it was faith that allowed Poland to triumph over Communism, and he credited Pope John Paul II with stirring the nation to rise up in solidarity. Walesa urged listeners to focus on values as he spoke to a gymnasium full of people at Seton Hall University Thursday, as part of the school's World Leaders Forum. "No one throughout the world gave us the...

Polish Patriots Changed History 25 Years Ago Miracle of Solidarity Ended Communism by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz Posted Sep 27, 2005 A miracle happened 25 years ago. Solidarity was born. More precisely, the first-ever independent trade union, Solidarity, in the Soviet Bloc arose from a chain of miracles. Human solidarity translated itself into an institution dubbed Solidarity. For some, the miracle started in July 1980 in Lublin, Poland, where the first strike broke out during that eventful summer. It was even rumored the strikers welded a train full of scarce goods to its tracks to prevent it from traveling to the...

LECH WALESA stepped down from the barricades yesterday and issued a warning to the West: beware of Russia! One of the world’s best-known revolutionaries was giving his swansong — he will resign this week from Solidarity, the union he led to help shatter communism — to journalists eager to know whether his revolution was ready to roll eastwards. Warsaw is abuzz with rumours about how the West and in particular Poland, should force the hand of President Lukashenko of Belarus. Mr Walesa sounded an unusually nervous note. The Russian bear, he said, should not be provoked by an over-ambitious West...

Walesa: Freedom worth any price Tuesday, August 30, 2005; Posted: 2:21 a.m. EDT (06:21 GMT) WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) -- Poland's Solidarity hero Lech Walesa has told his countrymen that any price, including the pain accompanying economic reforms, was worth paying for the freedom they have enjoyed since the overthrow of communism. Addressing a special session of parliament marking the 25th anniversary of the birth of Solidarity on Monday, Walesa praised the role of communist East Europe's first independent trade union in changing Poland and ending the post-1945 division of Europe. "We hold our heads high, despite the price we have...

Poland takes pride in Solidarity The former Polish President Lech Walesa has paid tribute to the independent trade union Solidarity which played a key role in the collapse of communism. The strike by Solidarity members "changed the face of the Earth," Mr Walesa told the Polish parliament. He was launching three days of celebrations on the 25th anniversary of Solidarity, founded by him and fellow shipyard workers in Gdansk. Several European leaders are going to Poland for the celebrations. They include the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, and the German President Horst Koehler. The celebrations will culminate...

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lech Walesa to Receive Dole Leadership Prize at KU Lawrence, Kan. - infoZine - Nobel Peace Prize winner and first democratically elected president of Poland Lech Walesa will receive the Dole Leadership Prize on Thursday, Sept. 22 at the University of Kansas, the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics announced yesterday. "Along with Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Lech Walesa is responsible for the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Iron Curtain," said Dole Institute Director Bill Lacy. "It is an honor to welcome him to the University of Kansas to accept...

Polish dissident movement Solidarity turns 25 A generation ago: "Those were great days that changed the world," leader Lech Walesa says By Vanessa Gera The Associated Press GDANSK, Poland - In the Gdansk shipyard, where a humble Polish electrician named Lech Walesa started a revolution 25 years ago, stands a mock food store offering a few pats of lard, some minced meat and vinegar. An old phone booth has an ''Out of Order'' sign, and a recorded woman's voice warns users that the line is tapped. The exhibit, in a shipyard that has become a shrine to communism's victims, is...

The former leader of the Solidarity movement in Poland has said he would support a people's revolution in neighbouring Belarus. Lech Walesa who won a Nobel Peace Prize and went on to become Poland's president, was speaking on the 25th anniversary of the union's founding. In an interview for the BBC's World This Weekend programme, he said Belarus should expect no support from the West. He said the European Union should be ready to support a reformed Belarus. Iconic figure Lech Walesa likes to describe himself as a revolutionary. Even 25 years after the founding of Solidarity, the trade union...

Agca's First Target, Walesa By Cihan News Agency Published: Friday 24, 2005 zaman.com Mehmet Ali Agca, serving a life sentence for attempting to assasinate the late pope John Paul II, had previously targetted former Polish President Lech Walesa, it has been claimed. The claim came from the weekly Polish newspaper, Echo. The article says that Agca, under the influence of the communist trends, plotted an assassination against the Pope in 1981 but that his first target was Walesa, who was known for his anti-communist stance.

POLAND: Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said yesterday that Ukraine's security forces were poised to crush last year's "orange revolution" until he intervened. Mr Walesa claimed that he convinced Viktor Yanukovich, who had declared victory in recent presidential elections, to revoke an order for the police and military to crack down on tens of thousands of people who had gathered in Kiev's main square to protest against irregularities in the poll. At the time, fears were rife that any violence could spark civil war in Ukraine, where the mostly Russian-speaking east backed Mr Yanukovich, while Kiev and the west hosted...

Walesa says he averted Ukraine clashes Daniel McLaughlin in Gdansk Sunday May 1, 2005 The Observer Former Polish President and Nobel peace prize winner Lech Walesa has claimed personal credit for averting a bloodbath during Ukraine's 'orange revolution' last year. In a remarkable account of the behind-the-scenes tensions, Walesa says that he convinced Viktor Yanukovich, who had declared victory in rigged presidential elections, to revoke an order to the armed forces to crack down on tens of thousands of protesters in Kiev's main square. At the time there were fears that violence could spark a civil war in Ukraine, where...

During Pope John Paul II's funeral at the Vatican, Lech Wa³êsa and Aleksander Kwaœniewski shook hands, putting an end to nearly 10 years of political enmity. "Today John Paul II achieved yet another victory. During our stay in Rome, I had an important talk about Poland with President Lech Wa³êsa," said Polish President Aleksander Kwaœniewski in a statement delivered after his return from the Vatican funeral. "We shook hands. We both felt that the gravity of the moment required us to do so and that we owed this to the Holy Father and to the Polish nation," the president said....

There's no doubt whom Poland's politicians, media, and people are supporting in Ukraine. WARSAW, Poland--Thousands of Poles are on the streets decked out in orange. Both of Poland's post-communist presidents have been to Kiev to mediate. A near-total consensus in parliament and in the media: Poland has been absorbed by the events in Ukraine over the past week, and its politicians, media, and citizens are expressing an overwhelming solidarity with the Ukrainian opposition as it tries to overturn the results in Ukraine's flawed presidential elections. In Warsaw crowds of Poles, most of them young, have gathered outside the Ukrainian Embassy,...

LECH WALESA, sometime hero of Poland’s Solidarity Movement, stood in the snow on Independence Square in Kiev on Thursday and was greeted with roars of “Pol’sha, Pol’sha, Pol’sha”. No longer the sprightly young electrician who had led the workers’ strike in the shipyards of Gdansk nearly quarter of a century ago, the silver-haired former president had flown in to express Polish support for the struggle of the opposition in Ukraine. He revelled in the task, working the crowd with easy good humour. “It might be freezing cold,” he started, as he wiped the snowflakes from his beaming face, “but I...