Former president of Poland Lech Walesa, winner of the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, will deliver the keynote address during Elon University’s Fall Convocation at 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 2 in Alumni Gymnasium. Walesa’s speech is free and open to the public.
Today, Walesa directs the Lech Walesa Institute, which seeks to advance the ideals of democracy and free-market reform throughout Eastern Europe and the world.
Walesa entered the international stage in 1980 during the Lenin shipyard strike in Gdansk, Poland. An electrician who had long been active in the underground labor movement, Walesa delivered a speech that stirred the passions of despondent workers who were on the verge of abandoning their fight to organize free, independent labor unions.
Following Walesa’s speech, the strike spread to factories across Poland, and a social revolution called the Solidarity Labor Movement was born. Walesa began negotiating with Poland’s Communist government and convinced it to grant legal recognition to Solidarity in 1980, giving workers the right to form independent unions and to strike.
But over the next 18 months, relations between Solidarity and the Polish government deteriorated. On December 31, 1981, the government declared martial law, suspending all union activity and arresting thousands of Solidarity members, including Walesa. When the government outlawed Solidarity in 1982,
the 10 million-member organization continued as an underground movement under Walesa’s leadership. In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his efforts to secure freedom for his countrymen.
With labor unrest mounting, the Polish government realized it could no longer control the country. The government legalized Solidarity again and invited it to join the Community Party in forming a coalition government. In the subsequent election, Solidarity won virtually every contest. On December 9, 1990, Walesa became Poland’s first democratically elected president, capturing more than 74 percent of the vote and ending Communist rule in Poland.
As president, Walesa set Poland on the path to becoming a free-market democracy. Through his unwavering commitment to freedom, President Walesa made Poland a model of economic and political reform for the rest of Eastern Europe to follow. Under his leadership, Poland was one of the first countries invited to join an expanded NATO.
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