FROM SOLIDARNOŚĆ to FREEDOM International Conference Warsaw-Gdańsk August 29-31, 2005
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P A R T N E R S & SP O N S O R S of our International Conference FROM SOLIDARNOŚĆ TO FREEDOM International Conference Warsaw-Gdańsk August 29-31, 2005 Conference Chairman: Bronisław Geremek Programme Director: Eugeniusz Smolar Executive Director: Henryk Sikora The Solidarity Center Foundation Lech Wałęsa Institute Warsaw-Gdańsk 2005 Conference organized by: The Solidarity Center Foundation, ul. Wały Piastowskie 24, 80-855 Gdańsk The Lech Wałęsa Institute, Al. Jerozolimskie 11/19, 00-508 Warsaw The Conference was organized under the auspices of: the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr. Terry Davis and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, OSCE Supervising Editor of both the Polish- and English-language volumes: Nina Smolar Editor of this volume: Philip Earl Steele Photos from the conference available at: www.solidarity25.pl © The Solidarity Center Foundation, 2005 ISBN 978-83-60089-18-7 EAN 9788360089187 Our conference and this publication were made possible thanks to the financial support of the European Commission. The addresses and comments delivered at the conference – and, thus, the texts contained in this publication – reflect the views of their authors. The European Commission cannot be held responsible for their substance. The Solidarity Center Foundation and the Lech Wałęsa Institute would like to thank the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Council for the Protection of the Memory of Combat and Martyrdom for their financial support. The approaching 25th anniversary of the founding of NSZZ "Solidarność" prompts us to take a look back at history and ask questions about our future. The path blazed by "Solidarność" has opened new civilizational opportunities. The non-violent revolution of "Solidarność", waged for the right to dignified living standards and societal development, tore down the walls and severed the restraints on freedom. It triggered the stunning economic transformations both here in Poland and across the whole region of Central and Eastern Europe. The political victory of Solidarity contributed to the fall of the communist regimes and the peaceful reunification of Europe. I am convinced that the 25th anniversary of the events that unfolded in August 1980 gives us an exceptional opportunity to reflect on the legacy of "Solidarność" – a truly unique social movement and the first trade union independent of the communist authorities. And thus I was pleased to welcome the initiative of the Solidarity Center Foundation and the Lech Wałęsa Institute to organize the international conference "From Solidarność to Freedom", celebrating the 25th anniversary of "Solidarność". This initiative has sought to engage many international and domestic milieux – at the same time as being a common endeavour undertaken in the spirit of solidarity and mutual responsibility in the struggle for human rights and freedom. This conference also provides an excellent opportunity to express our profound gratitude to our friends the world over, without whom the victory of "Solidarność" would not have been possible. It further affords us the occasion to take up new ideas on behalf of a better future. I warmly welcome you all to the conference in Warsaw and in Gdańsk. MESSAGE OF THE 1st NATIONAL CONGRESS OF DELEGATES OF "SOLIDARNOŚĆ" TO THE WORKING PEOPLE OF EASTERN EUROPE The delegates gathered in Gdańsk at the first Congress of Delegates of the Independent Autonomous Trade Union "Solidarność" send to the workers of Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Romania, Hungary and all the nations of the Soviet Union – greetings and expressions of support. As the first independent trade union in our post-war history we feel the brotherhood of our fates. We assure you that despite the lies told in your countries, we are an authentic, 10-million-strong workers' organization created as the outcome of workers' strikes. Our aim is the fight for the improvement of the living standards of all working people. We support all of you who have decided to enter the difficult path of struggle for a free union movement. We believe that soon your representatives will be able to meet our representatives in order to exchange union experiences. Gdańsk, September 8, 1981. The mass media, controlled by the communist authorities in Poland, the USSR and the entire Soviet Bloc, carried out a swift attack against this Message and Solidarność. On September 10, 1981 at a meeting of the Politburo of the Soviet Communist Party, Leonid Brezhnev stated: "Yesterday I acquainted myself with the Message to the nations of Eastern Europe, drafted at the Polish Solidarność Congress. It is a dangerous and provocative document. It doesn't consist of many words, but they all point in one direction. Its authors would like to spread havoc in the socialist countries, and encourage all sorts of groups of dissenters…" Contents INAUGURAL SESSION . 7 1st SESSION The Helsinki Final Act and the Politics of Human Rights. 23 2nd SESSION Solidarność, John Paul II and Christian Thought . 51 3rd SESSION The Solidarność Experience. 69 4th SESSION Contemporary Threats and Challenges to Human Rights . 97 5th SESSION Hopes and Fears: The Image of Solidarność in the World Media . 127 6th SESSION The Legacy of Solidarność . 145 7th SESSION Closure of the Proceedings in Warsaw. 183 SPECIAL SESSION It All Began in Gdańsk. 193 SPEAKERS' BIOGRAPHIES . 215 INAUGURAL SESSION Gdańsk, August 29, 2005 Bronisław Geremek: I wish to cordially welcome each and everyone of you, and to ask the host of today's meeting – Solidarność's chairman, leader of the momentous events of August 1980, President of the Republic of Poland, Lech Wałęsa1 – to take the floor and open our conference. Lech Wałęsa: Mr. President, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Guests: I'm wondering just where to begin. Perhaps I will start with the conclusion of the Second World War. But I'll be quick about it, so as not to be boring. Dear guests, as you all know in greater detail than I do, we Poles were incorporated into the Soviet state's sphere of influence against our will. For we were still bleeding and unable to defend ourselves. And yet we were really the only ones to challenge the Yalta order. In fact, Stalin himself was amused seeing that his efforts to impose a communist system on Poland was like "saddling a pig". We struggled to throw off that saddle – in the 40s and 50s with guns in hand, in the 60s and 70s through street protests. All these demonstrations were brutally crushed. Throughout that whole period of struggle we were being taught that we had no chance of liberating ourselves. As you all well know, over 200,000 Soviet soldiers were stationed in Poland, over a million not far across our borders – and on top of this, as we know today, there were nuclear missile silos. Thus, in that situation the more sensible Polish forces knew that liberation from the Soviet Bloc was impossible, that any such attempts would backfire. This is the reason why Poles postponed the fight for freedom until more propitious times. Following numerous attempts and numerous mistakes, we Poles came to the decision to wrest what freedoms we could, but under one condition: that we all unite in a single movement. Hence the name Solidarność2 – Solidarity. However, the sad fact was that there was no way to galvanize such mobilization. Then, near the end of the second millennium, we received a gift from heaven. In the summer of 1979 1 Properly pronounced Vah·WEN·sah. 2 Pronounced So·lee·DAR·noshch. 8 INAUGURAL SESSION the Holy Father, John Paul II, came to Poland, at a time when society was in a state of despair and hopelessness. The whole world was dumbfounded: what was happening in Poland? – a communist country in which almost everybody wants to listen to the Pope? I chuckle remembering how even those who for various reasons didn't share the Catholic faith learnt to make the sign of the cross. But the Holy Father did not incite us to revolt; he did not order us to fight. But he was so incredibly suggestive. We shall never forget his prayer from that summer: Let Thy Spirit descend! Let Thy Spirit descend!!! And make anew the face of Earth – HERE on Earth. Everyone was compelled to ponder things deeply. At the same time we discovered how numerous we were. The Polish nation was awakened, as were other nations. We began to organize and to hold disciplined strikes and demonstrations… The Soviets, of course, were keeping a wary eye on us. They saw the steadfast Pope as invincible, unafraid of bullets,. They also saw the awakening of nations. I am convinced that they started to panic. And they recalled a man who once had quietly said over vodka that communism needed to be reformed. So, in order to save the situation, he was chosen First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He started to revamp communism by implementing perestroika and glasnost. We Poles were pleased indeed, because we knew that if anyone should try to overhaul anything over there, the whole machine will come tumbling down – and this will allow us to liberate our homeland. And that is exactly what happened. Gorbachev managed to reform neither communism, nor the Soviet Union, nor anything – but the failure of his ideas was to be our success. Ironically perhaps, he even got a Nobel prize for this "failed success". So don't worry if certain solutions fail, because even then you may get a Nobel Prize… Unfortunately for Gorbachev, as we know, little went smoothly. At some point the Soviets realized that things in the Soviet Union had taken a wrong turn – thus, when Gorbachev had gone on holiday, they carried out a coup d'etat.