Credited as the driving force behind the Solidarity movement, as well as the man who revived a post-communist Poland, Lech Wałęsa remains, for many, the public face of Poland, as well as Gdańsk’s most famous resident.
Born on September 23, 1943 Wałęsa’s early life was largely anonymous. Working in his early days as a mechanic it was only in 1967 when he began work at Gdańsk’s Lenin Shipyards that he began his rise to prominence. A keen trade unionist he frequently found himself in trouble with the authorities, and his political activities led to a stint in prison that ultimately cost him his job.
In 1980, with the shipyards on strike, an unemployed Wałęsa scaled a wall, gave an impromptu speech and found himself thrust in the spotlight as the accidental hero of the protests. Having successfully led negotiations for workers rights it was he who signed the August Accords of 1980. Ear-marked by the government as an undesirable influence he was immediately placed under house arrest when martial law was announced in 1981. Released a year later, Walesa’s actions were recognized in 1983 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
As the figurehead of the Solidarity movement, and with the communist state crumbling, Wałęsa led roundtable talks with the government to formulate a power-sharing scheme. Partly free elections in 1989 led to blanket wins for Solidarity, signalling the last days of communism.
In 1990 he became Poland’s first democratically elected, post-communist president, a position he held until 1995. Although still active in politics, he has seen his influence wane - the 2000 presidential elections won him little over 1% of the public vote.
In recent years his outspoken style and maverick methods have seen him fall foul of Poland’s intelligentsia; although an inspirational orator and soapbox politician, he is notorious for George W. Bush-style blunders, and his decision to appoint his chauffeur and table-tennis partner as an advisor in his latter years in power cost him further credibility.
Having turned down a million dollar offer from Gillette to shave off his moustache, Wałęsa did the deed himself a couple of years back in a bid to increase his public profile as a politician. It failed, and a once again mustached Wałęsa finds himself on the political sidelines, eclipsed by his son, Jarosław, one of his eight children, and currently a representative of the Plaforma party. But while Wałęsa’s political days are over the anniversary of the 1980 strikes have seen him catapult back into the limelight. Since his political retirement he now spends his days lecturing abroad , averaging some 15 international visits per year, speaking on subjects close to his heart: democracy, civil liberty and the free market. The recipient of over 30 honary doctorates from international universities, Wałęsa most recently found himself in the headlines after a ruling confirmed that rumours he was a cold war spy for the state were no more than scurrilous gossip. In fact the courts revealed he was completely the opposite, and the subject of intense personal survaillance by the secret services.