Word: walesa
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Meanwhile, the independent union's former leader, Lech Walesa, who was released in November after eleven months of detention, returned last week to the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, where Solidarity was born. "I am your employee," Walesa told an official, "so I came to work." But shipyard personnel stopped the former electrician at an office just inside the gate and told him he could not be reinstated until he obtained a letter certifying that he was not employed elsewhere. They also asked him to respond to government accusations of irregularities in Solidarity's finances. As police moved into...
...year ago this week, Poles were still adjusting to the rigors of martial law. They could not travel, make telephone calls or receive uncensored mail. More than 5,000 people were interned, the independent Solidarity union was suspended and its leader, Lech Walesa, was being held at a government complex outside Warsaw. During twelve months of martial law, General Wojciech Jaruzelski has succeeded beyond most people's expectations in crushing the overt opposition to Communist rule in Poland. As a sign of its self-confidence, the government last week announced that it was releasing all but seven...
...through the streets of Polish cities following the anniversary. In Gdansk, the birthplace of the now illegal independent union Solidarity, paramilitary ZOMOS concentrated on sealing off access to the downtown area. In a symbolic confirmation of their victory over Solidarity, the authorities detained the union's leader, Lech Walesa, 39, who had been released from eleven months of government detention only a month...
...garrulous, chain-smoking Walesa, who has been uncharacteristically subdued since his release from detention, had intended to deliver a memorial speech. Instead, a few hours before his scheduled appearance, half a dozen policemen in full riot gear, equipped with machine guns and crowbars, appeared at Walesa's apartment door. They took him to the local office of the Polish Finance Ministry, where he was interrogated for an hour on alleged financial irregularities in the operations of Solidarity. Walesa was then bundled into an unmarked car by unidentified men and driven aimlessly around Gdansk for eight hours. The reason...
While Jaruzelski raged, onetime Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa, who was released last month from detention, tried to keep out of the public eye. He has written to Jaruzelski, reportedly asking for permission to make a speech at a wreath-laying ceremony at Gdansk this week commemorating Polish workers killed in riots twelve years ago. Walesa will have to choose his words carefully, knowing that any criticism of the government might land him in detention again...