Tired and disillusioned, Lech Walesa shuns Solidarity anniversary sessions

Walesa shuns Solidarity 30th anniversary sessions

WARSAW, Poland — Solidarity founder Lech Walesa shunned several of the movement’s 30th anniversary sessions Monday, saying he is tired and disillusioned with the Polish trade union’s current state.

The events are part of a series marking 30 years since the massive movement led by Walesa forced then-ruling communists to sign concessions to striking shipyard workers in Gdansk. The move eventually led to democratic changes in 1989 and spurred sweeping changes across nations in Eastern Europe, which until then were under Moscow’s thumb.

The 66-year-old Walesa, who was Poland’s president from 1990-95, said he is unhappy with Poland’s politics and economy today and with Solidarity itself, because the trade union is getting too involved in daily politics.

On Monday he skipped two anniversary sessions in Gdynia — one local and one national — and major anniversary observances in another Baltic port, Szczecin.

Walesa is, however, expected to attend a concert in Gdansk on Tuesday, which will be the central point of the celebrations.

“After 30 years of great personal effort I am terribly tired today,” Walesa wrote in his blog Monday. “This is why I am not capable of actively participating in many meetings and ceremonies.”

Walesa, who travels extensively around the world lecturing on Poland’s bloodless political transformation, was fitted with a pacemaker in 2007.

He told the TVN24 television station that Solidarity should revert to its role as a social movement.

“It is needed in Europe, even globally. But Solidarity as a trade union is an obstacle in many fields,” Walesa said without specifying.

President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk attended the national session in Gdynia.

“Without doubt, the Solidarity movement, the struggle in the (Gdansk) shipyard, and across the nation, and the victory of Poland’s clever revolution in 1980 and in 1989, belong among those few moments in which we helped shape the future of Europe, maybe even of the world,” Komorowski told the gathering.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent her “warmest regards” to the Polish people on the anniversary.

“We honor those who stood against tyranny 30 years ago and all who followed in their wake,” she said in a statement. “The heroes of Solidarity knew that the Polish people desired and deserved more from their country, and they laid the foundation for the Poland we see today.”