Lech Wałęsa

Facts

Lech Walesa

Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.

Lech Wałęsa
The Nobel Peace Prize 1983

Born: 29 September 1943, Popowo, Poland

Residence at the time of the award: Poland

Role: Trade union leader (Solidaritet)

Prize motivation: “for non-violent struggle for free trade unions and human rights in Poland”

Prize share: 1/1

For Freedom to Organize behind the Iron Curtain

When Lech Wałęsa received the Peace Prize for his campaign for freedom of organization in Poland, he had just been released from internment. The Communist party had tried in vain to break him, the symbol of the revolt against the party's monopoly on power.

Wałęsa was employed as a marine electrician at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk. He was fired for having participated in demands for independent labor unions. These were wanted by the workers after several of them had been killed by police and soldiers while demonstrating for better living conditions. During a strike in 1980, Wałęsa managed to enter the Lenin yard, and led the negotiations with the authorities. These ended in a victory for the Solidarity union because workers, intellectuals and the Catholic church had formed a united front.

In 1981 the Polish authorities banned Solidarity, alleging that this was the only way of preventing a Soviet invasion. After a couple of years they abandoned that policy, and Poland was gradually liberalized. In 1989 Solidarity won free elections, and in the following year Wałęsa was elected President of Poland.

To cite this section
MLA style: Lech Walesa – Facts. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024. Tue. 19 Mar 2024. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1983/walesa/facts/>

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