Poland's Lech Walesa wears protest T-shirt to Bush funeral

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Vanessa Gera, Associated Press
Updated 2:49 pm CST, Thursday, December 6, 2018



WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Lech Walesa is still fighting.

The founder of Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement attended President George H.W. Bush's state funeral in Washington wearing a T-shirt bearing the word "Konstytucja" (Constitution), a symbol of a political struggle in his homeland against the populist government.

He and other critics accuse the national-conservative ruling party, in power since 2015, of eroding the very democracy Walesa helped achieve, mainly by eroding the independence of the judiciary.

Some of Walesa's compatriots criticized him, saying he should have worn more formal attire as he paid his respects to the 41st president at the Washington National Cathedral on Wednesday. They said it was not the time or place to make a political statement about a domestic issue.

Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Poland-s-Lech-Walesa-wears-protest-T-shirt-to-13447518.php

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[turbinetree]

1. He and the unions took down communism in Europe..............

and I applaud him for what he did............................

Union members, independent unions like Solidarity, hate communists, fascist, dictators, etc..................he was part of the Cold War.........................

[BigmanPigman]

2. Yes, he is a real hero.

[allgood33]

4. Around the same time Reagan took down the unions here.

And that's a fact!

[elmac]

7. True and Lech is a "yuge" Reagan fan, as is most in Poland nt

[allgood33]

8. I never did understand why our citizens didn't see the double standard and question why?

Reagan championed unions in Poland and worked really hard to destroy them here starting with his breakup of the air traffic controllers. We just let it happen and our union people loved Reagan and voted for him and everything he did. I believe these are some of the same people who are now Trump supporters.

[FakeNoose]

11. It was because of Reagan's anti-Soviet stance

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," he famously said at the Berlin wall. Reagan got way too much credit when the wall actually came down in 1990. The USSR was unsustainable since Stalin or even before WWII, and it was only a matter time for it to implode. But people thought Reagan was a "hero" who brought down the USSR single-handedly.

[delisen]

3. Let's Make the Polish Women Visible

The solidarity movement was a women's movement-as so much of the history of protest and resistance has been. When the role of women is recognized and not erased or suppressed it is more likely we will bring about lasting change that benefits all the people.

https://www.girlsglobe.org/2016/03/31/the-women-of-solidarity-how-history-ignored-fifty-percent-of-polands-solidarity-movement/

The firing of Anna Walentynowicz marked a historic shift in Poland’s resistance movement for it resulted in some of the most widespread strikes in the nation’s history. Soon, millions of followers stood up against the communist leadership of Wojciech Jaruzelski. This strike also marked the first, successful labor revolt in a communist country. Although sometimes referred to as the “Mother of Solidarity,” Ms. Walentynowicz’s contributions continue to be overlooked. Her activism began long before her firing, and goes back to the 1970 massacre of over 50 striking workers in Polish port cities. In 1978, she was arrested for publishing an underground newspaper that exposed the corruption of the shipyard’s leaders. She then went on to be one of Solidarity’s founders. Of the seven original founders, Ms. Walentynowicz stated, four were women.

We cannot afford to keep ignoring how change comes about.

Writing inaccurate history keeps people teaching for individual heroes and saviors and we fail to recognize the conditions of change.

The trump followers have fallen victim to a substantial of the search for the hero-the ass-kicking destructive Strongman who is going to solve their problems.

No Lech is a good guy and I applaud him and his decision to wear the truth but democracy is born of the people-all people.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

5. His actions appear to have succeeded in his goal to make sure the world is paying attention

To the threat to democracy in Poland.

Do you think Bush might have approved?

[SunSeeker]

6. It was low key, nondisruptive, and got attention to an important issue.

He did the right thing.

[MaryMagdaline]

9. He can wear any damn thing he wants

Fearless patriot. I am happy to see he is not a knee-jerk nationalist.

[Greybnk48]

10. Goddamn right! n/t