Lech Walesa — "I'm not a politician, I'm a trade unionist."
I'm not a politician, I'm a trade unionist.
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More from Lech Walesa
"Democracy is not perfect, but it is the best system we have."
"Democracy is when people can spit in my face, and I have to wipe it off."
"Sometimes you have to break the rules to change the world."
"I'm lazy. But it's the lazy people who invented the wheel and the bicycle because they didn't like walking or carrying things."
"I don't need a monument. My monument is Solidarity."
About Lech Walesa (born 1943)
Polish electrician who founded Solidarity in 1980, won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize, and became the first post-communist president of Poland (1990-1995). Closely associated with Václav Havel (fellow Eastern-bloc dissident-turned-president) and Pope John Paul II (the Polish pope whose 1979 visit catalyzed Solidarity). For an intellectual contrast, see Wojciech Jaruzelski, Polish general and Communist leader — Jaruzelski imposed martial law in 1981, banned Solidarity, and interned Wałęsa. He represented the Soviet-backed institutional power Solidarity's nonviolent labor movement was organized to displace — they ultimately signed the 1989 Round Table Talks together that ended Polish communism.