[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 504 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 504

   Recognizing and congratulating the Republic of Poland on the 20th 
   anniversary of the Polish parliamentary elections on June 4, 1989.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 4, 2009

   Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Lipinski, Mr. Wolf, Mr. 
Kanjorski, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Hastings of Florida, Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of 
 Florida, Ms. Kaptur, Mr. McCotter, Mr. Dingell, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Kind, 
    Mr. Gutierrez, Mr. Quigley, Mr. McGovern, Mr. McMahon, and Mr. 
Courtney) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Recognizing and congratulating the Republic of Poland on the 20th 
   anniversary of the Polish parliamentary elections on June 4, 1989.

Whereas the Soviet Union and the Republic of Poland's Communist Party used the 
        Polish elections of 1947, in which they brutally persecuted non-
        Communist candidates and grossly falsified voting returns, to impose a 
        Communist government on Poland;
Whereas after 1947, Poland's Communist government did not permit genuine 
        opposition candidates to campaign for election or to appear on election 
        ballots;
Whereas Poland's Communist government was not an independent national government 
        but was subservient to the Soviet Union, to which it formally ceded 
        approximately one-third of Poland's territory;
Whereas the Polish people never accepted the legitimacy of the Communist 
        government, but repeatedly challenged its totalitarian rule, including 
        in the revolutionary strike movements of 1956, 1970, and 1976;
Whereas in 1956 and 1970, the Communist government responded to these challenges 
        by firing on assembled strikers, killing large numbers of workers, and 
        by manipulating social prejudices to set against each other industrial 
        workers, farmers, and intellectuals;
Whereas the Soviet Union responded to powerful anti-Communist movements in 
        eastern Europe with armed force, most notably in the 1944-1945 crushing 
        of the Polish Home Army, the 1956 invasion of Hungary, and the 1968 
        invasion of Czechoslovakia;
Whereas in 1979, Pope John Paul II visited his native Poland and inspired 
        millions of Poles with the ideals of social solidarity and respect for 
        human dignity, and urged them to, ``Be not afraid'';
Whereas in 1980, shipyard workers in Gdansk responded to government-ordered 
        price hikes with a strike calling for the legalization of independent 
        labor unions, freedom of expression, and economic reforms;
Whereas the Gdansk strike movement quickly spread throughout Poland, 
        establishing itself as the Solidarity labor union, the first independent 
        labor union in a Communist country, with a membership of approximately 
        80 percent of the Polish labor force;
Whereas the Solidarity labor union became a broad social movement, uniting 
        industrial workers, farmers, intellectuals, and students, and demanding 
        respect for human rights;
Whereas from 1981 to 1983, Poland's Communist government imposed martial law and 
        arrested thousands of Solidarity leaders but failed to completely 
        suppress Solidarity;
Whereas in 1988, new waves of Solidarity-led strikes compelled Poland's 
        Communist government to negotiate with Solidarity;
Whereas from February to April 1989, Solidarity leaders and the Communist 
        government negotiated an agreement for a free election in which 
        Solidarity would run candidates for 100 percent of seats in the Polish 
        Senate and 35 percent of seats in the Polish Sejm;
Whereas Poland's Communist government controlled the major media, and observers 
        and public opinion polls predicted that Poland's Communist Party would 
        decisively win the election; and
Whereas the Polish parliamentary election of June 4, 1989, was a landslide 
        victory for Solidarity, which won 160 of the 161 seats it competed for: 
        Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) congratulates the Republic of Poland on the 20th 
        anniversary of the Polish parliamentary elections, the first 
        free and democratic election in a Communist-bloc country;
            (2) recognizes that the June 4, 1989, election enabled 
        Solidarity to form the first non-Communist and democratic 
        government in eastern Europe since 1948;
            (3) recognizes that the June 4, 1989, election, by showing 
        the strength of citizens united in solidarity against 
        totalitarianism, inaugurated a series of democratic revolutions 
        that within 6 months ended Communist rule in Hungary, East 
        Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, and afterward 
        in Yugoslavia, Albania, and the Soviet Union;
            (4) commends the Solidarity labor union for rejecting the 
        ideology of class struggle to make an original proposal of the 
        solidarity of citizens from different social groups in a common 
        struggle for freedom, human dignity, and justice against 
        totalitarianism; and
            (5) commends the Polish people for the remarkable courage 
        and commitment to freedom, human dignity, and justice which it 
        showed in freeing itself from Communism, which greatly 
        contributed to other peoples doing the same, and recalls the 
        historic Polish motto, ``for your freedom and ours''.
                                 <all>