[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 121 (Tuesday, October 3, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1653-E1654]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  FOR BREAD AND FOR FREEDOM: THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF 
                               SOLIDARITY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 3, 2000

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I want to add my voice to those 
who commemorate the 20'' anniversary of the founding of Solidarity and 
join as a co-sponsor of this resolution, H. Con. Res 416. 
Significantly, one of the original 21 demands of the Gdansk workers was 
a call for the implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. As Chairman of 
the Helsinki Commission, I therefore take special satisfaction in 
hailing one of the success stories of the Helsinki process.
  Stalin is reputed to have once said that trying to impose communism 
on Poland was like trying to put a saddle on a cow. Certainly, there 
were few places in Central Europe where communism was more unwelcome 
and unnatural. The peaceful dismantlement of a totalitarian system 
imposed by force is testimony to the heroism, ingenuity, and integrity 
of Solidarity activists and the millions of Solidarity's supporters 
throughout the country.
  Of course, the events at the Gdansk shipyard in the summer of 1980 
were the continuation--and elevation--of the opposition to communism 
that was the inevitable by-product of communism itself in Poland, from 
the workers' strikes in Poznan in 1956, to the university dissent in 
1968, to the Gdansk riots of 1970. But Solidarity was unique in two 
critical ways. First, it established an unprecedented union between 
workers and intellectuals, making the whole more than the sum of the 
parts. Second, it evolved into a mass movement, drawing support from 
all segments of society. With the critical support of the Catholic 
Church, Solidarity came to embody the hopes and aspirations not only of 
the people of Poland, but of dissidents and democrats throughout the 
region. When Lech Walesa was awarded the Nobel Peace prize, that award 
rightly recognized the achievements of an extraordinary individual as 
well as the historic role of the Solidarity movement itself and the 
people who comprised it.
  Indeed, there are many well known heroes of this movement, in 
addition to Lech Walesa:

[[Page E1654]]

Bronislaw Geremek, Adam Michnik, Wladislaw Frasyniuk, Bogdan Lis, Jacek 
Kuron, Anna Walentynowicz, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, to name but a few of 
the legions of Solidarity's activists. There were also martyrs, 
including Father Jerzy Popieluszko, and the miners and others who died 
when martial law was imposed in 1981. Millions of other Poles, in small 
ways and large, contributed to world freedom through their support of 
freedom in Poland.
  Mr. Speaker, the resolution we support today seeks to honor them and 
their movement.

                          ____________________