[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 151 (Monday, October 28, 2013)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1584]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    IN MEMORY OF TADEUSZ MAZOWIECKI

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. WILLIAM R. KEATING

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, October 28, 2013

  Mr. KEATING. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor Tadeusz Mazowiecki, who 
passed away today at the age of 86.
   Tadeusz Mazowiecki played a pivotal role in the Round Table talks 
that paved the way for Poland's peaceful democratic transition. He was 
an architect of the agreement that led to Poland's first partially free 
elections in June 1989 and went on to serve as Poland's first post-
communist prime minister.
   Throughout his life, Mazowiecki was a courageous advocate for 
workers' rights and human dignity. He was the leader of a small group 
of Polish intellectuals who traveled to Gdansk in 1980 to show their 
solidarity with striking shipyard workers. He was one of the first to 
be arrested when communist authorities declared martial law in December 
1981 and one of the last to be released a year later. Throughout the 
1980s, Mazowiecki served as an advisor to Lech Walesa and played a 
leading role in Solidarity movement. As prime minister, Mazowiecki sped 
political reforms, enacted civil and political rights, and laid the 
groundwork for Poland's successful transition to a free market economy. 
Poland's peaceful revolution sparked a chain reaction throughout 
Central Europe, culminating in Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution and 
the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.
   Mr. Speaker, the people of the United States and Europe owe Tadeusz 
Mazowiecki an immeasurable debt of gratitude. The world today is safer 
and more free because of him and Polish patriots like him. His memory 
serves as an inspiration to those who fight--often against all odds--
for rule of law and human dignity in their own countries, and as a 
reminder to all that the blessings of liberty and democracy should not 
be taken for granted.

                          ____________________