Bringing Down the Iron Curtain

Bringing Down the Iron Curtain
CELEBRATING VICTORY: Polish supporters of the anti-communist Fighting Solidarity organization gather to celebrate its 25th anniversary in Warsaw on June 14, 2007. Jan Jekielek/The Epoch Times
Jan Jekielek
Jan Jekielek
Senior Editor
|Updated:

WARSAW—On June 14, Poland celebrated the 25th anniversary of the founding of Fighting Solidarity, the only freedom-seeking Polish organisation of the 1980s whose stated goal was the elimination of communism and freedom for all nations under the iron curtain.

Widely considered the most militant or radical splinter of the Solidarity trade union, the group’s main tactics revolved around an underground press, known as “bibula,” and underground radio broadcasts.

“We should remember that independence and democracy were not given to us as a gift; we had to fight to attain them,” said Bogdan Borusewicz, Speaker of the Polish Senate, in an opening speech at the Sejm, the Lower House of Poland’s Parliament.

Borusewicz thanked Fighting Solidarity members for risking their safety and their careers while undertaking actions that resulted in freedom for contemporary Poland.

Those gathered greeted former Polish Premier Jan Olszewski, Fighting Solidarity founder Kornel Morawiecki, and Anna Walentynowicz—whose firing in 1980 started the famed Gdansk shipyard strikes—with a standing ovation. Walentynowicz was welcomed as the “mother of Solidarity.”

The Speaker of the Sejm, Ludwik Dorn, noted that Fighting Solidarity activists dedicated themselves to achieving the greatest possible change in society, and that they “spoke loudly about what everyone was thinking about.”

“What Fighting Solidarity made its mission was what actually ended up happening. We have independence, the Soviet Union fell apart, and communism in Poland collapsed. That is why they deserve specific thanks,” said Dorn.

It will not be easy. For our allegiance to these simple aims, we will have to pay with battle, imprisonment and blood, and even then the victory that will come in the end will not be final at all. Truth and Justice, and Freedom and Solidarity must be searched for, and served; it not possible to simply hold on to them. Yet the path leading to these ideals is the most certain out of all paths. Only it really shows life's direction. Only it is becoming of people and societies. We, Fighting Solidarity, follow this path. Come with us.
— Fighting Solidarity Mission Statement
Jan Jekielek
Jan Jekielek
Senior Editor
Jan Jekielek is a senior editor with The Epoch Times, host of the show “American Thought Leaders.” Jan’s career has spanned academia, international human rights work, and now for almost two decades, media. He has interviewed nearly a thousand thought leaders on camera, and specializes in long-form discussions challenging the grand narratives of our time. He’s also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, producing “The Unseen Crisis,” “DeSantis: Florida vs. Lockdowns,” and “Finding Manny.”
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