Solidarity's Lech Walesa Challenges the US to Stop Being the Policeman of
                              the World
              Talk given in NYC to honor the 25th anniversary of 
                 the Polish Solidarity Trade Union Movement

In honor of the 25th anniversary of the Solidarity, the Polish Trade Union,
Lech Walesa gave a talk at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. (1) The
moderator was James F. Hoge, Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Foreign
Affairs". Walesa was asked a number of questions, some of which he answered,
and some of which were used to explain various aspects of his world view.

Walesa was asked to begin the program by reflecting on the Solidarity
movement and the importance of the 1980 strike. 

Walesa stressed that Poland is a country in the center of Europe, between
two other powerful countries, between Russia and Germany. Because of this
the Polish people have developed a sense of how to understand what is about
to happen, what they may soon become the victim of.  

To give some background as to how and why the Solidarity Trade Union
movement was formed in Poland, Welesa explained that in the 1960s and 1970s,
the Polish people had tried to fight against the Soviet Union.s domination
by strikes and street protests. These were not powerful enough because the
Soviet Union at the time had 200,000 troops in Poland, and many more troops
in the surrounding countries. They realized they had to take all this into
account to determine how to wage a struggle against their Soviet supported
government. They couldn.t do something that would evoke the wrath of their
Soviet neighbor. They had a very big problem. 

Fortunately, Poland was given the gift of the Pope. Suddenly all the Polish
people came together to meet with the Pope. They saw that there were so many
of them. The people were awakened. There were strikes. This gave rise to the
Solidarity movement. They knew that the foundation of what they were
fighting was rotten. Gorbachev also realized that the economic foundation of
the Soviet Union was rotten, but he tried to save it by his reforms.
Gorbachev.s failure, Walesa said, was Poland.s greatest success. The lesson
Walesa said, is that no one shouldn be upset if you fail. When you are
fighting something that is very big, if you fail, it doesn.t mean you should
give up. It just means you may have to find another way to fight.  

Discussing democracy, Walesa said that, "Let.s not forget the enjoyment of
democracy is equivalent to the size of your bank account".

 The moderator asked Walesa his views on whether the public has lost
confidence in the political leadership in Europe, given the no vote on the
EU constitution in France, the small percentage of voters who came out to
vote in the recent Polish election, and the fact that recent German election
has yet to get a government for Germany. 

Walesa did not answer the broader question. Instead he referred to the
German election saying that the problem would be solved. Also he said that
the Polish people would be glad to help if the German people needed help
from them.

Walesa's harshest words were reserved for the US government. While the 20th
century had been an era of two superpowers, where one could provide a check
on the other, the 21st century was a time of one superpower. He explained
that this was a dangerous situation and a way had to be found to check the
power of this single superpower. Either the UN had to take on the challenge,
or some other structure had to be created which would act. He proposed
creating a global parliament, a global government, and a global security
force. 

Walesa explained how this global government structure would be able to deal
with troubles that were too awkward for some nations to deal with. The
audience applauded in response to Walesa.s statement that the US is not
providing political and moral leadership. That the form of leadership the US
is now giving, being a global policeman, is not a form of leadership that is
helpful to the world. Walesa described how people all over the world throw
rocks at a policeman. The leadership needed by the world was instead a
government that will provide a vision.  Such a vision is an idea of how to
move to a better world. 

 
(1) http://www.polishculture-nyc.org/pci.htm