Lech Walesa, Revolutionary Free-Market Capitalist Who Defeated Communism In Europe, To Visit New York In Support Of Occupy Wall Street
This is more than a little bit ironic given that a good portion of the protesters are avowed Socialists. Protests and anti-bailout politics make for strange bedfellows, as we've been saying for almost three years.
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Solidarity hero Lech Walesa is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
"How could I not respond," Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. "The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand."
A former shipyard worker who led Poland's successful revolt against Soviet communism, Walesa said "capitalism is in crisis" and not just in America. "This is a worldwide problem," he told the Lublin-based Dziennik Wschodni newspaper. "The Wall Street protesters have focused a magnifying glass on the problem."
Protest organizers said they will welcome Walesa with open arms.
"He fought very, very hard for the rights of all working people," said Doug Forand of the 99 New York campaign, which is affiliated with OWS. Support from a world-class working-class hero like Walesa puts more pressure on Wall St. and on the government to get "the wealthiest 1% to do their share to create jobs and get us through this economic crisis," he said.
A staunch anti-communist and former Polish president who helped steer his country to a free market economy, Walesa was invited to join the three-week-old protest by organizer Matthew Blair.
Walesa has warned of a "worldwide revolt against capitalism" if the Wall St. protests are ignored. They are protesting the "unfairness" of an economy that enriches a few and "throws the people to the curb," he said in a recent interview. "That's why union leaders and capitalists need to figure out what to do, because otherwise they will have to contend with a worldwide revolt against capitalism," he said.
The 68-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner said through a spokesman that he will fly to New York soon but did not give a date.
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More detail here:
Oct 14, 2011 at 12:40 PM
Reader Comments (9)
The truth is we no longer have Capitalism in the USA.
Gene, did you read the article? Walesa makes comments that address exactly what is upsetting the protesters - Crony capitalism.
You described LW as a revolutionary free-marketeer. that is technically incorrect. Solidarnosc was an avowed socialist movement and said so! many times. LW gave a speech in which he said the S movement was a "rescue plan for socialism." In fact, the Poles recreated the soviet system [plz note the small 's'] that was subverted by the Bolsheviks who overtook the soviets and had them cede all power to the Communist Party. The Communists retained the soviet name and became the USSR or Soviets [note the capital].
LW said that the Soviet system
had completely corrupted the soviet sytem, which he admired and recreated. He described the soviets as real socialism , and the Soviets as state capitalism.
what happened next is hotly disputed, but the conventional wisdom is that the nationalist [ie anti-russian] faction of solidarnosc colluded with thatcher and reagan and subverted the new Polish soviets. Again opinion is divided but LW was either bought off, or eventually came to abandon soviet socialism [often referred to as 'council communism'] in favor of capitalism. he was persuaded to run for prime minister, something he told the people he betrayed that he would never do. he won in a landslide running on a socialist platform. then came the IMF lloans etc and LW began to dismantle the soviets just as lenin had in russia and opened Polish markets up to the vultures.
He served one term. At the end of it he was despised, and deserved to be. He ran for re-election on a pro-Western, pro-capitalist platform. He finished last with three percent of the vote. Yes, that's right, Last! and with THREE percent.
Was he really a capitalist who pretended to be a socialist so he could take over the government and sell it to Wall Street? Was he a real socialist as he insisted time and time again and was bought out by Thatcher? Or did he have a real change of heart? Historians disagree. What is for sure is that he wil not be well received by tthe avowed socialists there. However one feels about socialism v capitalism, he betrayed the people who voted for him, and he is now much more popular in the capitalist West than in his native country. Personally, I despise him.
sincerely
dave f.
I do not dislike anyone. And I wasn't taking a shot at Socialists. I was merely pointing out the irony (or what I thought to be the irony before your comment) of Walesa expressing solidarity with a group that includes many Socialists.
I appreciate your thoughtful response.
Anatoliy Golitsyn, Soviet KGB Officer, who personally participated in developing the reorganization of Soviet Intelligence, head of the KGB section responsible for counter-espionage against the United States, senior analyst in the NATO section of the Information Department of the Soviet intelligence, and who help formulate Soviet long term intelligence and military planning, defected to the United States in 1961. In 1980 he published a book called "New Lies for Old" a study of the Soviet long-range strategy of deception and disinformation, in which he predicted the fall of the Berlin Wall, that the breakup of the United Soviet Socialist Republics, and a period of feigned peace, during which time the Soviets, Russians, would secretly massively begin building their military for the inevitable confrontation with the US and Nato or the Western Nations. Otherwise the fall of the Soviet Union was a massive ploy, a fantastic strategy of disinformation and deception in order to lull the West into a false sense of security. Furthermore the Russians were and are instrumental in the wars that the West has been involved in the Middle East as a prelude to their final objective but firstly making sure the West exhaust its resources as much as possible. Gorbachev made a speech to the Russian Duma (Russian equiv. to our Congress) that Russia was going to make peace, tear down the wall etc. and told them don't worry, its all in our plan and in the end we will crush the Americans and the West.. So LW was nothing but a pawn if anything and the so-called fall of the Soviet Union was nothing but a planned strategy and preliminary preparation for eventual war with the West. The Russians are good chess players, they are patient and plan their moves much ahead of the game.
One last injection here: A Catholic Mystic, whose integrity is unquestionable, was asked by Pope John Paul II in Germany in 1984 what he had been shown in his visions, he said: 'That he was shown the sky black with planes and missles coming out of Russia in numbers the west never even imagined they had, that he saw two subs surfacing on both the east and west coast of the US and nuking the coastal cities, of an army of over 10 million men marching on Europe in a blitz with tanks and equipment of unimaginable numbers'. In 1959, another Catholic Mystic, Blessed Sister Elena Aiello, said that she was shown and told that Russia will attack the West "with her secret armies" and roll over all of Europe. To make it short there are many more prophecies that state the same - although they say we win in the end but over 3/4 of the world dies and its coming soon.
to America and demonstrate! He is not an American! No foreign Nationalities should be allowed to Demonstrate
in America! look at the mess we have in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California!
if you refuse a nobel winner,then you are refusing any acknowledgement of the rest of the world.the idea of a supportive icon is there for the world to gain inspiration.regardless of his history. all politicians are corrupted eventually,thereby proving the point of the complaints of the #ows protest.absolute power corrupts absolutely.you yankees think you have absolute global power,like the school bully,you are inherently and absolutely corrupt