MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
Lech Walesa
Trooper Lukasz Lipert also spoke with Walesa in Polish about their homeland and the anti-communist movement Walesa helped lead.
LVIV, Ukraine -- In the past few months, alarm bells have been raised in Poland as critics of the country's new ruling party, Law and Justice, or PiS, speak out against what they believe are dangerous infringements on democracy and a wave of conspiratorial panic in the country. On Saturday, they flooded the streets to "defend the rule of law in Poland and its place in the European Union."
In the current Polish culture war the "worst sort" of Poles are fighting back. Demonstrations have again become commonplace in Warsaw, and the liberal left is banding together in the face of the new threat.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
It gives me a thrill to know that the idea and a big purpose we have been working for for 35 years, has come to a wonderful fruition. It was Lech Wałęsa's insight to create a centre, right where the Solidarity revolution started in 1980, to attract young and all to reflect on the ideas of freedom and solidarity.
Gdansk, Poland is a city that many know as the place where shipyard worker Lech Walesa led the strikes and established the Solidarity Union that led to the end of Soviet control of the region.
As the world marks the 25th anniversary of freedom returning to Eastern Europe, it is sad that two of the wisest post-communist leaders are no longer with us.
Yesterday, Monday, Walesa talked for more than two hours with a group of activists from diverse provinces and political leanings. It was if a piece of Cuba had arrived in the autumn cold of Wasaw.
Just two words, "Ukraine" and "Putin," bring out the old fighter in him, which seems slightly unusual for a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. These words explain the deep concern of the Poles, and indeed all Eastern European countries, to what is happening nearby: "We need missiles to aim at Russia."
U.S.-Russia relations -- already soured by the animus between their presidents -- have worsened. A new cold war seems to be underway. But some specialists, fearful of where events may be headed, are breaking from the standard narrative.
