Freedom 'worth any price'

Solidarity hero Lech Walesa told his countrymen yesterday that any price, including the pain accompanying economic reforms, was worth paying for the freedom they have enjoyed since the overthrow of communism.

Addressing a special session of parliament marking the 25th anniversary of the birth of Solidarity, Mr Walesa praised the role of communist East Europe's first independent trade union in changing Poland and ending the post-1945 division of Europe.

"We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless," said Mr Walesa, 62, his trademark brown walrus moustache now grey.

Representatives of 30 governments, human rights activists and historians are gathering in Poland this week to commemorate the 1980 strike led by Mr Walesa, then an electrician, in the Gdansk shipyard, the cradle of Solidarity.

The two-week strike by shipyard workers ended on August 31, after the communist authorities allowed the creation of an independent union, the first breach in the monopoly of power held by the communist rulers of an East European state.

"The role of Solidarity in the downfall of communism was enormous because it showed the world that workers do not like communism," said Richard Pipes, a US historian and adviser to late US President Ronald Reagan.

Nearly a decade later Solidarity took power, sparking the collapse of communism across the Soviet bloc. Mr Walesa was Polish president from 1990 to 1995, a period of turbulence and change.

The legacy of Solidarity and Mr Walesa has been under attack in recent years, mainly by populist parties tapping into discontent after 15 years of painful economic reforms.

Mr Walesa has been accused, even by some former colleagues, of betraying the workers by presiding over sweeping reforms that have left 2.8 million people unemployed.

Central bank governor Leszek Balcerowicz, the main architect of the early 1990s reforms, said some workers, such as miners, had lost the privileged position they enjoyed under communism, but were still better off now.

"Polish and Ukrainian workers were at a similar starting point back then. But today it is much better to be a Polish miner than a Ukrainian miner," he told foreign journalists. "If you ask people who are unhappy whether they would go back (to communism), they'll say they wouldn't."

Some rightist critics accuse Mr Walesa, who won the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful struggle with communism, of being a communist pawn acting on orders to prevent a "real" anti-communist revolution.

Mr Walesa, backed by most historians, dismisses such conspiracy theories and again passionately defended Solidarity's record yesterday. "In front of God, everything that is sacred, I declare that there was no manipulation," he said.