"The first victory we can claim is that our hearts are free of hatred. Hence we say to those who persecute us and who try to dominate us: ‘You are my brother. I do not hate you, but you are not going to dominate me by fear. I do not wish to impose my truth, nor do I wish you to impose yours on me. We are going to seek the truth together’. THIS IS THE LIBERATION WHICH WE ARE PROCLAIMING."
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas (2002)
“The
solidarity of the shaken can say ‘no’ to the measures of mobilization
that make the state of war permanent. … The solidarity of the shaken is
built up in persecution and uncertainty: that is its front line,
quiet, without fanfare or sensation even there where this aspect of the
ruling Force seeks to seize it.” - Jan Patočka
This appeal is to all, but especially Cubans
and Cuban Americans in the Washington DC area.
Protests broke out in Iran on December 28, 2025 over currency devaluation and hyperinflation,
but university students on December 30th linked the economic demands to
political ones, and the protests have spread nationwide.
The
Islamic theocracy has responded with brutal violence visited on the protesters. This is why it is so important to expose their crimes, and
demand accountability.
Please come out and show
your solidarity on January 3rd in Washington DC at 12 noon, in front of the interest section of the Islamic Republic of Iran located at 1250 23rd street NW, Washington, DC 20037for Iranian protesters seeking to restore democracy and the rule of law in Iran.
"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon. which cuts without
wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals." -
Martin Luther King, Jr.
History weighs heavily in August of 2014: the 110th observance of the start of World War 1; eighty fifth anniversary of the signing of Molotov Ribbentrop, the treaty that triggered World War 2 by splitting Poland between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union; 44 years on the 31 of August 1980 the Polish Solidarity union came into existence; and Cubans observed the 30th anniversary of a mass uprising in Havana known as the Maleconazo that sparked another huge exodus of tens of thousands of Cubans fleeing to freedom.
Within this somber month of needed reflection on what not to do
there is an incident that took place that needs to be remembered on
what needs to be done. In addition to dismembering Poland, the Molotov
Ribbentrop Pact placed the Baltic States under Soviet control. A
nonviolent moment thirty five years ago that ended up liberating
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia brought an end to this part of the Nazi-Soviet
non-aggression pact and it was called the Baltic Way.
— Embassy of Lithuania in DC | #StandWithUkraine (@LTembassyUS) August 23, 2024
On June 4, 1989 the Solidarity labor movement won in free elections and the Polish people finally regained their sovereignty
after nearly 50 years under totalitarian oppression. They did it
nonviolently. So did the people of the Baltic states when two million
Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians joined hands together in a giant
human chain stretching 370 miles on August 23, 1994. Fifty years to the
day after the treaty that brought them so much grief had been signed.
On 23 August 1939 foreign ministers of the USSR and Germany - Vyacheslav
Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, as ordered by their superiors
Stalin and Hitler, signed a treaty which affected the fate of Europe and
the entire world. This pact, and the secret clauses it contained,
divided the spheres of influence of the USSR and Germany and led to
World War II, and to the occupation of the three Baltic States -
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
50 years later, on 23 August 1989, the three nations living by the
Baltic Sea surprised the world by taking hold of each other's hands and
jointly demanding recognition of the secret clauses in the
Molotov-Ribbentrop pact and the re-establishment of the independence of
the Baltic States. More than a million people joined hands to create a
600 km long human chain from the foot of Toompea in Tallinn to the foot
of the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, crossing Riga and the River Daugava
on its way, creating a synergy in the drive for freedom that united the
three countries.The Baltic Way was organized by the national movements
of each of the Baltic States: the Popular Front of Estonia Rahvarinne,
the Popular Front of Latvia and the Lithuanian Reform Movement Sąjūdis.
The Baltic Way brought important changes to the history of the world.
This was achieved through social unity and through the joint commitment
and confidence manifested by every individual in pursuing the common
goal. This impressive act of non-violent protest and solidarity whilst
keeping sovereignty was a living example of the culture of peace,
opening up access to information and leading to the acknowledgement of
the secret treaty and its hideous consequences for the whole world. It
increased the opportunity for the national self-determination of
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and encouraged democratic movements
throughout the Soviet Union. The three Baltic States succeeded in
gaining their freedom in a peaceful way, creating a precedent that was,
and hopefully will be, followed by a number of countries all over- the
triumph of humanity over totalitarianism.
Its a powerful testament that the liberation of Poland and the Baltic
states from totalitarian occupation was achieved after fifty years
through nonviolent resistance. Now in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia
August 23rd has a double significance.
Today we gathered in Washington DC to remember and celebrate this enduring nonviolent victory, and its continuing lessons.
Celebrating 35 years since the Baltic Way. 🇪🇪-🇱🇻- 🇱🇹 This nonviolent demonstration in 1989 linked 2M people to protest the Soviet occupation & is now a symbol for the fight for liberty. Gathered in Washington DC today to mark the #BalticWay anniversary. https://t.co/dwHG9pPH1Dpic.twitter.com/IqZ3CopVPT
“The
solidarity of the shaken can say ‘no’ to the measures of mobilization
that make the state of war permanent. … The solidarity of the shaken is
built up in persecution and uncertainty: that is its front line,
quiet, without fanfare or sensation even there where this aspect of the
ruling Force seeks to seize it.” - Jan Patočka
This Saturday (Oct22) in #DC we will gather from all across the United States to show solidarity with our sisters and brothers in #Iran.
This appeal is to all, but especially Cubans and Cuban Americans in the Washington DC area: Please come out and show your solidarity on October 22nd in Washington DC for Iranian protesters seeking to restore democracy and the rule of law in Iran.
Their struggle is our struggle. The communist dictatorship in Cuba has been allied with the theocracy in Iran since 1979. Cuban and Iranian democrats need to join forces in the struggle for our respective peoples freedom. The Center for a Free Cuba called out for Cubans to show their solidarity.
“The
solidarity of the shaken can say ‘no’ to the measures of mobilization
that make the state of war permanent. … The solidarity of the shaken
is built up in persecution and uncertainty: that is its front line,
quiet, without fanfare or sensation even there where this aspect of the
ruling Force seeks to seize it.” - Jan Patočka
Wong ji-yuet is on trial and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison
Over the past 71 years
the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has murdered tens of millions of
Chinese citizens, backed the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, and the Kim regime
in North Korea. The CCP through its lack of transparency,
silencing of Chinese scientists and journalists, has led to a global
pandemic that has killed hundreds of thousands and crashed the global
economy.
These are the fruits of engaging with a mass murdering totalitarian dictatorship, but too many have not learned the lesson, and seek to return to the old unacceptable status quo.
Press accounts report that "39 men and eight women are charged with 'conspiracy to commit
subversion' in connection with the unofficial primary to choose
opposition candidates for the now-postponed 2020 Legislative Council
election, which attracted some 600,000 voters." These 47 activists face great legal jeopardy in China, but in a free country they would be congratulated for being good citizens.
In early January 2021 mass arrests were carried out and grueling bail hearings are now underway that have left four of the defendants hospitalized due to exhaustion.
In the largest single crackdown yet on the opposition under a China-imposed national security law, 47 pro-democracy campaigners and activists were charged in Hong Kong https://t.co/XB2YAb3utdpic.twitter.com/sNL5gqsaSo
One of the youngest defendants is 23-year-old
Wong Ji-yuet,
she is
a first time political hopeful. The pro-democratic primary nominee won 22,911 votes, and came in third in the NTW Constituency in Hong Kong. Let us speak up for her and the other 46 who are unjustly persecuted.
In the Orwellian world that is the Peoples Republic of China in the 21st century, exercising democratic rights under the National Security Law imposed last year on Hong Kong is grounds for a maximum sentence of life in prison.
On July 1, 2020 the Cuban dictatorship introduced a resolution
at the UN Human Rights Council praising China for passing the
Hong Kong National Security Law, also known as 66 article law. 53 governments backed this
resolution, endorsing the death of a free Hong Kong. Official Chinese media "celebrated" their victory at the human rights body. The Chinese Communist Party in a
secretive legislative process circumvented Hong Kong's sovereignty and
imposed this new law a day earlier on June 30, 2020, the 23rd anniversary of the British handover of Hong Kong.
This action is a breach of the agreement made with the British. Professor Johannes Chan, a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong in a BBC news report explained that "effectively, they are imposing the People's Republic of China's
criminal system onto the Hong Kong common law system, leaving them with
complete discretion to decide who should fall into which system."
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai, in an interview with the BBC put it more succinctly, "It spells the death knell for Hong Kong."
Today 47 citizens of Hong Kong are being subjected to China's communist legal system for exercising their fundamental human rights, that prior to June 30, 2020, had been recognized by the government in Hong Kong and tolerated by Beijing.
It is worthwhile to explore Cuba's role in backing this repressive measure.
Communist China and Cuba are joined by ideology
President Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China
Central Committee, exchanged congratulatory messages
with Raul Castro Ruz, first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba
Central Committee, and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to celebrate
the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two communist
dictatorships.
In September 1960 the Cuban government diplomatically recognized the Peoples Republic of China. Between 1960 and 1964 the two regimes would collaborate closely together.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara with a Cuban delegation visited Mainland China and met with
Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and other high ranking Chinese officials in November 1960 to discuss conditions in Cuba and in Latin America, and the
prospects for communist revolution in the Western Hemisphere.
This was at a time that Havana still had normal diplomatic relations
with the United States. Diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United
States were severed on January 3, 1961.
Relations between China and Cuba cooled in 1964 when the Castro regime sided with the Soviet Union in the Sino-Soviet split,
but warmed again in 1989 following the Tiananmen Massacre. The Castro
regime was one of the few governments to support the massacre, and the
Castro regime had distanced itself from the Soviet Union viewing
Perestroika and Glasnost as existential threats to their rule.
The two regimes have been working closely together during the COVID-19 pandemic that originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Above is a video presentation given in April 2020 on this relationship.
Little surprise that on July 1, 2020 the Castro
regime took the lead in backing the new security law in Hong Kong that
effectively ends freedom there.
We must do what we can to speak up for our Chinese brothers and sisters imprisoned for non-violently exercising their rights in the defense of human rights and democracy.
Erazim V. Kohák in his book Jan Patočka: philosophy and selected writingsrefers to Patočka’s “solidarity of the shaken” as a community freed
“from the preoccupation with the pursuits of peace and prosperity that
inevitably lead to war and turn it instead to the pursuit of the Good,
the care of the soul” that is “living with a clear conscience, living in
truth, or in far older terms, seeking first the Kingdom of God.” This solidarity of the shaken is not passive resistance but an active nonviolent resistance to injustice. People of goodwill must join together to resist this expanding tide of totalitarianism and authoritarianism, and in doing so preserve freedom.
In 1990 in his book, Disturbing the Peace, the late Czech President, and dissident, Vaclav Havel reflected on the nature of hope, and it is even more relevant in these challenging times.
“Hope,
in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are
going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously
headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something
because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The
more unpromising the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper
that hope is. Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the
conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that
something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."
Let us be hopeful, and not despair, continuing to speak out for brethren in China and elsewhere that repression and injustice are operating.
Today is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Polish Solidarity movement in Gdansk and sharing some videos and links. The strike at the Gdańsk Shipyard in 1980 led to the Solidarity labor union forming and in June 1989, a free Poland. Lech Walesa had an important role in its founding, but the firing of Anna Walentynowicz, a welder and crane operator, was the
spark that led to the strike, and she played an important role and became a life long trade union activist. Below is a recent video from the Polish Foreign Ministry on Anna's life.
The following video was made in 1980 during the last week of the strike inside the shipyard and reporter Julian Manyon interviewed Anna. She is described as a "simple 51 year old woman who works as a welder in the shipyard became a kind of saint to the striking workers. a reminder of their grievances a symbol of their courage. Everyday she walked to pay her respects at a memorial for the 27 shipyard workers killed by the police when the government crushed the first strike in 1970. Since then Anna has fought a lonely battle for workers rights that climaxed on August 7 when she was sacked."
This courageous woman, together with Lech Walesa, and many other courageous Poles liberated their country and brought about a new birth of freedom.
"We hold our heads high, despite the price we have paid, because freedom is priceless." - Lech Walesa, August 30, 2009.
Meeting Lech Walesa at a NED event honoring him.
Met one of my hero's a couple nights ago. Lech Walesa, the electrician who started a labor union that overthrew a dictatorship in Poland and opened the path to the liberation of Eastern Europe in 1989.
Earlier this week, he spoke before a congressional committee on Capitol Hill and was honored at a National Endowment for Democracy event where he also spoke.
Six months earlier on June 4, 1989 Poland had its first free elections in over half a century following round table talks earlier that year. This would not have happened if not for Lech Walesa and the Polish Solidarity Movement that had obtained guarantees for workers following a strike in the Gdansk ship yards in 1980. With Poland's freedom, the rest of Eastern and Central Europe followed and the Berlin Wall was torn down after dividing Berliners and killing scores of Germans for 38 years.
It could have all ended badly. In China, the Tiananmen Square massacre took place on the same day as the Polish elections that ushered in thirty years of freedom and prosperity.
In Latin America, despots returned in Nicaragua and sprung up in Venezuela. Fidel Castro died of old age never having to face justice and the regime founded by him and his brother continues to wreak havoc in Cuba and in Latin America.
In February 2009 Lech Walesa was barred from entering Venezuela by Hugo Chavez, and ten years later under the regime of Nicolas Maduro ones is seeing the results of Chavismo.
Throughout these years, Lech Walesa would remain a friend of the Cuban dissident movement. He joined the call for an international investigation into the death of Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas in July of 2012.
Today, we remember his speech from thirty years ago, celebrate his legacy, and strive to continue his struggle for freedom.
We the people
Lech Wałęsa addresses joint session of the United States Congress November 15, 1989
Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, members of the Cabinet, distinguished members of the House and Senate.
“We the People”. With these words I wish to begin my address. I do not need to remind anyone here where these words come from. And I do not need to explain that I – an electrician from Gdansk – am also entitled to invoke them.
I stand before you as the third foreign non-head of state invited to address the joint Houses of Congress of the United States. This Congress, which, for many people in the world, oppressed and stripped of their rights, is a beacon of freedom and a bulwark of human rights. And here, I stand before you, to speak to America in the name of my nation. To speak to citizens of the country and the continent whose threshold is guarded by the famous Statue of Liberty. It is for me an honor so great, a moment so solemn, that I cannot find anything to compare it with.
People in Poland link the name of the United States with freedom and democracy, with generosity and high mindedness, with human friendship and friendly humanity. I realize that not everywhere is America so perceived. I speak of her image in Poland. This image has been strengthened by numerous favorable historical experiences, and it is very well known that Poles repay warm heartedness in kind.
The world remembers the wonderful principle of American democracy: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
I do remember these words. I, a shipyard worker from Gdańsk, have devoted my entire life, along with other members of the Solidarity movement, to the service of this idea: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Against privilege and monopoly. Against violations of the law. Against the trampling of human dignity. Against contempt and injustice.
Such, in fact, are the principles and values reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln and the founding fathers of the American Republic, as well as the principles and ideas of the American Declaration of Independence and the American Constitution. These principles are pursued by the great Polish Solidarity movement; a movement that is effective.
I know that Americans are idealistic, but at the same time, practical people, endowed with common sense and capable of logical action. They combine these features with belief in the ultimate victory of right over wrong. But they prefer effective work to making speeches, and I understand them very well. I am not a fan of speeches. I prefer facts and work. I treasure effectiveness.
Ladies and gentleman, the fundamental and most important thing that I would like to tell you about is that the social movement bearing the beautiful name “Solidarity”, born of the Polish nation, is an effective movement. After many long years of struggle, it bore fruit and the results are there for all to see today. It set the direction and developed a way of action that has affected the lives of millions of people speaking different languages. It has swayed monopolies,
And the struggle was conducted without resorting to violence of any kind, a point that cannot be stressed too much. We were being locked up in prisons, deprived of our jobs, beaten, and sometimes killed. And we did not so much as strike a single person. We did not destroy anything. We did not smash a single window pane. But we were stubborn. Very stubborn. Ready to suffer, to make sacrifices. We knew what we wanted, and our power prevailed in the end.
It was a consistent and persistent movement, never giving up. And that is why after all these hard years, marked by so many tragic moments, Solidarity is today succeeding and showing the way to millions of people in Poland and other countries.
Ladies and gentleman, it was ten years ago, in August 1980, that the famous strike began in the Gdansk shipyards that led to the emergence of the first independent trade union in communist countries, and soon became a vast social movement, supported by the Polish nation. I was ten years younger then, unknown to anybody but my friends in the shipyard, and somewhat slimmer. And I must frankly say that it was important. I was an unemployed man at that time, fired from my job for earlier attempts to organize workers in the fight for their rights. I jumped over the shipyard wall and rejoined my former colleagues, who promptly appointed me leader of the strike. This is how it all began.
When I recall the road we travelled, I often think of that jump over the fence. Now others jump fences and tear down walls. They do it because freedom is a human right. But there is also another reflection that comes to mind when I think of the road behind us. In those days, at the beginning, many warnings, admonitions, and even condemnations reached us from many parts of the world.
“What are those Poles up to?” we heard. “They are mad!” “They are jeopardizing world peace and European stabilit!” “They ought to stay quiet and not get on anybody’s nerves”. From those voices we gathered that other nations have the right to live in comfort and prosperity, they have the right to democracy and freedom, and it is only Poles who should give up these rights so as not to disturb the peace of others.
In the days before the Second World War there were many people who asked: “Why should we die for Gdańsk, isn’t it better to stay home?” But war soon paid them a visit. And they had to start dying, for Paris, for London, for Hawaii. This time, too, there were many who complained: “There is that Gdansk again, disturbing our peace!”
But the recent developments in Gdańsk carried a different message. This is not the beginning, but the true end of that war. That was the beginning of a new, better, democratic, and safe era in the history of our world. It is no longer a question of “dying for Gdańsk”, but of “living for it”.
Looking at what is happening around us today, we may affirm that the path of struggle followed by Poland in quest of human rights, a struggle without violence and characterized by typical Polish stubbornness and firmness in the quest for pluralism and democracy, shows many people today, and even nations, how to avoid the greatest dangers of conflict.
If there is something threatening European stability today it is certainly not Poland. Poland is driving towards its own profound transformation; transformation achieved through peaceful means, through evolution, negotiated with all the parties concerned, which makes it possible to avoid the worst. And perhaps is held up as a model for many other regions. For, as we know, changes elsewhere are not so peaceful. Peacefully and prudently, with their eyes open to danger but not giving up what is right and necessary, the Poles gradually paved a way for historic transformations.
We are joined along this way, to various extents, by others: Hungarians and Russians, Ukrainians and the people from the Baltic states, Armenians and Georgians, and in recent days East Germans. We wish them luck and rejoice each success they achieve. We are certain that others will also take road we have followed, as there is no other choice!
So now I ask, is there is any sensible man understanding the world around him who could justifiably say today that it would be better for the Poles to keep quiet, because what they are doing is jeopardizing world peace? Could we even dare say that Poles are doing more to preserve and consolidate peace than many of their frightened advisors? Could we not say that stability and peace is under greater threat from countries which have not yet brought themselves to carry out far-reaching and comprehensive reforms, which do their utmost to preserve the old and disgraced ways of government, contrary to the wishes of their societies?
Things are different in Poland. And I must say that our task is viewed with understanding by our Eastern neighbors and their leader Mikhail Gorbachev. This understanding lays the foundation for new relations between Poland and the Soviet Union, relations which are much better than before. These improved mutual relations will also contribute to stabilization and peace in Europe, removing useless tensions.
The Poles have a long and difficult history, and no one wants more than we do peaceful coexistence and friendship with all nations and countries, and particularly with the Soviet Union. We believe that it is only now that the right and favorable conditions for such coexistence and friendship are emerging. Poland is making an important contribution to a better future for Europe, to European reconciliation. And also to the vast and important Polish-German reconciliation. To overcoming all the divisions and the strengthening of human rights on our continent. But it does not come easily for Poland.
In the Second World War, Poland was the first country to fall victim to aggression. Her losses in terms of human life and national property were the heaviest. Her fight was the longest; she was always a dedicated member of the victorious alliance and her soldiers fought in all the world theatres. In 1945 Poland was, theoretically speaking, one of the victors. Theory, however, had little in common with practice.
In practice, as her allies looked on in passive consent, an alien system of government was imposed in Poland, without a president in the Polish tradition, unaccepted by the nation, together with an alien economy, an alien law, and an alien philosophy of social relations. The legal Polish government, recognized by the nation, and leading the struggle of all Poles throughout the war was condemned, and those who remained faithful to it were subjected to the most ruthless persecution. Many were murdered. Thousands vanished somewhere into Russia’s East and North. Civilian repression without soldiers of the underground army that fought the Nazis. And it is only now that we are discovering their bones in unmarked graves scattered among the forests.
This was followed by persecutions of all those who dared to think independently. All the solemn pledges about free elections in Poland that were made in Yalta were broken. It was the second great national catastrophe following the catastrophe of 1939. When other nations were joyously celebrating victory, Poland was again sinking into mourning.
The awareness of this tragedy was doubly bitter, as the Poles realized that they had been abandoned by their allies. The memory of this is still strong in the minds of many. Nevertheless, the Poles took to rebuilding their devastated country, and in the first years following the war they were highly successful. But soon a new economic system was introduced, in which individual entrepreneurship ceased to exist, and the entire economy ended up in the hands of the state, run by people who were not elected by the nation.
Stalin forbade Poland to use aid provided by the Marshall Plan; aid that was used by everyone in Western Europe, including countries which lost the war. It is worth recalling now that great American plan which helped Western Europe to protect its freedom and peaceful order. And now is the moment when Eastern Europe awaits an investment of this kind, an investment in freedom, democracy, and peace. An investment adequate to the greatness of the American nation.
The Poles have travelled a long way. It would be worthwhile for all those commenting on Poland, often criticizing Poland, to bear in mind that, whatever Poland has achieved, she achieved through her own effort, through her own stubbornness, her own relentlessness. Everything was achieved thanks to the unflinching faith of our nation in human dignity, and in what is described as the values of Western culture and civilization. Our nation well knows the price of all this.
Ladies and gentleman, for the past fifty years, the Polish nation has been engaged in a difficult and exhausting battle. First to preserve its very biological existence. Later to save its national identity. In both instances, Polish determination was there. Today, Poland is rejoining the family of democratic and pluralistic countries, returning to the tradition of religious and European values. For the first time in half a century, Poland has a non-communist and independent government supported by the nation.
But in our past there looms a serious obstacle. A great danger. Our long subjection to a political system incompatible with national traditions, to an economic system incompatible with rationality and common sense, coupled with a stifling of independent thought and disregard for national interest has led the Polish economy to ruin, to the verge of utter catastrophe. The first government in fifty years elected by the people and serving the people has inherited from the previous rulers of the country the burden of an economy organized in a manner which prevents it from satisfying even the basic needs of its people.
The economy we inherited after almost five decades of communist rule is in need of overhaul. This will require patience and great sacrifice. This will require time and means. The present condition of the Polish economy is not due to change, as it is not specifically a Polish predicament. All the countries of the Eastern Bloc are bankrupt today. The communist economy has failed in every part of the world. One result of this is the exile of citizens of those countries, by land and by sea, by boat and by plane, swimming and walking across borders. This is a mass scale phenomenon, well known in Europe, Asia, and Central America.
But Poland has taken its new road and will never be turned back. The sense of our work and struggle in Poland lies in our creating situations and prospects that would hold Poles back from seeking a place for themselves abroad; that would encourage them to seek meaning in their work and hope for a better future in their own country, their own home. One sometimes hears that people in Poland do not care to work well. But even those who say this know that Poles work well and effectively, if only they see the sense and usefulness of their work. The working people know their arithmetic too. They are working much harder and in worse conditions than their opposite numbers abroad, and on top of that, they are paid much lower wages. The economic system around them is absurd. To make matters worse, every several or dozen years, the country suffered a new crisis, a new crunch, and time and time again it has turned out that past efforts went to waste. Show me the people who would have worked well stuck for decades under such a system. Wouldn’t they too have succumbed to pessimism?
The system has to be changed and the Poles have taken it upon themselves to change it. I know that America has her own problems and difficulties, some of them very serious. We are not asking for charity, we are not expecting philanthropy. But we would like to see our country treated as a partner and a friend. We would like cooperation under decent and favorable conditions. We would like Americans to come to us with proposals of cooperation, bringing benefits to both sides. We believe that assistance, extended to democracy and freedom in Poland and all of Eastern Europe, is the best investment in the future and in peace, better than tanks, warships, and warplanes; an investment leading to greater security.
Poland has already done much to patch up the divisions existing in Europe, to create better and more optimistic prospects. Poland’s efforts are viewed with sympathetic interest by the West; and for this thanks are in order. We believe that the West’s contribution to the process will now grow. We have heard many beautiful words of encouragement. These are appreciated, but being a worker and a man of concrete work I must tell you that the supply of words on the world market is plentiful, but the demand is falling. Let deeds follow words now.
The decision by the Congress of the United States about granting economic aid to my country opens a new road. For this wonderful decision, I thank you warmly. And I promise you that “this” aid will not be wasted and will never be forgotten.
Ladies and gentleman, from this podium I am expressing words of gratitude to the American people. It is they who supported us in the difficult days of Martial Law and persecution. It is they who sent us aid. They protested against violence. Today, when I am able to freely address the whole world from this elevated spot, I would like to thank them with special words. It is thanks to them that the world “Solidarity” soared across borders and has reached every corner of the world, and thanks to them the people of Solidarity were never alone.
In this chain of people linked to Solidarity there were many, many Americans. I wish to mention here with warm gratitude our friends from the United States Congress, the AFL-CIO trade unions, from the institutions and foundations supporting freedom and democracy, and all those who lent us support in our most difficult moments. They live in all states, in large and small communities of your vast country.
I thank all those who through the airwaves or printed word “spread the truth”. I also wish to say thank you and to greet all Polish-Americans who maintained warm contact with their old fatherland. Their support was always priceless for us.
I wholeheartedly thank the President of the United States and his administration for its involvement in my country’s affairs. I will never forget the then Vice-President, George Bush, speaking over the tomb of the reverent Jerzy Popiełuszko, the martyr of Poland. And I will never forget President George Bush speaking in Gdansk, in front of the monument of the falling shipyard workers. It is from there that the President of the United States was sending a message of freedom to Poland, to Europe, to the world.
Pope John Paul II once said: “Freedom is not just something to have and to use, it is something to be fought for; one must use freedom to build one’s personal life as well as the life of the nation.” I think this weighted thought can equally well be applied to Poland and America. I wish all of you to know and to keep in mind that the ideals which underline this glorious American Republic, and which are still alive here, are also alive and well in faraway Poland. And although for many long years efforts were made to cut Poland off from these ideals, she held her ground and is now reaching for the freedom to which she is justly entitled.
Together with Poland, other nations of Eastern Europe are following this path. The wall that separated people from freedom has collapsed.
"If we take the widest and wisest view of a Cause, there is no such thing as a Lost Cause because there is no such thing as a Gained Cause." - T. S. Eliot (1927)
Forum 2000 started today and this 23rd gathering in Prague will focus on "recovering the promise of 1989." Some of the ways to do that are to attend this gathering in person, virtually over social media, and to revisit the writings and thoughts of those who led the struggle that saw freedom spread around the world in 1989. One of them is Václav Havel and he is also a founder of Forum 2000. If you haven't heard of him, then shame on you. He is an important figure to know, to understand how Eastern Europe was liberated in 1989. Václav Havel was a Czech playwright, who became a dissident, a prisoner of conscience, presided over the Velvet Revolution, became president of Czechoslovakia, resigned in protest over the Velvet Divorce, then became president of the Czech republic and finally citizen and playwright once again. All the while he demonstrated his solidarity with victims of repression in his own country and around the world.
The fruits of his legacy can be seen in the work of Forum 2000, this annual gathering of politicians, philosophers, artists, scientists, and the public to reflect on important issues challenging civilization that is currently underway. Ten years ago on October 12, 2009 at another Forum 2000 conferenceVáclav Havel offered the following reflection on President Barack Obama's decision to back out of meeting with the Dalai Lama due to an upcoming trip to China:
I believe that when the new Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize postpones receiving the Dalai Lama until after he has accomplished his visit to China, he makes a small compromise, a compromise which actually has some logic to it. However, there arises a question as to whether those large, serious compromises do not have their origin and roots in precisely these tiny and very often more or less logical compromises.
"Above all, clear and unequivocal solidarity with all those confronted by totalitarian or authoritarian regimes wherever they are in the world. And economic or other particular interests should not hinder such solidarity. Even a minor, discreet and well-intentioned compromise can have fatal consequences– even if only in the long term, or indirectly. One must not retreat in the face of evil, because it is in the nature of evil to take advantage of every concession. Besides, Europe has already had its own unfortunate experience of appeasement policies.
The "Velvet Revolution" achieved profound non-violent change without wholesale slaughter and violence associated historically with revolutions. A cursory look would claim that the "revolution" took 11 days in November for the Communists to relinquish power. In reality, it began at least in 1976, after the beatings and arrests of the members of the rock band the Plastic People of the Universe, led a number of intellectuals, Vaclav Havel, among them drafting and signingCharter 77. Charter 77 challenged the Czechoslovak communists to honor the rights outlined in their own constitution and in the Helsinki accords that the communist government had signed in 1975. This small moral act had big consequences over the long term, and immoral acts such as engaging with Communist China without conditioning relations to improved human rights is now having a great impact in both Europe and America. On December 9, 1996 President Bill Clinton met with Chinese General and Defense Minister Chi Haotian, in the Oval Office. General Haotian was the military leader who oversaw the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. President Clinton did not raise the issue of Tiananmen Square in his meeting with the Chinese general. This further empowered the hard line elements in China. In 2017, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, a high ranking center right politician, went to Trierto honor Karl Marx, and celebrate the unveiling of a statue of the communist philosopher paid for by the communist regime in China. The European Commission President also excused and downplayed in his remarks the responsibility of the author of the Communist Manifesto for the 100 million lives lost to impose Marx's ideological project.
“We are here now because we are asking the Chinese president and Chinese government not to repeat what happened to us 33 years ago, where fighters for freedom were pursued and persecuted.”
The similarities, I would say, are in the basic structure of human rights reflected in a democratic system, which of course the regime doesn’t want. The regime wishes for the dictatorship of one party. I think this is where Charter 08and Charter 77 are similar: they have similar targets and similar messages to deliver to the [respective] regimes.
The lessons are clear. There is no end of history, and there are no permanent victories. Liberty and respect for human rights are fragile and require constant attention and care. The threat of tyranny whether through external or internal threats is a constant challenge that requires the vigilance and prudence of free peoples.
Sadly, these lessons and the legacy of Václav Havel are under assault in the Czech Republic. In 2014, Czech deputy foreign minister Petr Drulák argued that a "foreign policy with its stress on human rights was wrong and harmful." This abandonment of human rights was not solely confined to Cuba. In February of 2015 the European Union lifted sanctions on the Robert Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe. This was followed in February of 2016 with lifting sanctions on the Alexander Lukashenko regime in Belarus.
The European Union's Common Position on Cuba was ended on December 12, 2016 when in a unanimous vote (including the Czech Republic) the European Union claimed to "open a new chapter" in relations with the Cuban dictatorship that dropped human rights as a condition of normalization. Under the pretext of "normal relations" Cuban dissidents and independent civil society are no longer welcome at events at European embassies, as they were under the old policy. Incidentally in the rest of Latin America European embassies invite dissidents, members of the political opposition to their events. The Cuban government in Washington DC invites opponents of the US government to their embassy functions.
However, these dissidents have not been abandoned, Václav Havel is no longer physically with us, but his legacy and institutions such as Forum 2000 live on and continue to stress human rights and solidarity.
Dissidents and human rights defenders from around the world, including Cuba and China, will be heard at Forum 2000 by world leaders in a space that defends the values and promise of 1989, and seeks avenues for strengthening and expanding them.
True, this is a small moral act by a Czech NGO, but as Vaclav Havel demonstrated back in 1989, in both word and deed, they can change the world for the better. Whether it succeeds or not we must continue to hope. In 1990 in his book, Disturbing the Peace, Havel explained a powerful definition of hope that is rooted in truth.
“Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. The more unpromising the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is. Hope is not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.
Tonight, we listened to Nobel Peace Prize LaureateTawakkol Karman deliver a powerful speech at Forum 2000 that painted a negative, but accurate picture, of the challenges facing the international community today.
"Bad choices are made between tyranny and terrorism. We will fight both. Any war against terrorism is also a war against dictatorship. Every dictator is a terrorist and every terrorist is a dictator."
Freedom of expression, of thought, belief in the freedom of travel and solidarity with victims of repression are at the heart of Forum 2000 and are among the values to be defended to preserve and expand free societies. Hope you will join us in attending Forum 2000, and sending them a donation.
"The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." - Milan Kundera
Eighty years ago on August 23, 1939 the world was shocked to learn that Communist Russia and Nazi Germany had signed a non-aggression pact, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. It was named after their respective foreign ministers, Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop. Observers would have been even more horrified had they known of the secret protocols that divided Eastern Europe between the two totalitarian powers. What they called a "peace treaty" in reality was a war treaty.
Rolling Soviet tanks and Nazi motorcyclists in Poland (September 1939).
Nine days later on September 1, 1939 at 4:45 am Nazi Germany invaded Poland and World War II started. Sixteen days later the Soviet Union exercising its secret agreement with the Nazis invaded Poland from the East
and met their German allies in the middle of Poland. On September
22, 1939 the German Nazi army joined with the Soviet Communist army in a
military parade in Brest-Litovsk and the two sides celebrated together.
Nazi and Soviet soldiers greet one another in Poland (1939)
About 230,000 Polish soldiers and officers and thousands of military
service representatives were taken captive by the Russians. The Soviet precursor to the KGB was the NKVD. "From October 1939, the delegated NKVD officials from Moscow heard the
prisoners, encouraged them to cooperate and collected data. Only a few
of the prisoners agreed to collaborate. The commanding officers’ reports
included opinions about hostile attitudes of the Poles and a minimal
chance of them being useful to the USSR authorities."
The decision to shoot the prisoners was signed on March 5, 1940 by seven members of the All- Union
Communist Party (Bolsheviks) authorities: Joseph Stalin, Lavrentiy
Beria (proposer), Kliment Voroshilov, Vyacheslav Molotov, Anastas
Mikoyan, Mikhail Kalinin and Lazar Kaganovich.
Thousands of Polish Army officers and intellectual leaders were taken into the Katyn Forest near Smolensk in the Soviet Union, shot in the back of the head or in the neck and buried in mass graves.
The same people who would join Hitler's brown shirts were also susceptible recruits to join Antifa. Communists viewed
the SA as a "proletarian-revolutionary paramilitary wing"of the Nazi
movement and susceptible to being recruited to the communist cause. The case of Richard Scheringer,
a supporter of Adolf Hitler and army officer who converted to communism
in the early 1930s is a high profile example of this.
Harvey
Klehr, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History, Emeritus,
at Emory University, described how communists had mistakenly viewed the
Nazis as a means to achieving power and undermining capitalist democracies. Antifa identified all political parties that were not communist as fascist. This meant that social democrats, centrist political parties, and conservative parties were together with the Nazis all labeled fascist. Fascism, according to Antifa, is anti-capitalism. This was the Comintern's class against class approach and fractured any potential broad anti-Nazi coalition.
"Adolf
Hitler’s rise to power in 1932 had been immeasurably aided by the German communists' steadfast support for the Comintern tactic of “class
against class,” which demanded no cooperation with other anti-Nazi
forces. German communists blithely insisted that Hitler’s triumph would
be evanescent—summarized in their optimistic slogan, Nach Hitler, kommen
wir ('After Hitler, us').
The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact is this strategy but on a grander scale. Let the Western democracies and the Nazis exhaust each other in the conflict and then seize everything. Victor Davis Hanson, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. reported that "Stalin shipped huge supplies of food and fuel for the German war effort against the West."
Soviet and Nazi soldiers fraternize after conquering Poland in 1939
The
Communist International (Comintern) issued new orders to their members once the non-aggression
pact had been made public. Professor Klehr described the new directive.
Good
communists were ordered to oppose anyone intending to stand in Hitler’s
way. With Ribbentrop’s second visit to Moscow at the end of September
and the signing of a German-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, the Comintern
emphasized that the primary adversary was those countries that were at
war with Germany, and those socialists and social democrats fighting
against fascism. Germany had concluded a pact with the USSR, while
“reactionary” England, at the helm of a vast colonial empire, was the
“bulwark of capitalism.” Thus, communist parties in England and France
were ordered to call for the defeat of their countries—ordered, in other
words, to officially embrace treason.
According to Klehr, Nazi reports confirmed that Communists were fulfilling their part of the agreement siding against Western Democracies.
A June 1940 Gestapo report approvingly noted that the Soviet government
was favorably disposed to the Third Reich and had endorsed its
invasions of the Scandinavian states and Belgium and Holland “as
necessary and proper.” The report went on to note that the Comintern had
avoided open attacks on Germany, and that the parties and publications
allied with the Comintern were not pushing for communists to struggle
against National Socialism or denounce fascism.
This arrangement only ended on June 22, 1941 when the Nazis double crossed their Soviet allies and launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.
Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop, Joseph Stalin, and Soviet foreign minister, Molotov
Communist morality has no problem with any of it because as the communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin observed in a speech to Russian communist youth on October 2, 1920:
"The class struggle
is continuing and it is our task to subordinate all interests to
that struggle. Our communist morality is also subordinated to
that task. We say: morality is what serves to destroy the old
exploiting society and to unite all the working people around
the proletariat, which is building up a new, communist society."
The myth that the communists were anti-fascists is a dangerous one, and the fact is that they viewed the Nazis as an instrument to wipe out Western Democracies and replace them with communist regimes believing that the fascists would quickly fade out of power.
It also led to Poland spending another half century under Soviet domination and Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia occupied by the Russians. A conquest that arose out of the Hitler-Stalin pact that endured following the end of the war.
The Baltic Way brought an end to one key element of Molotov Ribbentrop
It was a nonviolent movement thirty years ago that liberated the Baltic nations. The Baltic Way brought an end to this part of the Nazi-Soviet
non-aggression pact.
On June 4, 1989 the Solidarity labor movement won in free elections and the Polish people finally regained their sovereignty
after nearly 50 years under Soviet domination. They did it
nonviolently.
So did the people of the Baltic states when two million
Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians joined hands together in a giant
human chain stretching 370 miles on August 23, 1989. Fifty years to the
day after the treaty that brought them so much grief had been signed. This history must not be forgotten. The Spanish scholar George Santayana understood that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
The Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, JBANC, Estonian American National Council, EU Delegation to the USA, Lithuanian American Council, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation are organizing a reenactment of this nonviolent action that freed three peoples.
Be a part of history: join this reenactment of a unique historical event. All nationalities are welcome.
Save the date: August 23, 2019 at 1:00pm
Holding hands in a human chain to celebrate freedom in front of the U.S. Capitol (West side, First Street SW & 1st Street NW)
Afterwards informal gathering at 2.30 PM at Biergarten Haus, 1355 H St NE, Washington, DC.
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