Przemówienia z okazji otwarcia wystawy „1989. The End of the System”, siedziba ONZ w Nowym
Jorku, 4 czerwca 2014 r.
Ambasador Ryszard Sarkowicz
Distinguished Secretary-General, Excellences, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you at the opening of the exhibition “1989. The End of the
System”.
25 years ago, thanks to the peaceful revolution of Solidarity - “Solidarność”, Poles regained the ability to
decide their own fate. Polish victory over the communist dictatorship was even more significant since it
was achieved without bloodshed, in peaceful elections. The elections of June the 4th 1989, although only
partially democratic, let millions of Poles say loud and clear: “We want Solidarity, We want Democracy,
We want to decide our own Fate”.
The landslide victory of “Solidarność” has triggered political transformation in my country, and paved the
way to gigantic transformation of the entire Central and Eastern Europe. The democratic revolution
could no longer be stopped. The wall dividing not only Berlin, but the whole Europe, the whole world,
finally collapsed.
However, the 1989 elections marked not only the break with the communist regime in Poland; it marked
also the beginning of the wide social and economic reforms that turned Poland and other countries of
our region into democratic and prosperous societies we know today.
Today, after 25 years, we can proudly say: we have succeeded.
Today, Poland, together with many other countries of our region, enjoys freedom and democracy.
Today we are committed to core values on which the United Nations are build, we take responsible
actions in order to preserve the world we live in, and we want to share our solidarity with those who are
in need.
That all would not be possible without the Polish peaceful revolution of “Solidarność” in 1989.
Thank you very much.
Sekretarz Generalny ONZ, Ban Ki-mun
Your Excellency, H.E. Ambassador Ryszard Sarkowicz,
Mr. John Darnton,
Excellencies,
Honoured guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good evening,
Thank you for your welcome. I am pleased to join all of you for the opening of this exhibition on this
historic day.
I have been honoured to visit Poland as Secretary-General, most recently last November. Like people
around the world, I have been greatly moved by your struggle for democracy.
A quarter of a century ago, the people of Poland lined up to vote in multi-party elections and paved the
way for democracy.
The seeds of Poland’s freedom were sown in Gdansk and the shipyards of the Baltic coast in the 1970s
and 1980s. This evening, Lech Walesa’s role in that movement and as leader of the Solidarnosc [Solidarnosh] union and first President of a democratic Poland will be commemorated in the showing of the film;
Walesa. Man of Hope.
The holding of free elections in Poland sent shockwaves across central and Eastern Europe. The Polish
experience in turn influenced events right across the region. The rest is history.
We can all be inspired by the determination of the Polish people to turn a new page in its history. They
showed that peaceful democratic transition can take place even in the most difficult of situations.
The fundamental values of the modern Polish state – and your pursuit of good governance, the rule of
law and human rights – provides an example for others striving for a free, prosperous and stable future.
In the spirit of the 25th anniversary of this event, I trust that Poland will continue to share its valuable
experience and offer counsel to other countries in transition and places where people are seeking their
fundamental freedoms.
I would also like to recognise the partnership between Poland and the United Nations. Only with such
strong bonds can we hope to tackle some of the most difficult challenges facing us today.
Today, more than ever, we need sustained and genuine dialogue and to work closely together to address
the major issues confronting our increasingly interdependent world.
No country can do it alone. Just like 25 years ago, we need solidarity – global solidarity – to advance
peace and security, promote sustainable development, uphold human rights and take on climate change.
Once again, I am honoured to be with you and salute Poland for its longstanding support. Thank you for
your example.
I count on the government and people of Poland to further strengthen and deepen its contribution as we
work together to build a better world.
Thank you.
John Darnton, dziennikarz New York Times
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Ambassador Ryszard Sarkowicz, diplomats, guests and friends.
I am pleased and honored to have been asked to speak to you today. The last 25th anniversary event I
attended was to mark the quarter century since the signing of the Gdansk accords in 1980. It seems like
that was only yesterday. And now here we are, a mere nine years later, celebrating the victory of
democracy. It’s true that history seems to move faster with age.
If you could take those two events – the Lenin shipyard and the roundtable talks leading to free elections
– and put them on the shelf of human endeavor, what a wonderful pair of bookends they would make!
The decade of 1980 was thrilling, though not, I warrant, so easy to live through. A roller coaster barreled
through Eastern Europe and Poland was the lead car. Poles saw it all: a strike that turned into a protest
that became a mass movement for freedom and liberation… that was suppressed by the
authorities…that then went underground and burgeoned yet again until finally it re-surfaced,
unstoppable and triumphant. The negotiations it led to were far-sighted and civilized, based on reason,
respect and an overriding sense of inclusive national identity.
I was privileged to witness the early part of this revolution-evolution. When I arrived in Poland in 1979
with my wife Nina and our two young daughters, we had no idea that we were on the threshold of the
collapse of the post-World War II power alignment in Europe. This was the Poland of Edward Gierek and
his “propaganda of success,” which was a cynical misnomer. Right away we detected discontent -- anger
over food shortages, cynicism about party leaders, envy of the west and of course the assembly-line
production of jokes that punctured the pretenses of the system with the sharp edge of truth. But all this
was normal, diplomats and others assured us. No real changes were on the horizon. It was the cold war;
everything was frozen in place. More or less forever.
Poland was like an old, once glorious manor house; viewed from the outside, it was still standing and to
all intents and purposes, looked sturdy enough. But inside, in the basement, out of sight, the foundation
was rotting.
Then along came Solidarnosc. I remember the excitement of the shipyard: activists hammering out
demands, workers with radios held to their ears listening to the BBC, the sense of history in the offing,
Lech Walesa being carried on shoulders to the gate decorated with flowers and photographs of Pope
John Paul II. I remember interviewing the woman who started it all, Anna Walentynowicz, a crane
operator and grandmother, who derided the authorities. “You know,” she said, “it’s not just that they
messed up. People can mess up. It’s that they lied about it. Radio, TV, the newspapers – all of them kept
saying our lives were getting better and better. And we knew they weren’t. After all, we were living
them.”
For 16 months, while the world watched and held its breath, a reconstruction crew took over the Polish
building. With energy and inspiration, they opened windows, broke down walls, erected scaffolding,
drew up new blueprints, a whole cacophony of hammering and sawing and make-shift construction. And
then came martial law and General Jaruzelski when the hopes and dreams of so many came to an
inglorious halt one snowy December night. The workers in the building were locked up and the windows
were boarded over and the fence around it was padlocked. It was a sad edifice.
At that point I left. I had seen repression, then freedom, then suppression. Three different countries for
the price of one. Would there be a fourth country?
As my plane took to the air in 1983 my clothes smelled of tear gas fired at protesters in Gdansk. And as I
looked down at the land below, I wondered: what would happen to all that energy and dissent? Would
they somehow dissipate? Would Poles accept their lot and continue to live the double life – one
outwardly compliant, the other inwardly yearning? I thought not. But how long would it take for them to
rise up again? Ten years? 15? 25? I never would have ventured six.
Today we see movements for democracy elsewhere in the world splinter and fall apart and collapse in
civil war or totalitarian takeovers. Today, we must not forget, is also the 25th anniversary of the
massacre in Tiananmen Square. I’ve asked myself how did Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe manage
to break out of bondage without civil trauma? What did they do that others do not? What do they have
that others don’t have?
Undoubtedly there are a multitude of answers. The societies are more uniform. The dominant power,
the Soviet Union, weakened and finally fell apart. There existed dormant but still strong political and
cultural traditions and ideals from the pre-war years. And the power structure itself was bound by at
least a modicum of moral constraints – something that should not be forgotten now that General
Jaruzelski has been recently laid in his grave.
But there is also something else, something less tangible. It resides in the spirit of people themselves. A
majority was seized by the desire to overturn the existing order and went about it with creativity and
restraint. Their secret weapon lay in Solidarnosc, in the very meaning of the word. Solidarity. A unity of
purpose and mutual support. Think about it for a moment. Here we had a state that was armed and
resourceful and backed by an outside power and unarmed civilians could confront it and prevail because
of solidarity. Because they all stood up together, at the same time, visible to one another and taking
inspiration from one another.
It’s heartening when that happens, when history takes a full leap forward – especially when it happens in
the course of a single, glorious decade.
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