AFL-CIO Finally Gets to Honor Walesa

Poland’s Lech Walesa on Tuesday finally got to take up the invitation he received eight years ago to address the American labor movement, and--judging by his tear-streaked smile--how sweet it was.

The emotional moment--shared by an overflow crowd of 1,100 AFL-CIO delegates who interrupted with applause about 29 times--would have strained a seasoned diplomat, let alone the spiritual father of Eastern Europe’s democratic revolution.

But Walesa, wearing a slightly rumpled suit and a wide knit tie, clearly felt he was in his element.

“Today, I am here, in the United States, as a trade unionist,” he shouted to an already enraptured crowd that greeted his arrival with a 13-minute standing ovation and waved placards in red and white, the colors of the Solidarity labor movement he leads.

At the end, after closing with a call, in Polish, for “Solidarity forever”--a traditional slogan used by labor unions throughout the world--he added, in English: “Union--Yes!”--the AFL-CIO’s new theme. Predictably, it brought down the house.

The rally was a highlight of Walesa’s historic first visit to the United States, which began Monday night and will take him to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. The trip, which included a private dinner with President Bush on Tuesday night, has taken on added significance because it comes amid an extraordinary series of reforms sweeping Eastern Europe.

The Senate, meanwhile, voted unanimously Tuesday to approve a $738-million aid package for Poland and Hungary. The measure contains $283 million more than the Bush Administration sought to help Poland and Hungary stabilize and reform their economies.

The dramatic reforms in East Germany and initial signs of a similar political thaw in Czechoslovakia injected new impetus into Democratic-led efforts to increase the aid package to demonstrate U.S. support for the democratization of Eastern Europe.

While it must be reconciled with a similar House package approved last month, the Senate action assured that Poland and Hungary will ultimately receive a three-year program of assistance substantially greater than the $455 million sought by President Bush.

By Walesa’s own admission, the AFL-CIO appearance was “a meeting that has been a long time in coming.”

It was in November, 1981, that Walesa was invited to the United States to receive the AFL-CIO’s George Meany Human Rights Award, which the organization had bestowed on the Solidarity union. But, after increased disturbances at home sparked partly by Solidarity’s protests of the Polish government’s policies, Warsaw’s Communist leaders refused to allow Walesa to leave. The AFL-CIO has held the award in abeyance ever since.

Finally, after 7 1/2 years of continuing protest and a stunning victory that gave Solidarity essential control of the instruments of Poland’s government, Walesa came to accept the award and to give AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland a bear hug of thanks for American labor’s support.

But he also brought another message, an appeal for Americans to invest in Polish business ventures to help the new Solidarity government move the country toward a market-oriented economy.

“I would like Americans to smooth the way for big business deals with Poland,” he said. “Our country needs your experience, your knowledge, your modern technologies. . . . The world is awaiting your signal.”

He warned that “if we fail to convince people that . . . things are changing for the better, then this breeze of freedom I spoke of will soon disappear.”

Walesa is spending three days in the nation’s capital. He arrived Monday night to receive the Medal of Freedom from President Bush, and today he will become only the second foreigner not holding public office at the time to address a joint session of Congress. The first was the Marquis de Lafayette in 1824, said Senate historian Donald A. Ritchie.

Then on to New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.