Solidarnosc = 25 anni, monumento a Gdansk

25 years of Solidarity. Strikes by Polish shipyard workers in Gdansk 25 years ago helped to usher in the end of the Cold War.
Jan Zappner - Berlin - 26.8.2005 | Translation : Fiona Wollensack
Mythologising the movement
Today, the movement which is accredited with bringing about the fall of the Eastern Block is to be honoured with a museum – an ambitious project in which a new town covering some 73 hectares is to be built on the former shipyard of Gdansk. The museum will be at the entrance to the port city, and a portrait of Lech Walesa will smile down upon “Freedom Road” from the facade of the new museum.
This smile is meant to attract the money of investors, says Roman Sebastianski, marketing director of the investment fund Synergia 99. “The mythology of the Solidarnosc movement still sweeps down the streets here.” Up to 10,000 new jobs and flats for 6,000 people are to be created in the next 15 to 20 years in the new town, but the building project on the shipyard land is still controversial. For many people it is the final death knell for the shipyard, a fact they do not wish to have to face.
Will, after 25 years, the shipyard be buried along with Solidarnosc under its own larger than life mythology? This will be a hot topic of discussion at the celebratory events taking place during the coming weeks in Gdansk. The role of the man who became the symbol of Solidarnosc during its stellar rise will also be discussed, especially now that he, Lech Walesa, has now announced that he wishes to leave the union.