Lech Walesa, former Polish president, to visit New York in support of Occupy Wall Street

NYDailyNews ^ | October 12, 2011 | Corky Siemaszko

[decimon]

Solidarity hero Lech Walesa is flying to New York to show his support for the Occupy Wall Street protesters.

"How could I not respond," Walesa told a Polish newspaper Wednesday. "The thousands of people gathered near Wall Street are worried about the fate of their future, the fate of their country. This is something I understand."

A former shipyard worker who led Poland's successful revolt against Soviet communism, Walesa said "capitalism is in crisis" and not just in America.

"This is a worldwide problem," he told the Lublin-based Dziennik Wschodni newspaper. "The Wall Street protesters have focused a magnifying glass on the problem."

Protest organizers said they will welcome Walesa with open arms.

"He fought very, very hard for the rights of all working people," said Doug Forand of the 99 New York campaign, which is affiliated with OWS.

Support from a world-class working-class hero like Walesa puts more pressure on Wall St. and on the government to get "the wealthiest 1% to do their share to create jobs and get us through this economic crisis," he said.

A staunch anti-communist and former Polish president who helped steer his country to a free market economy, Walesa was invited to join the three-week-old protest by organizer Matthew Blair.

Walesa has warned of a "worldwide revolt against capitalism" if the Wall St. protests are ignored.

[Tijeras_Slim]

This saddens me.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

&(*^@%#!

What the is he doing?

Didn’t we just have a lovely chat about good old Lech last week? Has he lost all sense of integrity?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

They’re using him. He must not know all the facts. He is getting older. Someone is pulling on his heart strings. He doesn’t know what is going on. If he knew and understood everything about it, he wouldn’t go. He is being used.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

Calm down folks!

He’s a straight shooter just like you know he is.

Wait until he says what he came to say - the mob will turn on him and probably lynch him. You’ll think Rick Santorum just gave the address!!!

As soon as he sees a few signs there, he’ll think it’s pre-Solidarity and he’ll be standing up to them all.

[LibertyRocks]

I just got through writing a letter to the contact at the Lech Walesa Institute. I don’t know if he will ever see it, or who runs the institute, etc... I had to write to someone about this though. My heart is breaking to see one of my family’s heroes be used like this. (My husband is of Polish descent and has family who lived through the Soviet Occupation, and supported the solidarity movement.)

I included information in my email about the organizations behind this protest. I explained that these people were Marxists. I also pointed out what they are doing there in the park (public intercourse, public defecation, passing around illegal drugs). I said more, but you get the gist of it.

If anyone would like to add their voice and express their concerns I suppose writing an email to the LW Institute might not hurt. I will be searching for a better contact address, but this is the best I could find quickly...

Lech Walesa Institute Foundation
Al. Jerozolimskie 11/19
00-508 Warsaw, POLAND

ph. +48 (22) 622-22-20
ph. +48 (22) 621-14-92
fax +48 (22) 625-14-14

Email: biuro@walesa.org

Honestly, I can’t imagine Walesa supporting these people if he REALLY knew what they were all about. His statement that there are “thousands” in New York is rather telling to me that he’s been fed a bunch of lies. I hope and pray that’s the truth of it...

[lonestar]

They won’t have a clue who he is!

[LibertyRocks]

They’ll probably jeer him for his acts against the Communist Motherland if any of them have even the slightest clue. He tore down their power in Poland, and he is effectively building them up here! I pray God opens his eyes.

[huckfillary]

He is, after all, Polish.

[huckfillary]

He is, after all, Polish.

[LibertyRocks]

I’m not understanding your meaning in saying Walesa “is, after all, Polish”.

[Gene Eric]

>> He is being used.

Exactly.

[riri]

Who is funding this?

[Fester Chugabrew]

He is, after all, Polish.

Based on subsequent reply methinks you just stepped in it.

[Revolting cat!]

Welcome time traveller from the 1970s. By the way, disco’s dead!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Geeez. The “media” had me convinced that this clown was an anti-communist. They fooled me again, the bass turds.

[3Fingas]

I am very disappointed in this former freedom fighter. I guess the years have not been kind to his thinking ability.

[Greysard]

He led the revolt in Poland against communism, not capitalism.

He led the revolt against whatever was available at the time.

[LibertyRocks]

My guess is that this poster is too much of a wimp to clarify his statement... I mean really, I can GUESS what they meant, but I’d hate to presume the person is some kind of bigot.

[dfwgator]

Pierdol się.

[Charles Martel]

Madness is washing over the earth like a black tide.

I'm not sure if it's the zombie apocalypse, but increasingly I feel like Robert Neville.

The original book ("I Am Legend") ends with Neville's realization that he had become the "new" ancient terror, the monster that would haunt the dreams of countless generations of those mutated freaks, just as vampires and such had done before.

Depressing? Yes, a bit. But hey, at least I have my Omega Man soundtrack CD to play if I should decide to start riding around with a submachine gun on the seat beside me.