HRES 504 IHCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Recognizing and congratulating the Republic of Poland on the 20th anniversary of the Polish parliamentary elections on June 4, 1989.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

June 4, 2009CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. LIPINSKI, Mr. WOLF, Mr. KANJORSKI, Mr. PITTS, Mr. HASTINGS of Florida, Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida, Ms. KAPTUR, Mr. MCCOTTER, Mr. DINGELL, Mr. COHEN, Mr. KIND, Mr. GUTIERREZ, Mr. QUIGLEY, Mr. MCGOVERN, Mr. MCMAHON, and Mr. COURTNEY) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign AffairsCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Recognizing and congratulating the Republic of Poland on the 20th anniversary of the Polish parliamentary elections on June 4, 1989.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Soviet Union and the Republic of Poland’s Communist Party used the Polish elections of 1947, in which they brutally persecuted non-Communist candidates and grossly falsified voting returns, to impose a Communist government on Poland;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas after 1947, Poland’s Communist government did not permit genuine opposition candidates to campaign for election or to appear on election ballots;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas Poland’s Communist government was not an independent national government but was subservient to the Soviet Union, to which it formally ceded approximately one-third of Poland’s territory;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Polish people never accepted the legitimacy of the Communist government, but repeatedly challenged its totalitarian rule, including in the revolutionary strike movements of 1956, 1970, and 1976;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in 1956 and 1970, the Communist government responded to these challenges by firing on assembled strikers, killing large numbers of workers, and by manipulating social prejudices to set against each other industrial workers, farmers, and intellectuals;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Soviet Union responded to powerful anti-Communist movements in eastern Europe with armed force, most notably in the 1944-1945 crushing of the Polish Home Army, the 1956 invasion of Hungary, and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in 1979, Pope John Paul II visited his native Poland and inspired millions of Poles with the ideals of social solidarity and respect for human dignity, and urged them to, ‘Be not afraid’;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in 1980, shipyard workers in Gdansk responded to government-ordered price hikes with a strike calling for the legalization of independent labor unions, freedom of expression, and economic reforms;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Gdansk strike movement quickly spread throughout Poland, establishing itself as the Solidarity labor union, the first independent labor union in a Communist country, with a membership of approximately 80 percent of the Polish labor force;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Solidarity labor union became a broad social movement, uniting industrial workers, farmers, intellectuals, and students, and demanding respect for human rights;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas from 1981 to 1983, Poland’s Communist government imposed martial law and arrested thousands of Solidarity leaders but failed to completely suppress Solidarity;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas in 1988, new waves of Solidarity-led strikes compelled Poland’s Communist government to negotiate with Solidarity;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas from February to April 1989, Solidarity leaders and the Communist government negotiated an agreement for a free election in which Solidarity would run candidates for 100 percent of seats in the Polish Senate and 35 percent of seats in the Polish Sejm;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas Poland’s Communist government controlled the major media, and observers and public opinion polls predicted that Poland’s Communist Party would decisively win the election; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Whereas the Polish parliamentary election of June 4, 1989, was a landslide victory for Solidarity, which won 160 of the 161 seats it competed for: Now, therefore, be itCommentsClose CommentsPermalink

Resolved, That the House of Representatives--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(1) congratulates the Republic of Poland on the 20th anniversary of the Polish parliamentary elections, the first free and democratic election in a Communist-bloc country;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(2) recognizes that the June 4, 1989, election enabled Solidarity to form the first non-Communist and democratic government in eastern Europe since 1948;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(3) recognizes that the June 4, 1989, election, by showing the strength of citizens united in solidarity against totalitarianism, inaugurated a series of democratic revolutions that within 6 months ended Communist rule in Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and Romania, and afterward in Yugoslavia, Albania, and the Soviet Union;CommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(4) commends the Solidarity labor union for rejecting the ideology of class struggle to make an original proposal of the solidarity of citizens from different social groups in a common struggle for freedom, human dignity, and justice against totalitarianism; andCommentsClose CommentsPermalink





(5) commends the Polish people for the remarkable courage and commitment to freedom, human dignity, and justice which it showed in freeing itself from Communism, which greatly contributed to other peoples doing the same, and recalls the historic Polish motto, ‘for your freedom and ours’.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink