Lech Walesa, born in 1943, founded in Poland the labor union called <em>Solidarity</em>, which was the first union to be independent from the communist party in the whole Soviet Union. Moreover, Walesa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and subsequently became the Polish president between 1990 and 1995.
<em>Solidarity</em> emerged as a social movement, which used civil resistance and disobedience to fight for workers' rights and for social change. The communist authorities established martial law, aiming to destroy the union. After some years of repression, the goverment had to negotiate with Solidarity. <u>The many talks that took place led to the celebration of semi-free elections in 1989 and Walesa was elected president. </u>
