Free at last

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Resistance to communism/socialism in Poland was grass-roots and organized. Their vision was to exercise free commerce, communication, education and more - outside of government-controlled markets, media, and schools.

"Thirty-eight million Poles were thumbing their noses at the state. They knew from painful experience that, as dissident Stefan Kisielewski put it (and was arrested and beaten for saying), “Socialism is stupidism.”

"Poland’s communist leader, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, struck an agreement  . .  to legalize suppressed political groups and schedule elections. He had little choice. Poland, he declared, had become “ungovernable.”

"On June 4, 1989 . . Poland electrified the world by holding the first free elections in communist Europe. Opponents of communism and its kissing cousin, socialism . . won 99 of 100 seats in the Senate and every single one of the 161 seats in the lower house of Parliament (the Sejm) that the regime allowed to be contested. "

(from "Blinking Lights for Freedom - Real Heroes: the People of Poland")