Polish freedom icon Anna Walentynowicz dead at 80
Anna Walentynowicz
Walentynowicz was an anti-communist dissident who worked with Solidarity founder Lech Walesa in the early 1980s to agitate against repressive communist rule. She was close to President Lech Kaczynski  also killed in the Saturday crash. Many others aboard the plane were also their ideological brethren.
 Walentynowicz was the most famous Solidarity activist aboard  an iconic figure more closely associated with the 1980 strikes than anyone save Walesa. She had sometimes been referred to as the Rosa Parks of Poland -- a nod to the American woman who was the public face of the American civil rights movement.
 A 51-year-old widow and crane operator in 1980  Walentynowicz was only five months away from retirement when her shipyard bosses fired her for producing and distributing a newspaper critical of the regime. She had handed some copies directly to her bosses.
 Her fellow workers were outraged at the injustice of her firing and agitated to have her reinstated  resistance that led to strikes and sit-ins at the Gdansk shipyard and in factories across the country.
 "I was the drop that caused the cup of bitterness to overflow " she once said  according to the weekly magazine Przekroj.
 "Anna had been at the center of the events that birthed Solidarity  and along with Lech Walesa she virtually personified the 1980 strikes in the public eye " writes author Shana Penn in "Solidarity's Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland."
Walentynowicz were allowed to return to work.
 But it didn't take long for Walentynowicz and the other female activists to be sidelined by Walesa and the other male organizers.
 Walentynowicz was born August 13  1929  and was 10 years old when Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union invaded and occupied the country. Her father was killed in the war and sheshe herself fell victim to a Nazi decree that prevented Poles from continuing their education after the fourth grade -- part of an effort by the Nazis to enslave Poles.
 She was initially attracted to communism and belonged to the party but eventually became disillusioned with their "lies and manipulation of the workers " Penn said. "She wasn't afraid to expose hypocrites."
 When Walentynowicz began her activism at the shipyard she was already widowed and had survived a near-fatal bout of cancer. Her unlikely survival from the illness left her with a sense that she had survived to carry out something worthwhile.
 "It took someone like her unafraid of authority to tackle the Communist authorities of the day " said Victor Ashe  a former U.S. ambassador to Poland who said he was honored to have the silver-haired Walentynowicz as a guest as his Warsaw residence on a number of occasions. "She was an amazing person who continued to express her views actively and directly."
[TGT] was an anti-communist dissident who worked with Solidarity founder Lech Walesa in the early 1980s to agitate against repressive communist rule. [TGT] was close to President Lech Kaczynski  also killed in the Saturday crash. Many others aboard the plane were also their ideological brethren.
 [TGT] was the most famous Solidarity activist aboard  an iconic figure more closely associated with the 1980 strikes than anyone save Walesa. [TGT] had sometimes been referred to as the Rosa Parks of Poland -- a nod to the American woman who was the public face of the American civil rights movement.
 A 51-year-old widow and crane operator in 1980  [TGT] was only five months away from retirement when [TGT] shipyard bosses fired [TGT] for producing and distributing a newspaper critical of the regime. [TGT] had handed some copies directly to [TGT] bosses.
 [TGT] fellow workers were outraged at the injustice of [TGT] firing and agitated to have [TGT] reinstated  resistance that led to strikes and sit-ins at the Gdansk shipyard and in factories across the country.
 "I was the drop that caused the cup of bitterness to overflow " [TGT] once said  according to the weekly magazine Przekroj.
 "[TGT] had been at the center of the events that birthed Solidarity  and along with Lech Walesa [TGT] virtually personified the 1980 strikes in the public eye " writes author Shana Penn in "Solidarity's Secret: The Women Who Defeated Communism in Poland."
[TGT] were allowed to return to work.
 But it didn't take long for [TGT] and the other female activists to be sidelined by Walesa and the other male organizers.
 [TGT] was born August 13  1929  and was 10 years old when Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union invaded and occupied the country. [TGT] father was killed in the war and sheshe herself fell victim to a Nazi decree that prevented Poles from continuing their education after the fourth grade -- part of an effort by the Nazis to enslave Poles.
 [TGT] was initially attracted to communism and belonged to the party but eventually became disillusioned with their "lies and manipulation of the workers " Penn said. "[TGT] wasn't afraid to expose hypocrites."
 When [TGT] began [TGT] activism at the shipyard [TGT] was already widowed and had survived a near-fatal bout of cancer. [TGT] unlikely survival from the illness left [TGT] with a sense that [TGT] had survived to carry out something worthwhile.
 "It took someone like [TGT] unafraid of authority to tackle the Communist authorities of the day " said Victor Ashe  a former U.S. ambassador to Poland who said he was honored to have the silver-haired Walentynowicz as a guest as his Warsaw residence on a number of occasions. "[TGT] was an amazing person who continued to express [TGT] views actively and directly."