7 The 100 Most Influential World Leaders of All Time 7

against Libya were subsequently lifted in 2003, and fol-

lowing Qaddafi’s announcement that Libya would cease

its unconventional-weapons program, the United States

dropped most of its sanctions as well. Although some

observers remained critical, these measures provided an

opportunity for the rehabilitation of Qaddafi’s image

abroad and facilitated his country’s gradual return to the

global community. In 2009 Qaddafi was elected chairman

of the African Union.

leCh Wałe¾ sa

(b. Sept. 29, 1943, Popowo, near Włocławek, Pol.)

O

riginally a labour activist who helped form and lead

(1980– 90) Communist Poland’s first independent

trade union, Solidarity, Lech Wałęsa went on to become

the president of Poland from 1990 to 1995. He received

the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.

Wałęsa, the son of a carpenter, received only primary

and vocational education and in 1967 began work as an

electrician at the huge Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk, Poland.

He witnessed the 1970 food riots in Gdańsk in which

police killed a number of demonstrators. When new pro-

tests against Poland’s Communist government erupted in

1976, Wałęsa emerged as an antigovernment union activist

and lost his job as a result. On Aug. 14, 1980, during pro-

tests at the Lenin shipyards caused by an increase in food

prices, Wałęsa climbed over the shipyard fence and joined

the workers inside, who elected him head of a strike com-

mittee to negotiate with management. Three days later

the strikers’ demands were conceded, but when strikers in

other Gdańsk enterprises asked Wałęsa to continue his

strike out of solidarity, he immediately agreed. Wałęsa

took charge of an Interfactory Strike Committee that

united the enterprises of the Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia area.