Arole model for the entire polical class of the world, Lech Walesa was born in Popowo, Poland, on 29 September 1943, to a carpenter and his wife. He attended primary and vocational school, before entering Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk (Stocznia Gdanska im. Lenina, now Stocznia Gdanska) as an electrical technician in 1970. In 1969 he married Danuta Golos, and the couple now have eight children. His son Jaroslaw Walesa is a member of Poland’s Sejm (lower house of the Polish parliament). Lech Walesa is a devout
Roman Catholic, and has said that his faith always helped him during Solidarity’s difficult moments.

He was a member of the illegal strike committee in Gdansk Shipyard in 1970. In 1976, Walesa lost his job in Gdansk Shipyard.

In June 1978 he joined the illegal underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast (Wolne Zwiazki Zawodowe Wybrzeza), organized by Bogdan Borusewicz, Andrzej Gwiazda, Krzysztof Wyszkowski, Lech Kaczynski, Anna Walentynowicz, Antoni Sokolowski, and others.

On 14 August 1980, after the beginning of an occupational strike in the Lenin Shipyard of Gdansk, Walesa became the leader of this strike. The strike was spontaneously followed by similar strikes, first in Gdansk, and then across Poland.

In September of that year, the Communist government signed an agreement with the Strike Coordination Committee to allow legal organization, but not actual free trade unions. The Strike Coordination Committee legalized itself into National Coordination Committee of Solidarnosc (Solidarity) Free Trade Union, and Walesa was chosen as a chairman of this Committee.