Seminar on "The Democratic Breakthrough - 20 Years after the June 1989 Elections in Poland"

On 7 June the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the National Europe Centre, an institution within the Australian National University (ANU), jointly hosted a seminar. The topic was "The Democratic Breakthrough - 20 Years after the June 1989 Elections in Poland". The meeting, held in the main lecture room of the ANU in Canberra, was opened by the Director of the Centre, Professor Simon Bronitt, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Jaroszyński.

In the first part of the seminar, monitored by Mr John Kerin, a former Minister for Trade, the spokesmen were Senator Gary Humphries, a senator for the ACT in the federal Parliament, and Mr Bill Stefaniak, a former Leader of the Opposition in the ACT Legislative Assembly. Both politicians focussed on the key role of the events in Poland in the process of the overthrowing communism in Europe, and they mentioned their own participation in the Australian campaign of assistance to "Solidarity."

In the second part of the meeting, there were lectures delivered by experts and scientists, eg: Prof. Jan Pakulski from the University of Tasmania, Hobart; Prof. Martin Krygier - Director of the European Law Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney; Prof. Murray Raff - the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Canberra; Dr James Jupp - Director of the Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies at the ANU; Dr Tracey Rowland - Rector of the John Paul II Institute in Melbourne; and Dr Robert F. Miller - American Sovietologist and expert in Systems Transformation in Eastern Europe, and lecturer at the ANU. The scientific part of the seminar was lead by Dr Stefan Markowski, economist at the ANU and at the University of New South Wales/the Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra (UNSW@ADFA.)

There were about 80 people participating in the seminar, including representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the diplomatic corps, scientific community, media, Poles living in Australia, and students. The lectures evoked active discussions, especially regarding the international context of the Polish events from the '80s and the attitude of General Wojciech Jaruzelski.

Mr Stephen Smith, Minister for Foreign Affairs, sent a letter of thanks to the Ambassador in which he stressed that the Polish system's transformation from communism to democracy had been a great success. Mr Gareth Evans, a former Attorney-General and Minister for Foreign Affairs, and currently a co-chair of the International Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission, sent a message to the seminar participants; as Attorney-General he took part in a conference entitled "Poland after the martial law" held in 1984 in Canberra. Letters were received from Mr Malcolm Fraser, who was Prime Minister in the years 1975-83, and from Mr Tony Street, who in 1981 became the first Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs to pay an official visit to Poland.

Copies of the three resolutions passed by the Australian Parliament on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the historic elections in Poland were among the materials prepared by the Embassy for participants in the seminar.  In the second half of June the Australian Senate adopted resolutions advanced by Senator Kerry O'Brien, a member of the governing Australian Labor Party, and by Senator Gary Humphries, a member of the Liberal Party of Australia. In turn, the House of Representatives honoured the Polish contribution to the collapse of communism by adopting a resolution proposed by Mr Peter Slipper, a member of the Liberal Party.