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The 1990's

From Electrician to President

From Electrician to President
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 7 to 9
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.91

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    Non-Communists, non-Communist, co-workers, banded, presidency, politics, criticism, staunch, striking, disband, ally, shipyard, political, primary, electrician, attempt
     content words:    Lech Walesa, Communist Party, Because Lech, National Coordination Committee, Solidarnosc Free Trade Union, Soviet Union, Nobel Peace Prize, Prime Minister, Solidarity Electoral Action, United States Congress

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From Electrician to President
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     Lech Walesa was elected as President of Poland in December of 1990. He probably spent some time wondering how something like that could ever happen. Poland had for many years been a Communist country. Communist governments didn't hold free elections. In a Communist country, the people voted for the one candidate approved by the Communist Party. How had Lech, a factory electrician, come to the high office he held?
 
2     Lech Walesa was born on September 29, 1943. His father was a carpenter. His mother tended to her children. Instead of attending high school like most American children do, Walesa went to vocational school after finishing primary school. A vocational school teaches students skills they will be able to use in factories and other trades. After vocational school, Lech went to work at the shipyard in Gdansk, Poland, as an electrician. He married and is the father of eight children.
 
3     Walesa did not like the way Communists ruled Poland. Communist rules were hard to live by. The government made almost all of the decisions. The government owned almost all businesses. The government decided how much money a person could make and how much it would cost a person to live. Walesa and other workers banded together in an attempt to form labor unions with no Communist ties.
 
4     The leaders of the government did not like for the people to oppose their decisions. They tried to disband the unions. In 1970, the workers at the Gdansk shipyard decided to go on strike in an attempt to make the government let them form non-Communist unions. Police were sent to the shipyards to make the workers go back to their jobs. Fighting broke out and eighty workers were killed. As one of the leaders of the striking workers, Walesa was arrested for "anti-social behavior." He was sent to prison for a year.

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