Solidarity was successful in Poland but many societies worldwide are still waiting for democracy, stated the participants in Tuesday's Solidarity 25 Years Later
conference in Gdansk.

The meeting's organizer, former deputy foreign minister Radek Sikorski, said Solidarity's ideals had not been sufficiently promoted in the past. We could have done more to spread them, but maybe this will change now, Sikorski noted, adding that
the current Solidarity celebrations were a good occasion to present the beliefs Solidarity had been founded on.

Recalling the union's beginnings, Solidarity founder and ex-president Lech Walesa reminded that "there was no single and simple way of resolving conflict". I never wanted to fight. I was never taught to. I come from a small village where the rules were simple: truth was truth, lies were lies. And religion was important. When I sailed out onto broader waters these principles became more relative, Walesa said.

Belarussian dissident Wincuk Wiachorka referred to the current conflicts around his country's Polish minority and warned that Belarussian strongman Aleksandr Lukashenka was deliberately presenting the issue as a national one.

U.S. State department Europe head Daniel Fried, a former ambassador in Poland, reminded about the role of the U.S. in enhancing democratic changes around the world.