The former leader of Solidarity, Lech Walesa, on Tuesday urged dissidents in countries under dictatorship to use the communist bloc's first free trade union as a model for change, as Poland geared up to mark the 25th anniversary of the movement's creation.
"There is no single recipe for resolving the conflicts around the world... but look carefully to see if you find in the example set by Solidarity some elements which could be useful to you," Walesa told a conference on the eve of a huge event in this northern Polish town to mark Solidarity's birth.
Solidarity was created at the end of a massive strike at the Lenin shipyard 25 years ago.
Dozens of dissidents from countries around the world which are still under totalitarian regimes were taking part in the conference in Gdansk as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for Solidarity.
"I firmly believe that thanks to these debates in Gdansk, where it all started, it will be possible to build a better world and orient your countries towards progress," said Walesa.
The conference was one of many events held in Poland and around the world in the run-up to the historic date of August 31, when, in 1980, sacked Gdansk shipyard electrician and strike leader Walesa proclaimed to his fellow strikers, "We have free, independent trade unions".
Solidarity has been credited with having begun unravelling the Iron Curtain which divided Europe into the communist east and free West for more than 40 years following World War II.
Hundreds of dignitaries from around the globe gathered on Monday and Tuesday in Warsaw for a conference entitled "From Solidarity to Freedom."
Addressing the conference, Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski urged Europe to follow the example set by Solidarity as the continent moved towards greater unification.
"Solidarity is a lesson to Europe as it works toward unification," Kwasniewski told the gathering of some 800 dignitaries and officials in Warsaw.
"Europe needs Solidarity, the historic one, which writes its name in capital letters, and it needs solidarity on a daily basis to build a good future for the continent and the world," he said.
Kwasniewski, a former communist apparatchik, reminded the meeting that he was on the other side of the barricades in 1980, when a strike at the sprawling Lenin shipyard in Gdansk led to the creation of Solidarity.
And he paid homage to the battle waged by Walesa.
"Today, I have no doubt that your vision for Poland was going in the right direction," Kwasniewski told Walesa, who preceded him in the office of president and who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reminded the conference of the role played in bringing down communism and called on the West to "back all people who are fighting for their rights."
"We all know that the ideology of demands and force pressure did not die with the USSR. It lives on in countries such as China, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Belarus," Albright said.
German President Horst Koehler arrived in Poland Tuesday to join in the events marking the 25th anniversary of the creation of Solidarity.
Koehler is among some 20 heads of state and government invited by Kwasniewski for the ceremonies, which will culminate in a momentous event at the Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, where Solidarity was born.
One of the high points of the events in Gdansk to mark the anniversary will be an open-air mass at a towering monument dedicated to all the victims of workers' uprisings under communism.
At 5:00 pm (1500 GMT), the first stone will be laid at the workers' memorial for a European Solidarity Centre, which is to be built at the shipyard.