WARSAW Poland's newly nominated prime minister, TadeuszMazowiecki, a devout Roman Catholic as well as a leading oppositionfigure, has long used both roles to push for greater freedom in hiscountry.
A lawyer by training, Mazowiecki, 62, is editor in chief of theSolidarity weekly Tygodnik Solidarnosc and a close adviser toSolidarity leader Lech Walesa.
Despite his position in the front lines of the Polish oppositionmovement, Mazowiecki is known more as a man of reflection than anuts-and-bolts politician, and he is unaccustomed to the glare ofpolitical prominence.
He prefers to convey his ideas in writing, and served from 1958to 1981 as chief editor of the Catholic monthly Wiez (Link).
In 1956, he was one of the founding members of the Club ofCatholic Intellectuals, which, like Wiez, played an important role inthe dialogue between the government and the Polish opposition.
But Mazowiecki has matched his intellectual pursuits withconcrete political action, serving as a Catholic member of parliamentfrom 1961, before being barred from serving another term in 1968after he spoke out against a wave of officially encouragedanti-Semitism that swept the country.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Mazowiecki took part inseveral protest movements and had his passport confiscated.
In August, 1980, he headed a panel of legal experts created bythe strike committee at the shipyards in the northern port of Gdansk.The work of the panel was crucial in formulating the Gdansk accordsthat led to the legalization of Solidarity, the first independenttrade union in a communist country.
On Dec. 13, 1981, amid a police crackdown after the declarationof martial law in Poland, Mazowiecki was jailed for more than a year.
Widowed and the father of three children, Mazowiecki (pronouncedMazovi-ET-ski) is also a friend of Pope John Paul II.
Mazowiecki was one of the main architects of April's accordsthat restored Solidarity's legal status and paved the way for thecountry's first semidemocratic elections since World War II.
But while he has taken part in the political debate since theaccords were reached, Mazowiecki declined to run for a seat in thenew Polish Senate, which Solidarity controls.
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