Bogdan Borusewicz
Bogdan Michał Borusewicz, born 11 January 1949 in Lidzbark Warmiński, has been the Speaker in the Polish Senate since 20 October 2005. Borusewicz was a democratic opposition activist under the Communist regime, a member of the Polish parliament (Sejm) for three terms and first Senate Speaker to serve two terms in this office. In 1975, he graduated from the Catholic University of Lublin in the field of history. During the 1970s he took part in a campaign of support for striking workers in Radom, and became a part of the Workers\' Defence Committee. In the years 1977?1978 he was a co-organiser of the Free Trade Unions of the Coast, \"the cradle of Solidarity,\" established by Andrzej Gwiiazda, Krzysztof Wyszkowski and Antoni Sokolowski. He was the point of contact for the opposition in Gdansk--a recruiting and networking role similar to Jacek Kuron in Warsaw--and a principal organiser of the August 1980 strike in the Gdańsk Shipyard which led to the formation of the Solidarity trade union, and a co-author of the strikers postulates. He took part in the formation of the Solidarity free trade union.
