Here’s a picture symbolic of our times. It features our colleague José Piñera and Lech Walesa, both of whom have done so much to increase human freedom: Walesa for leading a workers’ movement that played a key role in the collapse of Soviet communism; and José Piñera for leading a revolution in private pensions that is turning workers into capitalists around the world.
The picture and the caption below appeared in El Diario Financiero (Chile) on Friday.
Former Chilean Minister of Labor and Social Security, José Piñera, appears alongside legendary Polish union leader Lech Walesa (right) and Robin Harris (left), adviser and biographer of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Former Polish President Walesa holds the Polish version of “El cascabel al gato,” the best-seller written by the father of Chile’s private pension system. This notable gathering took place in the Croatian capital, Zagreb last week at an international conference about the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The three individuals spoke on a panel on “Lessons for the Future of Europe.” The conference was organized by Damian von Stauffenberg, member of the famed aristocratic family that opposed Hitler, and president of the Educational Initiative for Central and Eastern Europe (EICEE).