Irena Lasota (born 25 July 1945 as Irene Hirszowicz) is a Polish philosopher, publicist, publisher, social and political activist, and president/co-director of the Institute for Democracy in Eastern Europe.
Lasota is to this day a frequent commentator on Polish and American political affairs,[2] and remains an outspoken supporter of freedom of speech and democratic institutions.
The Walter Troop), a youth organization re-activated in 1956 under the mantle of the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association following the period of Stalinism in Eastern Europe.
The Troop was led at the time by Jacek Kuroń,[6] and would produce many other leaders of the democratic opposition in Communist Poland, including Andrzej Seweryn and Adam Michnik.
During this time she became acquainted with Antoni Zambrowski and began aiding him in the distribution of transcribed illegal publications, i.e. translating banned political science writings.
[7] Though subject to confiscations and controls by Security Services and student members of Warsaw University's ZMS, Lasota was able to compile a petition of 3145 signatures sent by mail to the Marshal of the Sejm on February 16.
During a pre-planned rally on March 8, she called for the return of Michnik and Henryk Szlajfer, both of whom had been expelled from the university, as well as for a halt to all other disciplinary action against Warsaw's students.
Following the rally Lasota was arrested and tried by the misdemeanour board, receiving a two-month prison sentence on the grounds of "standing on a public bench in muddied boots".
Over this same period Lasota, in cooperation with Jakub Karpiński, Grażyna Kuroniowa, Andrzej Zabłudowski, collected information to be sent abroad concerning the ongoing legal proceedings of individuals prosecuted for their involvement in the March events.
This included tape recorders, transistors, printing ink, silkscreens, all of which were smuggled with the help of hundreds of opposition activists travelling between Poland and the United States and France.
The scholarships benefited 177 individuals who were able to undertake study trips to London and Paris, and were aimed at grooming Poland's future academic and political elite.
Since the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe after 1989, Lasota has focused on financial and organizational aid for independent initiatives in former Soviet Bloc states, opening the IDEE Foundation in Poland in 1992.