“In August 1980 he led the Gdansk shipyard strike which gave rise to a wave of strikes over much of the country with Walesa seen as the leader. The primary demands were for workers’ rights. The authorities were forced to capitulate and to negotiate with Walesa the Gdansk Agreement of August 31, 1980, which gave the workers the right to strike and to organise their own independent union.” (Walesa Biography)

http://history1900s.about.com/library/weekly/aa050400a.htm

http://www.thocp.net/reference/manoftheyear.htm

Lech Walesa was on the cover of Jan 4, 1982’s cover which applies to 1981’s vote and 1983’s winner was Ronald Reagan & Yuri Andropov. The “Man of the Year” winner embraced the cover of the following year’s cover in January

In this decade of perestroika, Ronald Reagan and Russia’s Mikhail Gorbachev each claimed the Man of the Year distinction twice; also featured was another woman, Corazon Aquino.

However, in 1982, the Machine of the Year was The Computer.