Polish strikers return to work

Press, 2 September 1980, Page 8

Polish strikers return to work

-/JJZPA-Reuter Gdansk, Poland

.A quarter of a million Pol- . ish strikers returned to work • yesterday after changing the .//face of the Polish Commun- ' ist system in Eastern Eur- - pope’s most far-reaching //labour- revolt- since -World ! §War Two.. ’ :. The strikers, whose 18-day • movement toppled a Prime . Minister, forced a Commun-g-iiSt'Party purge, and crippled //national industry, evoked 'promises from the authorities which made histqry ip ■ .Jhe Soviet bloc:-'. ./ The , Communist leaders ; pledged to give workers the fright to set up their own ’independent trade unions ‘ -c and the right to . strike and /promised to relax-censorship -laws. These were among the ■ / main points of a 21-point i /'agreement signed by the / Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Miezyslan Jagielski) and the /Polish strike leader, Lech : /;Walesa, whose accolade . f -om his supporters after / fhe ceremony was shown on iVnational television,, for mil-

lions of Poles ( “heir f irst glimpseofthecrumple-suit-ed;; moustached Mr Walesa. The signing had been . de layed as the strikers insisted that dissidents arrested during the strike be freed. The decision to run a full report on the; peace sighing ceremony, in whichMr ■ Walesa declared, “We are now the co-masters of the count.r y , underlined the profound changes that a summer of labour, and politics turmoil had brought; to Poland. ' - ' ’-

“We have f not achieved everything, but we have achieved all that it was possible to achieve in the present circumstance;,” Mr Walesa told wildly cheering crowds. ;• ■; ■ ’

Only a few days ago, hard-liners in the Communist Party, who appear to have lost their ascendancy, were ’abelling Mr Walesa and his fellow strike leaders as "anti-socialist extremists.” ;■’ ; :

But the strikers, claiming their movement was social and not political, forced the

Communist . authorities to the negotiating table, and pressed them into changing their whole approach to running- the country. The workers had to compromise on their demand for fully free 4 trade unions. The strikers accepted in the final agreement that the new unions did not challenge the pi rty’s leading role in. the nation. . ti '■

As a precondition for returning to work, they, forced the authorities to release dissidents and sympathisers detained during the wave of strikes. . i'i 5 <

And as a sign of the liberal wind blowing through Warsaw, the police at once began to set free the dissidents, men who had been subjected to' scathing attacks in the official media only days before. Life began to return to normal quickly in the strikebound north, and only hours after the strikers had left the Lenin shipyard from where they, had controlled their revolt, security guards were back at the gates.