Polish union head warns Govt to toe line

Press, 26 September 1980, Page 6

Polish union head warns Govt to toe line

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw Lech Walesa, leader of the Soviet bloc’s first independent national trade-union movement, has warned the Polish Government of countrywide strikes if there were attempts to undermine the new movement.

Mr Walesa led some 200,000 Baltic workers in strikes which won unprecedented concessions from the Government, including the right to strike and to set up trade unions outside the control of the Communist Party. After formally registering his new movement, dubbed Solidarnosc (solidarity), with a Warsaw court, Mr Walesa yesterday told a rally of some 5000 workers outside Warsaw that there were attempts to undermine free trade unions. "If need be, we can strike again,” Mr Walesa said. “We can bring all of Poland out on strike.” Mr Walesa’s remarks, and those of other trade-union activists at the rally, underlined a confidence in worker power unthinkable only a tew months ago. “There is no turning back now,” Mr Walesa said, to cheers. "Our movement is unstoppable; there are forces which might delay our efforts but we cannot be stopped.” One speaker said the workers recognised the leading role of the party as long as it was not trying to lead the trade unions.

Earlier Mr Walesa said after a two-hour meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Mieczyslaw Jagielski) that he had pro-

tested that his movement was not getting enough media coverage. He said he had also complained that people seeking to join his movement were being harassed. ' He said that Mr Jagielski had promised to look into the complaints. “He wrote everything down and said he would see to it. He doesn’t have much choice,” Mr Walesa said.

In a move which gave rise to fears of a general crackdown on dissent, the authorities have announced the arrest of a Right-wing dissident, Leszek Moczulski, for slandering Poland in an interview with the West German news magazine, “Der Spiegel.” Mr Moczulski, who heads a tiny group of the extremist fringe of the dissident movement, was charged with offences which can mean up to ten years jail. The arrest was preceded by a State television report last week quoting Mr Moczulski as saying the “Communist dictatorship in Poland” must be overthrown. Earlier, the State television quoted another dissident, Jacek Kuron, as saying the struggle against the Polish authorities must be led with all means, including the hanging of Communists and burning down party headquarters. Mr Kuron's Self-Defence Committee (K.0.R.) said he was quoted out of context. Mr Walesa, with whom the group co-operated during the Baltic strikes, lodged a formal protest with the Government.