Thousands of Poles gather to mark Earlier labour unrest

Press, 17 December 1980, Page 8

Thousands of Poles gather to mark Earlier labour unrest

NZPA-Reuter Gdansk, Poland “(-Hundreds of thousands of Pples converged on the Ballit port of Gdansk today for rally which will show Whether the country is on tlie way to overcoming the hittemess and divisions by five months of I labour unrest. ] mass meeting com-; fiiemorates street battles be-i tween striking ; shipyard j •Workers and the police and: s«ny 10 years ago in which, 45 people were killed. •-Its significance to Poland’s, present situation is that it] Wgil unite leaders of the* State, the Roman Catholic, 1 Church, and the Solidarity! free trade union , on the same; (public platform for the firsttime since strikes in the Bai- j tit ports last summer. r-Thc Head of State (Mr. Htnryk Jablonski), Arch-1 bfenop of Krakow (the Most; Pev. Franciczek Macharskil! afid Solidarity’s leader, Lech! Walesa, wili all take part in■ an, official ceremony to tin-; vigil a memorial to the vic-] rims of the 19/3 troubles. i ..JTheir presence together.symbolises a n»w readiness | for co-opeiudrv- L- f ween t‘’c| three most powerful groups ip Poland. But the reaction of the people will be an even rrfore significant pointer to the general atmosphere in the! countryofficials said that ] they expected up to a million | ptibple to attend and that, tljey were confident the rally I would go off without a hitch.l; jAs an added safeguard, al: union inspired ban on alcohol ; sales was in force in thep Gdansk region t

II Any anti-Gbvemment out ■bursts or scuffles with the f police would show that tem- • pers have still not cooled . after months of political turmoil and would also doubti less alarm Poland’s Soviet 'lbloc allies. (■’'- ■] But if such a big rally on ; ( such an emotional occasion lean be held without trouble [it will boost the Communist i Government’s confidence and •iauthority by indicating.'that } Poland is ■ beginning to I! emerge from its period ; of i instability. . .. : The new leadership under h Stanislaw Kania has urged J the people to mark the anni- ■ versary by reflecting on the I present crisis and seeking .a ■ new spirit of co-operation to (ensure the events of 1970 lean never recur. | The ; nf senior officials such. as. Jablonski was intended as a .clear gesture of the lead-] (ership’s own readiness to' iadmit past errors and work; I with the new unions and the: :Church in shaping the pro-1 | cess of political renewal. I j Dissidents and labour; (activists who planned to j 'commemorate the anniversa-i fry last year were all i irounded up by the police. i The monument to be unveiled today consists of; three giant steel ' crosses ' hung with anchors as a{ (symbol of hope. | The crosses, com-; ;memorating the first three(l97o victims, stand outside; the gates of the Lenin ship-; iyard, centre of the unrest 101 I years ago and in the sum-: Inter of this year. I Later this-week memorials; I will also be consecrated ini the nearby port of Gdynia!

.t-and the north-western port e‘iof Sczcecin, where strikers -iwere also killed in the 197( ij uprising. - i In one week in the thret -[towns in mid-December t!party offices were burned Ipolice cars destroyed, shops H looted, and more than 100< ii people injured in pitched ’ battles between workers anc t’the police and the Army. I The Soviet Union sugt gested yesterday that it saw. jno threat • from Poland’s (economic and political reforms to the country's posir tiori within the Communist I bloc alliance. - But it indicated it saw-a • continuing danger to- stabili ity in Poland from Western i support for anti-Communists ) there. The indirect formulation •]of the latest Soviet view on J the situation came in the II presentation by the Moscow (press of week-end speeches Iby Stanislaw Kania and :(Janos Kadar, the party lead,’ers of Poland and Hungary; i Treatment of the two ' speeches in Moscow appeared as a further sign of (Soviet desire to suggest that i the Warsaw leadership hal (the confidence of the Kremjlin in its handling of the {crisis. ■ Japan has thrown its 'weight behind Western i warnings to the Soviet ; Union that a military thrust (into Poland would mean the ' end of East-West detente. I The Japanese Foreign ; Minister (Mr Masayoshi Ito), ion a visit to Europe, told a j news conference in Bonn (that his Government bellieved the Poles must be left Ito solve their country’s I I problems for themselves. .’