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Solidarity — the anger of a generation

By

JONATHAN STEELE

in “The Guardian,” London

Spanning the width of Szpitalna Street in the centre of Warsaw is a large white banner, saying “Solidarity.” Below it on one side of the road is a long queue patiently waiting outside one of Poland’s best cake shops. Opposite, an everchanging group of people stops briefly on the pavement by a dress shop to read the latest pamphlets, and bulletins plastered on the plate-glass windows.

To a visitor returning to Poland for the first time since last August’s strikes the scene is incredible, but for the Poles who pass through Szpitalna Street it is already part of a new normality. Women with shopping baskets, students, soldiers in uniform stand for a moment, read the pamphlets calling for the release of political prisoners or announcing a film, show on the August strikes and without outward excitement, move on.

Behind the dress shop on the second floor of an office block are the Warsaw headquarters of Solidarity. They have become so busy that they have already divided it into two sections. One part is a group of trestle tables where a queue of people of all ages waits to buy Solidarity badges and posters.

The Solidarity office already has a staff of 100 paid workers, plus 300 volunteers. With its overflowing ashtrays, constant bustle, shortage of chairs and chaotic enthusiasm it looks like a Western political party headquarters on election eve in the days before television politics. Of course there are differ-

ences, and one of the main ones is the age of those in charge. At the head of Warsaw Solidarity’s 1,300,000 members is a 27-year-old electrician called Zbigniew Bujak.. Poland's far-reaching reform movements is a rebellion on many fronts, not least that of an angry generation against the mistakes of older men.

It has come a long way since last August. One Saturday Mr Bujak sat down at the head of a Solidarity team of lawyers opposite the Minister of Justice. It was the first session of a set of negotiations which will examine the entire administration of justice. Now that the threat of strikes has eased the Government has opened discussions with Solidarity on a wide field of reforms going far beyond traditional trade union matters.

The judicial system is one of the most sensitive. Mr Bujak told the Justice Minister that Solidarity wanted to see ten laws amended. Their aim was to ensure the complete independence of the courts from the party and State machine. The Supreme Court had to be strengthened and a new constitutional tribunal created to ensure that laws complied with the constitution. Prosecutors had to become independent, new principles were needed to govern the work , of the police and security service, and prison management had to be reformed. Trade union rights, passport regulations, and freedom of information needed improvement. The Government did not flinch before these demands. A

communique after the meeting said that both sides’ views converged on many subjects. More meetings will be held.

Although Mr Bujak’s translation within less than a year, from electrician to top negotiator has been phenomenal, his background is typical of many Solidarity members. His father left their peasant farm in 1957 and took a job in a factory as a carpenter. During the war he had fought in Poland's home army. He brought up his children on a strong diet of patriotism, reading them history books and the works of the great Polish writer, Mickiewicz. Young Zbigniew went to a vocational school, and joined Warsaw's Ursus tractor factory as a fitter in 1973.

At school, he said, he learnt that there was information which the school was not able to provide. Every day the press told its readers that it could not tell them everything. At Ursus he and his friends set up self-education groups and debating sessions in their workshops. They became known in the factory, and the management wanted to sack them, but found it was unable to, not because of the official trade unions, but “because of other, workers.”

“Although there were some among the old trade union activists who understood what we were doing, they were passive, but the workers would defend us,” he says. By the spring of last year, they were thinking of forming a free trade union. They expected it to take between three and five

years “because we knew this required trade union experts which in turn required training people.” Then came the strikes in Gdansk in August. Mr Bujak and his friends called a rally in sympathy. It was an emotional moment and as he hung the posters up he felt a lump in his throat. “When I saw the people gather I felt the lump ■ disappear slowly. When I saw the thousands of people in front of me. I knew I would be able to speak. I stepped onto a chair and started. It proved enough just to read the 21 demands of the workers in Gdansk.”

Swept along by this outburst of courage and hope, Zbigniew Bujak was sent as a delegate to Gdansk. He was elected to Solidarity's national consultative commission and a fortnight later was elected head of the Warsaw region. Now, like most members of Solidarity, he accepts the leading role of the Polish Communist Party, although he himself is not a member and has no interest in joining. But the party must remain if Poland itself is to remain as it is, free of catastrophic outside intervention, he believes.

Pragmatic and careful, he is suspicious of labels. “Every Pole is a Catholic,” he says, although in the traditional sense he is not a believer, and has many criticisms of the church. As for socialism, “there are people here who think they are socialists but they don't know what socialism is.”

He is against returning Poland’s nationalised factories to private hands. The best thing would be to have some form of workers’ councils in the way they were tried in 1956. Poland’s Parliament must be-

come a real institution, but he is against Solidarity running candidates as M.P.s. There needs to be a second chamber in which workers would be represented. The courts are vital — which is why he is glad to be heading the judicial negotiating team. “At the moment the courts are connected with the party. We want to change this. In the present situation where our

society has progressed so quickly, conflicts can only be solved by independent courts."

Does he sometimes feel amazed that at his age he should be negotiating with the Government about the power of the party and the police? “When the talks are on. I’m too busy to do more than concentrate on the issues. At home privately I sometimes think it is strange. It is like a dream.”

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19810513.2.129

Bibliographic details

Press, 13 May 1981, Page 20

Word Count
1,139

Solidarity — the anger of a generation Press, 13 May 1981, Page 20

Solidarity — the anger of a generation Press, 13 May 1981, Page 20

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