Protesters jam Warsaw streets as crisis grows

Press, 5 August 1981, Page 8

Protesters jam Warsaw streets as crisis grows

NZPA-Reuter ' Warsaw More than 200 heavy vehicles. including 40 trams, jammed a central Warsaw street yesterday in the latest test of strength between Polish workers and the Comt munist authorities. The police stopped a convoy of some 100 buses and trucks manned by Solidarity trade-union members yesterday when they were on their way to protest outside Communist Party headquarters against food shortages and reduced meat rations. Solidarity yesterday suspended talks with the Government on food supplies and economic reform in part because of the police action against the convoy. Union officials said the convoy would remain in the street, where it caused big traffic jams. until the authorities allowed it to drive to the party headquarters.

During the night, the convoy’s ranks were swelled to over 200 when tram drivers joined the protest and parked 40 trams bumper-to-bumber down the centre of the main Marszalkowska Street. The vehicles, three abreast on . the six-lane avenue, stretched more than half a

kilometre spilling into an-‘ other major street the Jerozolimskie.

Union leaders set up an emergency headquarters in one of the protest vehicles, where the dissident leader, Jacek Kuron. . was seen conferring with Solidarity officials.

Women set up a kitchen in one of the buses and served sandwiches to drivers and workers guarding the convoy.

The police had stopped them earlier from driving past the party building as busesi trucks, taxis, and garbage vehicles staged a noisy protest against food shortages and other union grievances.

Solidarity suspended talks with the Government in part because of the police action, and the union leader, Lech Walesa, said later it would not back down. “We are masters of the situation, and we will continue to be so for a long time to come. There must be a solution which pleases both sides or there will only be one left," Mr Walesa said in a statement.

Solidarity also said it would call strikes immediately if the authorities used

force to-dislodge the blockaded vehicles, and drivers slept in them overnight. Worker guards patrolled the area and the leading vehicle was turned across Marszalkowska Street. Unarmed police stood by, and crowds of several thousand people milled around. The talks with the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr Mieczyslaw Rakowski) which Solidarity suspended until tomorrow had centred on union demands for a reversal of cuts in meat rations, an end to food shortages, and priorities for economic reform. Mr Rakowski went on television after the talks and said the authorities had decided to refuse to let- the protesters outside two buildings, the Council of Ministers and the Communist Party Central Committee. He said the authorities had not given Solidarity permission to drive past these buildings, a point contested by the union. He said there was a great danger of open conflict now the Polish revolution had spread to the streets.

“One spark would be enough to begin a fire which would be difficult to control,” he said.