The gulf Poland cannot bridge

Press, 3 September 1981, Page 17

The gulf Poland cannot bridge

By

MARK FRANKLAND,

in London

duction. warehouses, and the distribution system, actually has the power. Today, the issue of food is a political issue. . So what Solidarity had requested was “a pro- ’ gramme for taking over power." An adviser on the Solidarity team contradicted Rakowski: “Mr Premier, among us there is not a single person who is power mad or who would like to take over power. . . There are no people who are mad enough to want to take over power in the sort of difficult situation you gentlemen face. "The reason for such an escalation (of street demonstrations and public protests) is lack of confidence on the part of the community in the economic policy of Government. . . If the community trusted the economic policy of the Government, then nobody could ever manufacture such a situation." The Solidarity team argued again and again that unless Solidarity was associated with the supervision of food-rationing and other measures, the public would never believe what they

were told about the shortages. “The situation is such," said another Solidarity expert, “that the public will * only believe what our commissions tell it." One can imagine how infuriating it was for the Government negotiators to hear this. Rakowski. who is emotional and highly intelligent, punched back wherever he could. Solidarity claimed to be "the community and apart from this nothing else exists in Poland, and nobody else has any contact with the community." This was wrong, he said. The recent street demonstrations. he added, had alienated many Poles and “for the first time a certain polarisation of the community's views has occurred." He took up one of the radical Solidarity leaders, Andrzei Gwiazda, on a remark about lack of confidence in the Government: “You will just carry on saying that you have no confidence in spite of the fact that we changed 80 per cent of the Ministers in the last five months. . . If we change another 80 per cent

in six months you'll still have no confidence. “You can go on like this endlessly. . . Frankly, listening to what you are saying, Mr Gwiazda. I do not expect any help from you, not from you." The Government is. of course, in an impossible situation. It has never been elected and the reshuffle Rakowski mentioned was made from above. In Solidarity, it is faced with a mass organisation that may have as many as 10 million members and whose leaders, when the union elections are complete within a few weeks, will all have been elected, and by a majority of adult, working Poland.' The Government feels that Solidarity is trying to take over its power. Solidarity, feels that the Government' will not relax until it has destroyed the union’s standing in Polish society. The talks broke up with each side's wounds rubbed more raw than ever. Solidarity chafes under the restrictions on its activities that must be observed if Russia is

not to be provoked. Its power remains largely unofficial.

Copyright. London Observer Service.