Union lays down tough challenge to Polish Govt

Press, 5 December 1981, Page 9

Union lays down tough challenge to Polish Govt

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw Solidarity free trade union leaders have recommended a general strike and rejection of Polish Communist Party terms for a front of national accord if. Parliament votes for a bill giving the Government emergency powers; The union presented the recommendations ip . one of its toughest policy documents issued in the city of Radom yesterday after what was reported to have been a stormy meeting of regional chiefs and the ruling presidium. This came after the police assault in Warsaw to break a strike by cadet firemen which sent shock-waves through the union. The document called for a 24-hour protest strike the moment Parliament approved the emergency measures demanded by the Communist Party. They are said , to include curbs on strikes and civic, freedoms. Union officials said the policy document was to be

presented to Solidarity’s 9.5 million members for consultation but would only become binding if adopted by the union’s national commission meeting in Gdansk next week. But it clearly reflected the thrust of the leadership’s policies and appeared to be a serious challenge to the Government of . the Prime Minister and Communist Party leader. General Wojciech Jaruzelski. Solidarity branches would be empowered to stage general strikes automatically without authorisation from the union leadership the instant emergency measures were applied. The document accused the Government of misleading society by promoting a new front of national unity or accord on its own .terms. Solidarity had no interest in the preservation of “fa-cade-like” structures and considered the talk of national accord to be phoney, the union leaders said.

They accused the Government of planning only halfmeasures in economic reform which meant the people would pay with higher prices and other hardships without really benefiting. “The union cannot join a front which doesn’t bring changes. Otherwise it will lose credibility.” They said free local elections, access to the mass media and union control over

the economy were minimum conditions. The official news agency, Pap, said last evening that the situation in the country appeared to have turned serious again. “There are many indications that the situation in Poland has again turned dramatic and tense,” it said. The agency said those who rejected the idea of a national front questioned the most vital foundations of Poland’s existence. “He who is against socialism is against Poland,” Pap said.