Polish primate tries to avert looming conflict

Press, 10 December 1981, Page 8

Polish primate tries to avert looming conflict

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw Poland’s powerful Roman Catholic Church is trying to avert a threatened conflict between the ruling Communists and the Solidarity free trade union. Archbishop Jozef Glemp, primate of Poland intervened as relations between the union and the Government sank to a new low with the authorities depicting the union as an organisation bent on destroying the Communist system in Poland. As the tension heigthened, the Warsaw branch of Solidarity said yesterday that the Polish people would take power if the Government goaded the unions into an unlimited general strike. The Government would lose in. a general strike showdown, the Warsaw branch predicted in a press statement. After that, “society will have to set up a new administration that authentically represents it.” The primate sent a letter

to the Sejm (Parliament) warning deputies that they could provoke a tragic social explosion if they complied with demands by the Communist Party , and approved emergency laws banning strikes and restricting other liberties. Church officials said the primate also addressed letters to Solidarity’s leader, Lech Walesa, and the Communist Party Chief, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, calling on them to renew their search for peace. Archbishop Glemp dispatched his letters on Monday as the Communists launched an intensive propaganda campaign against the union on the basis of radical remarks made by Mr Walesa and other leaders at a closed session. The union leader said confrontation between Solidarity and the Communists was inevitable. Regional chiefs called for the overthrow of the Communist Government.

The ruling establishment has exploited the union statements to the full, broadcasting them at prime time on television and radio and quoting housewives and workers expressing their deep indignation. For the first time since Solidarity was formed in the wake of national unrest by workers last year, the union’s leader has also been singled out for criticism. He was branded a liar by the Army daily, “Zolnierz Wolnosci.” Archbishop Glemp said in his appeal to the Sejm that it was an urgent duty of all poles to avoid conflict. His appeal to the deputies not to pass emergency laws amounted to a direct challenge to the ruling party, which demanded such laws, including a ban on strikes, at its latest central committee meeting. Adoption of an anti-strike law “could weigh tragically on the destiny of the nation,” the letter concluded.