Union chief suspicious about protests

Press, 18 March 1983, Page 9

Union chief suspicious about protests

Lech Walesa, leader of the outlawed Solidarity trade union, spoke out yesterday against “unorganised and anonymous” demonstrations such as those in Gdansk and three other Polish cities this week.

“We were not the organiser, and the whole thing was very suspicious,” Walesa said of demonstrations by about 1500 Solidarity supporters on Sunday and Monday in Gdansk. The unrest in Gdansk, Warsaw, Wroclaw, and Kalisz had been inspired by unsigned leaflets which Mr Walesa said seemed fake, very suspicious.

He stopped short of accusing either Poland’s Communist authorities or militant opponents of the Government of inciting the unrest.

The State-run radio said that the demonstrations had been incited by “anti-social-

ist elements ... doing everything. to prevent further normalisation . especially now that preparations are under way for the Pope’s (June) visit, which is clearly unwanted by the political opposition at home and abroad.”

Mr Walesa said that his every action was closely watched by the authorities, and asserted that someone — he would not say who — “wants to. eliminate the most aggressive people, and they want to demonstrate force ... (to. tell society) ‘don’t try anything because we are very strong’.” Mr Walesa, who last week called for more determined action, by Solidarity supporters possibly including “protests, hunger strike, and strikes,” said that he was not issuing a call for the kind of occupation strikes that led to Solidarity’s, creation in August, 1980. “I mentioned those forms of protest as examples. I meant that depending on the area, possibilities and effectiveness, demonstrate that we are still here and that we will not give up.” His goal, he says, is the revival of Solidarity, which was suspended with the martial law declaration of December 13, 1981, and outlawed in October.