Poles mark founding of Solidarity

Press, 16 August 1985, Page 6

Poles mark founding of Solidarity

NZPA-AP Gdansk Hundreds of people chanting “Solidarity” marched peacefully in downtown Gdansk yesterday after a Mass was celebrated to mark the fifth anniversary of the start of strikes that gave birth to the now-out-lawed Solidarity free trade union.

The demonstrators walked about Ikm from St Brygida’s Church before dispersing without incident. Dozens of police with riot helmets and clubs, backed up by columns of police vehicles, stood by during the march but did not intervene.

The spontaneous march began when Solidarity’s, leader, Lech Walesa, left the church grounds by car to

cheers by the overflow crowd of 4000 worshippers. A part of the crowd tried to follow his car and began marching as Mr Walesa drove away. Earlier in the day Mr Walesa said that the Solidarity movement had remained strong five years after its birth but that it must start offering “concrete solutions” to Poland’s social and economic crisis.

Holding strikes and antiGovernment demonstrations were no longer realistic. “Many people don’t go into the streets, don’t go on strikes, because they decide that from society’s point of view, the period of negation has ended,” he said. "And some of our protests ricochet against us. The programmes and slogans of

Solidarity are good, but we must find concrete solutions.”

Mr Walesa’s remarks reflected a growing debate in the Solidarity movement over tactics when its power to mobilise society has been eclipsed. The Polish leader, General Wojciech Jaruzelski, said earlier in the month that Solidarity’s programme was based on “the negation of everything” and that the movement’s leaders were isolated.

Solidarity activists acknowledge that fewer workers are paying dues to clandestine Solidarity cells in their work-places, and that recent underground calls for strikes and demonstrations have not had widespread support.