National strike alert on cards for Poland
NZPA-Reuter Warsaw The Solidarity leader, Lech Walesa, has threatened to ask workers across Poland to prepare to strike and his banned union has vowed to make November a month of protests over actions by the Communist Government.
Solidarity sources said Mr Walesa had told a rally in Gdansk on Sunday he would seek a national strike alert — readiness to walk out at a signal — if the Government did not suspend closing of the Lenin Shipyard where Solidarity was born.
He indicated he may call full strikes if the Government did not respond to his call. He did not say if he was referring to all Poles or only shipyard workers. Solidarity’s National Executive Commission, the top body, said in a statement that strikes may be necessary. It threatened protests to demand the union’s legalisation, defend the Gdansk
yard where strikes spawned Solidarity in 1980, and call for reinstatement of workers sacked during pro-Solidar-ity strikes in August. Solidarity’s declaration that it was ready to take a tough stand against the closing came only two days after a visit to Poland by the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. She met Mr Walesa in Gdansk on Friday and told him “nothing can stop you” after urging the Communist authorities to open a dialogue with the union.
“We will get our yard back sooner or later, if not now then after the battle to which things must surely lead. If you
win with your truncheons and tanks, you’ll surely win for no more than six months,” Mr Walesa was quoted as saying. “In this situation we consider it necessary to take broad actions in November for legalisation of Solidarity, in defence of the Gdansk shipyard and workers repressed for taking part in strikes, even including strike action,” the commission said. A Government spokesman, Jerzy Urban, said last week the Government faced the possibility of strikes calmly. The Prime Minister, Mieczyslaw Rakowski, said last Monday he was closing the loss-making shipyard.
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Press, 8 November 1988, Page 8
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333National strike alert on cards for Poland Press, 8 November 1988, Page 8
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