[As we go to press it seems unlikely…]
Socialist Press1981 1981-03-25Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 9 →
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As we go to press it seems unlikely that Solidarity leader Lech Walesa will succeed in his efforts to prevent a renewal of strike action in Poland, following the beating up of three local union leaders.
Police had been called in to evict Solidarity National Committee member Jan Rulewski, and farmers' leaders from the Provincial Council chamber in Bydgoszez. The protestors had refused to leave after the Council's session had been suspended-denying them the right to speak.
Hospitalised As they were led out, Rulewski and two colleagues were set upon by police and hospitalised. The union in the town called an immediate strike alert, and a stoppage was prevented only at the request of the National Committee.
But since that point, even while Walesa has declared himself opposed to a strike, the Stalinist regime in Warsaw has raised the political temperature -by publicly endorsing the police action.
A politbureau statement declared that the Bydgoszez police had acted "within the law"
Perhaps a factor in this was the stern warning to put the Polish house in order given to Party leader Kania at the recent CPSU Congress in Moscow.
Soviet Stalinist chief Brezhnev will be breathing over the shoulders of Polish bureaucrats and trade unionists.
26 demands Meanwhile local leaders of Solidarity have drawn up a 26point list of demands, including a call for the dismissal of Deputy Premier Stanislaw Mach who was inside the chamber at the time, as well as the removal of the deputy governor, local police commander, and regional prosecutor.
The incident confirms once again the uneasy balance of power established between the Polish working class and their bureaucratic leaders in the wake of last year's strike wave.
Retreats
Only the political overthrow of the Warsaw bureaucracy can resolve this crisis in the interests of the Polish workers.
Yet the consistent political retreats by the Solidarity leadership underline the necessity for a revolutionary leadership in Poland to catry through this fight.