Word: walesa
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...calling for an end to protest strikes, the party leaders had an undeclared ally in Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa. "I want to think that the strike will be the last one of its kind," he told workers at Warsaw's Rosa Luxemburg electronics plant on the day of the national walkout. Instead of symbolic protests, he suggested, the workers should resort to "active strikes," remaining on the job but distributing "what we make ourselves...
...tone was somber as he spoke about the crisis that he insisted was generated by practical problems, not by any protest against the Communist system. Echoing Walesa, Jaruzelski declared: "We don't live in medieval times when people fought wars over ideas. To pull the country out of the crisis it is in, we need stability, law and order, and security. We'll pay special attention to law and order, and we'll do everything necessary to preserve...
Addressing that point in a Paris meeting earlier last week, Walesa admitted that the workers were intentionally dragging their feet in order to pressure the authorities into practical economic reforms. "Not until we get a government that gets back to governing the way people want can we get back to working," he said. "That's why when people tell us it's time to get back to work, we respond no." But Walesa insisted that Solidarity was not using such tactics to gain political power. Said he: "We know we cannot topple the government, we cannot replace...
...workers were well aware, said Walesa, that any attempt to wrest political control from the Communists or withdraw from the Warsaw Pact could bring on a Soviet invasion, "so we're not about to violate those principles." But even if the Soviets did invade, he added, they could not force the Poles to work: "Someone can make me do something with a pistol to my head, but I can destroy ten other things when they are not looking." The stocky union leader also revealed his secret for holding up under the pressures of his position: "Life is so hard...
...Jaruzelski deals with Walesa, say the general's associates, his first initiative may be a peace overture: an appeal to Solidarity and the Catholic Church to join with the party in a national salvation front. The aim of this proposed alliance would be to rally popular support for the stiff economic measures, including higher prices and continued food rationing, necessary to pull Poland out of its crisis. But the price of that support may be more than the party is willing to pay. For one thing, the union and the church would have to be given access to classified...