48 Dissidents Detained After Walesa Rally Call

Authorities today detained at least 48 dissidents one day after Solidarity founder Lech Walesa called for supporters of the banned union to stage independent May Day demonstrations, Solidarity sources said.

Walesa, in a telephone interview from his home in the seaport of Gdansk, vowed that the planned demonstrations will proceed as planned despite the roundup of dissidents in five major cities and searches of their apartments.

“It is a preparatory police action before May Day,” he said.

“We want to celebrate May Day,” Walesa said. “We don’t want the authorities to prepare posters with the instructions when to laugh and weep.”

The police action involving Solidarity members, peace activists and other dissidents and searches of their homes in Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Poznan and Szcecin was the largest since the release of 225 political prisoners under a government amnesty last year.

The amnesty helped lead to the U.S. lifting of economic sanctions imposed after the December, 1980, martial law crackdown that crushed the East Bloc’s first independent trade union.

In Warsaw, Solidarity said it will defy authorities and stage an independent demonstration against recent 10% to 25% increases in food prices. Protests are planned in other major cities.