More Polish Strikers Give In to Pressure From Police as Bid for Concessions Stalls

Only three coal mines remained on strike in Poland on Thursday night, as disgruntled workers gave in to police pressure and a growing sense that their work stoppages again have failed to wring concessions from the government.

After police and riot squads cleared three mines in the Jastrzebie area overnight Wednesday, strikers in three other mines voluntarily withdrew Thursday night. It seemed unlikely that the remaining strikers would hold out much longer in the round of walkouts that began in Silesia on Aug. 15.

Intimidating convoys of riot police continued to move through the area, a show of force that helped Poland’s Communist government gain the upper hand against the second outbreak of of strikes this year. The miners had begun the walkouts to press for higher pay and the legalization of the outlawed Solidarity trade union.

The port of Szczecin and major portions of the port of Gdansk were still occupied by small numbers of strikers, as was the Lenin Shipyard at Gdansk, where Solidarity leader Lech Walesa remained with a hard core of union activists.

Conflicting Figures

Solidarity spokesmen said there were 1,300 shipyard workers with Walesa, but other sources said the number of Solidarity loyalists in the shipyard had dwindled to about 250.

A strike reported Wednesday at the huge Nowa Huta steelworks outside Krakow apparently sputtered to a conclusion overnight, thus virtually closing off for the moment the possibility of any more large-scale work stoppages. In addition, a large section of the port of Gdansk was reported working again.

A further sign that enthusiasm for the strikes was winding down was the presence in the Lenin Shipyard of a prominent Roman Catholic intellectual, Andrzej Stelmachowski, who has often served as a government-opposition intermediary. Stelmachowski reportedly met twice with high-ranking government officials before traveling to Gdansk for the meeting with Walesa.

Well-connected observers here said the government is eager to have all the strikes ended by the weekend, when a meeting of the Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party is expected.

Even if all the strikes are not over by then, it seems likely that they will be reduced significantly.

The Polish government has taken a hard line with the strikers, promising extra police protection at some workplaces, the imposition of a curfew and summary jail sentences for strike organizers.

But the government has also acknowledged shortages in the economy and an inflation rate that the government’s spokesman described as “skyrocketing.” It has called a special session of the Parliament, beginning next week, to consider restructuring its already much-revised economic reform plan, and there has been speculation that some top-rank government officials will be dismissed.

Pressure, Compromise

The earlier round of strikes, spread over about three weeks in April and May, ended much the same way. If tension in the current conflict continues to subside, it may suggest a new pattern--a continuing process of pressure and compromise on the part of both the opposition and the government of Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski.

The opposition, led by Solidarity, has discovered in both strike periods that there is scant popular desire to relive the events of 1980-81, which brought severe economic hardship, barren market shelves, the outlawing of Solidarity and the ultimate imposition of martial law.

In both April and August, Solidarity’s strikes failed to spread widely enough through the country to bring a significant change in the government or its policies.

At the same time, the government is too aware of its own weakness to run roughshod over the strikers and their complaints. With its own opinion polls showing it enjoys virtually no public credibility, the government has given in to pressure for higher wages and now promises to attack the surging inflation, believed by some experts to be between 60% and 80%.

Stopgap Measures

The only issue over which the government remains inflexible is the reinstatement of Solidarity as an official trade union. But in the meantime, it continues to feint in the direction of dialogue with Walesa and other key Solidarity figures.

Despite the government’s ambitious-sounding proposals to reform the economy, over the long term its solutions have been stopgap measures that it has felt forced to take in order to relieve public discontent.

Its promises to resolve the current complaints may be just as temporary and could lead in the months ahead to still another round of strikes, confrontation and compromise as the government struggles to keep its footing, and the opposition pushes for economic gains and political reform.

Although such a course could be perilous, it could also prevent the sort of political explosion for which postwar Poland is known.