Warsaw Hints It May Talk With Leaders of Solidarity

The Polish government Friday proposed broad-based “round-table” discussions with “various social and employee groups,” a step that could mean authorities are moving closer to meeting with leaders of the outlawed Solidarity trade union.

The announcement was made on the main evening television news by Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak, the minister of interior, who said:

“I have been authorized to promptly hold a meeting with representatives of various social and employee groups. I am not laying down any preconditions either concerning the subject matter of the talks or . . . the participants.”

Kiszczak said the only groups barred from the discussions would be “people who reject Poland’s constitutional order.” That term has not been used as a reference to Solidarity in the past.

Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, who is leading striking Lenin Shipyard workers in Gdansk, met Friday with a prominent Roman Catholic intellectual, Andrzej Stelmachowski, who has served frequently as an intermediary between the government and the leadership of the banned union.

Earlier Friday, a statement attributed to Walesa was issued from the shipyard in language virtually mirrored by Kiszczak several hours later--a further suggestion that the language had been carefully worked out by both sides.

“I am ready for (a meeting) at any moment without laying down any preconditions or without making any restrictions on subject matter,” the Walesa statement said.

The Polish government has made overtures to Solidarity in the past, but the timing and method of the announcement--the main evening news--was new and, to some Solidarity activists, encouraging.

“I believe this is the first serious step in the right direction,” said Adam Michnik, a leading adviser to the union, who was contacted in Gdansk.

He said that if Solidarity were excluded from the discussions proposed by Kiszczak, “it would be just another frivolous comedy.”

Walkouts in 11th Day

It was Kiszczak who went on television earlier this week to announce tough government measures to end a series of strikes that shut down 12 coal mines in southern Poland, both the nation’s ports in Szczecin and Gdansk, and then spread to the transit industry, portions of a steel mill and factories manufacturing turbine engines and railway machinery. The walkouts are in their 11th day.

It was the second major outbreak of strikes in Poland this year and at its peak affected about 20 enterprises. Three coal mines in Silesia remain on strike, as well as the port of Szczecin, parts of the port of Gdansk and shipbuilding operations in Gdansk.

Following Kiszczak’s hard-line message earlier this week, authorities used police to roust strikers from three transit depots in Szczecin and several mines in the Jasztrzebie area of Silesia. Some miners and workers in other industries gave up their strikes voluntarily.

Since Tuesday, the strikes have been losing force, and it has appeared that the government had once again gained the upper hand, as it had in the earlier strikes in April and May. In both periods, strikers have pressed for higher wages to offset steeply rising prices, as well as for the legalization of Solidarity.

Although the strikers have appeared to lose in both cases, the government has been buffeted by growing economic complaints voiced by the protesters, which are generally shared by most Polish workers. In April and May, the government gave in to widespread wage demands, although doing so imperiled its economic reform plans.

Special Parliament Session

In the present turmoil, the government has called a special session of Parliament to deal with the failures of the plan--failures that the government, in its official press, openly acknowledges.

Despite the tough talk earlier this week--and even despite the use of police to end several strikes--the rhetoric on both sides has been notably mild, reflecting their precarious position. For its part, Solidarity has been unable to ignite a truly nationwide strike movement. And the Polish government has realized that its economic and political weaknesses cannot permit a harsh overreaction against the strikers.

Poland’s Roman Catholic bishops, in the first statement by the church since the strikes began, counseled the government against what it called “force and intimidation.” Meeting at the national religious shrine of Jasna Gora in Czestochowa, the bishops urged “dialogue” that they said should lead to “trade union pluralism.”