Walesa Says No to Talks on Labor Unrest : Declares Jaruzelski’s Bid Failed to Include Revival of Solidarity

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa today rejected Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski’s call for a dialogue to settle the worst labor unrest in seven years, saying the offer fell short of accepting the workers’ key demand--revival of the banned union.

“Solidarity is simply indispensable and we shall not move an inch forward without it,” Walesa told reporters at Lenin Shipyard in his first public comment on Jaruzelski’s speech.

Asked how long the nationwide walkouts, which broke out on Aug. 16, will last, Walesa said, “I don’t know for how long, but for sure until victory.”

Jaruzelski said Sunday that a two-day session of the Communist Party Central Committee had endorsed creation of a “Council of National Reconciliation” and said the government was willing to hold talks on two weeks of labor unrest with those prepared to accept the “constitutional order.”

Communist Party spokesman Jerzy Majka said Walesa was a candidate to participate in the talks, but not as head of an illegal organization and while joining in an illegal action.

Walesa, in a statement issued from inside the shipyard in Gdansk where he is taking part in the strike the government deems unlawful, repeated his willingness to talk to the authorities without conditions.

Will Suspend Strikes

“When it appears that these talks open perspectives of solving our problems and especially the issue of Solidarity, the strikes will be suspended,” Walesa said.

“It is not important with whom I will sit down at the table. I can even hold discussions with the cleaning lady if she has proper authorization,” he added.

“(The government’s) proposal for round-table talks is still binding and nobody took it away from us,” Walesa said in reference to promises by Jaruzelski and other government members to hold round-table talks with independent opposition groups.

“(Jaruzelski’s) was a speech without a conclusion, neither a clear offer nor a threat,” Adam Michnik, a Solidarity ideologist, said in a telephone interview Sunday from the Baltic Sea port of Gdansk, birthplace of the independent worker movement.

One coal mine remained on strike in Silesia, along with four shipyards in Gdansk. Part of the Gdansk port also remained shut down.