Walesa Scolds Critics of His Strike Policy : Sees ‘Higher Need,’ Opportunity for Talks With Polish Regime

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa, declaring that he refuses “to toy with Poland,” Sunday defended his decision to end the labor strikes here and to open talks with the Polish government.

Speaking at a rally attended by about 4,000 supporters outside St. Brygida’s church in Gdansk, Walesa dressed down critics in the banned union who believe he gave in too easily to a government offer to discuss Solidarity’s legalization in exchange for an end to the strikes.

“Restrain yourselves, those who criticize me today,” Walesa said, “because sometimes there is a higher need.”

After three days of intense effort, Walesa persuaded strikers at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk and a coal mine in Jastrzebie to go back to work, thus bringing an end to the worst period of labor unrest here since 1982.

Initial Resistance

Last Wednesday, after his first meeting with Polish government officials in six years, Walesa called for workers at 10 still-striking enterprises to go back to work, so that further “round-table” discussions proposed by the government could go forward. Strikers in the coal mine, the Lenin Shipyard and the port of Szczecin initially resisted his call, with some union activists holding out for a continuation of the strike until the government gave more solid assurances that it was ready to legalize the union.

“You wanted more, especially my adversaries,” Walesa told the rally Sunday. “But I am not going to toy with Poland. . . . I extinguished the strikes, and I will extinguish any others that happen.”

Repeatedly, Walesa emphasized “the opportunity” provided by the strikes and counseled the union’s activists to take a realistic view.

“There is no other way. I must take this chance, and I will,” he said.

‘A Chance’

“There is a chance, for the first time in Poland, to talk seriously about what can and should be done. I must seize this chance. I am not naive. I am not making life easy for myself. I am not doing it for myself. I am doing it for you.”

After the rally, Walesa and his aides met for most of the afternoon to discuss the composition of a proposed workers’ delegation to the round-table conference.

No schedule has been set for the meetings, although government spokesman Jerzy Urban has said that an end to the strikes would signal the beginning to the talks.

After Walesa’s meeting last week with Internal Affairs Minister Czeslaw Kiszczak, Solidarity aides said more such “preliminary” meetings could be held before full round-table talks are set. The round-table discussions would include representatives from a variety of interest groups, in addition to Solidarity.