Walesa Refuses to Budge on His Negotiating Team

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa refused to budge Thursday on his union’s demand that it be allowed to name its own team in negotiations with the Polish government.

Walesa pressed the authorities “to begin talks without preconditions” and said it would set a dangerous precedent if the government is allowed to veto the composition of the Solidarity delegation in a series of round-table talks proposed by the government.

Communist authorities have objected to two key Solidarity advisers, historian Adam Michnik and labor activist Jacek Kuron, both veteran opposition figures, joining Solidarity in the discussions. According to the authorities, both men “reject the constitutional order.”

The government suggested the talks in August, in the midst of Poland’s second wave of labor unrest this year, and has promoted them as a show of good will toward the opposition, clearly hoping to shore up the state’s weak position with the public.

Solidarity Suspicious

Solidarity leaders have been suspicious from the outset. Some of the union’s advisers suspect that the government used the proposal for the talks as a ploy to end the strikes.

Although the government said at first that “all subjects” would be open to discussion, it has since made it clear that it has no intention of legalizing Solidarity, which has been outlawed since 1981.

Repeated delays in getting the talks started, reflecting the resistance of conservative elements in the Communist Party to talks with Solidarity, have led to speculation that the government is trying to find a way to derail the talks without taking the blame.

Walesa expressed this suspicion again Thursday.

“I see a lack of political will to solve the problems that divide us,” he said at his weekly meeting with the press in Gdansk.

Earlier in the week, Walesa declined to take part in another “preparatory” meeting with Gen. Czeslaw Kiszczak, the interior minister.

Roman Catholic Church mediator Andrzej Stelmachowski and union advisers Bronislaw Geremek and Tadeusz Mazowiecki met with Walesa earlier Thursday.