Walesa Threatens to Call Strike if Shipyard Isn’t Kept Open

Solidarity leader Lech Walesa on Sunday threatened to call a nationwide strike alert unless Polish authorities rescind their decision to close the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, the birthplace of the outlawed labor union.

The threat was made at a rally of more than 2,000 people after a Mass at St. Brigida’s Church in the Baltic seaport amid growing dissatisfaction among Poles over Walesa’s response to the Oct. 29 announcement to shut down the facility.

“The people began to say that I am chicken-hearted,” the 1983 Nobel Peace Prize laureate told the crowd in explaining why he chose to confront the authorities. Walesa had previously called for the closure decision to be reversed before planned round-table talks with the government could begin.

Walesa told the rally he would announce “a strike alert for the whole of Poland unless the decision to close the shipyard is suspended by Tuesday.” Under a strike alert, Solidarity leaders are to select strike committees and await Walesa’s signal to go ahead with a walkout.

“I will call for the fulfillment of the strike the following Tuesday (Nov. 15) if no solution has been found,” said Walesa, who is employed as an electrician at the Lenin Shipyard.

The crowd responded with shouts of “We shall win,” “There is no freedom without Solidarity,” and “Down with (Premier Mieczyslaw) Rakowski,” who announced the closure of the shipyard.

The first independent labor union in the East Bloc was born at the shipyard under Walesa’s leadership during a wave of labor unrest in 1980, but it was crushed under martial law the following year and has since operated as an outlawed movement.

“A new generation, including my sons, will undertake a new struggle and we shall win,” Walesa said.