Walesa Group Names 13 for Talks With Warsaw

A citizens group organized by Solidarity leader Lech Walesa nominated 13 people Saturday to be on a negotiating team for historic reconciliation talks with the government beginning Monday.

The 128-member citizens committee, created Dec. 18 as a link between Solidarity and the communist government, also suggested nine subject areas for discussion at the talks, with the re-legalization of the banned Solidarity union heading the list.

Fifteen commissions of the citizens group have been meeting to formulate a plan of action for the talks aimed at working out social, economic and political reforms in a country facing a staggering $38-billion foreign debt, obsolete and inefficient industry and rampant inflation.

The 13 nominations submitted Saturday must be approved today by the policy-making Solidarity National Commission, which will name Solidarity’s representatives to the unprecedented talks.

Besides Walesa, they are expected to include Jacek Kuron and Adam Michnik, both of whom had been initially rejected by the government.

In the talks, 57 people, among them about 25 from opposition groups, including Solidarity, will sit down together Monday with representatives of the government, the Communist Party and the Roman Catholic Church.

Both the government and Solidarity have said they recognize that a plan of action must be worked out to avoid more industrial unrest, or even worse.