Walesa Accuses Poland’s Communists of Blackmail

Solidarity chief Lech Walesa today accused Poland’s Communist Party of blackmail for threatening to refuse to cooperate with the union over the formation of a government.

He warned the party to moderate its demands for more seats in the new Solidarity-led Cabinet or “it will lose everything.”

The Communist Party Central Committee, in a resolution published late Sunday, said it should be given an amount of seats in the government of Prime Minister-designate Tadeusz Mazowiecki that “correspond to its state and political potential.”

While not mentioning a specific number, it was clear from the resolution that the party wants more than just the defense and interior portfolios offered so far by Solidarity.

“They should not fight for keeping their posts anymore,” Walesa told reporters today. He urged the party to “understand what these times mean.”

“If they play the fool, they can lose even more. They will be rejected,” he said.

The Solidarity chairman said Mazowiecki might offer additional seats to the Communists because the government will need “wise people.” But he said the movement would not buckle if the party tried to take those offices “by force.”

“We need reforms. . . . If the party does not understand that and starts provocations and only provoking--and they are now--then it will lose everything,” Walesa said.

In an interview in the party newspaper Trybuna Ludu, First Secretary Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski said he is looking for ways to “strengthen the powers of the party.”

“Hundreds of thousands of our comrades are waiting today all over Poland for the voice of their Central Committee on the issues most significant, not only for the party, but for the whole country,” Rakowski said.