Walesa Foes Form New Movement
Two prominent Solidarity activists who oppose union chief Lech Walesa formed a new political movement Monday that sympathizes with the government and advocates a popular vote for president.
The movement, called Democratic Action, said it would try to present a “strong alternative,” to the two-month-old Center Alliance that wants Walesa named president by Parliament.
The movement’s formation comes after Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and Walesa declared a political truce in their feud over the pace of political and economic changes.
About 90 people attended the founding meeting, including many of the 63 advisers and Solidarity activists who broke ranks with Walesa at a stormy June 24 meeting of the national Citizens Committee, which Walesa controls.
The group’s leaders include Zbigniew Bujak, former Warsaw regional leader of Solidarity and head of the Solidarity underground during the martial-law period in the early 1980s, and Wladyslaw Frasyniuk, Solidarity leader in Lower Silesia.
The new movement scheduled a founding congress for July 28, and representatives said they intend to meet with Solidarity members of both houses of Parliament on Friday to invite them to join the movement.
Bujak and Frasyniuk were once regarded as Walesa’s potential heirs within Solidarity. But in recent months they have distanced themselves from him, complaining about his autocratic style.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
