"Face to Face with Anarchy"

By Thomas A. Sancton

Kania talks tough as one strike ends and new troubles loom

Enough is enough! That was the unmistakable message from Warsaw's Communist bosses as Poland struggled through another tense week of strikes and stop-and-start negotiations between the government and the unions. In one of his toughest speeches to date, Party Leader Stanislaw Kania charged that Solidarity, the independent union federation, was "being steered in the direction of political opposition." As a result, he thundered, "we have come face to face with manifestations of anarchy, with the transformation of a group that called itself a trade union into something far removed from what is laid down in its statutes."

Those harsh words, first spoken at a closed-door party committee meeting in Warsaw, were broadcast throughout the nation on state radio. They appeared to be a stern, perhaps final warning to Solidarity to end the scattered strikes and sit-ins that have cost the economy more than $100 million in the past month.

The rise in tensions came in the wake of an agreement that first appeared to defuse the latest cycle of labor turmoil. After a 13-hour negotiating marathon, union and government representatives early last week announced a tentative settlement on two of Solidarity's key demands. The government accepted, in principle, a five-day work week, but would allow only three free Saturdays a month for the rest of the year. Solidarity was also promised access to state television and radio.

Union Leader Lech Walesa at first hailed the agreement as "the greatest success we have achieved so far." Solidarity's militants, however, felt that the union had given up far more than the government--notably by agreeing to work every fourth Saturday. In effect, that abrogated a guarantee of work-free Saturdays, which the government had promised in last summer's historic strike settlement. Solidarity's national commission wrangled for eleven hours before voting to accept the pact, which the final union communique coldly described as "falling far short of expectations."

Seeking to reassert his control over restive union locals, Walesa then embarked on a tour of some of the country's main trouble spots. He went first to the southern town of Rzeszow, near the Soviet border, where government representatives were meeting with some of the 300 farmers who have occupied a local government building for five weeks. Their key demand was legalization of Rural Solidarity, the independent farm union. Kania last week reiterated his opposition to the farm union as a potential instrument of "political struggle against the people's power." The supreme court is expected to endorse that view when it rules on Rural Solidarity's status this week.

Walesa's next stop was the southern textile center of Bielsko-Biala, where strikers demanding the ouster of corrupt local officials had shut down 120 factories and paralyzed most of the surrounding province since Jan. 27. At midweek the provincial governor and three deputies submitted their resignations, apparently clearing the way for a solution. But Premier Jozef Pinkowski refused to accept the resignations immediately. With that, the talks broke off abruptly.

Fearful of possible police action, Walesa threatened to launch a crippling nationwide strike "if force is used in Bielsko-Biala." Negotiations also collapsed in the southwestern city of Jelenia Gora, where union members were demanding, among other things, that a party-run resort be turned over to the workers. The Solidarity local there called a strike for this week, setting the stage for another dangerous showdown.

In a surprise move, the government met secretly in Warsaw with representatives of Solidarity and mediators from the Roman Catholic Church. A top-level government team flew off to Bielsko-Biala that night to resume talks with Walesa, local union leaders and Bishop Bronislaw Dabrowski. Shortly after 4 a.m. on Friday, the bishop entered the meeting hall of a local woolen mill and told the assembled strikers that an agreement had been reached. The hall erupted in cheers as jubilant workers hugged and kissed one another. The government had promised, among other things, to "consider" the proffered resignations immediately and to give the Bielsko-Biala workers full pay for the ten days they had been on strike.

Some Western analysts interpreted that capitulation as an attempt to gain time until a crucial Central Committee meeting, to be held this week, can adopt a clear-cut policy for dealing with the strikes. Others saw the move as a reflection of deep divisions within the party leadership. The hardliners, led by Politburo Member Stefan Olszowski, are pushing for a sweeping crackdown; opposing them is a faction led by General Mieczyslaw Moczar that favors curbing Solidarity's demands by administrative means while eliminating the root causes of discontent through economic reforms. Bolder demands by Solidarity militants could force Kania into the hard-line camp.

Kania's room to maneuver is limited. He is under increasing pressure from other Communist bloc countries to bring the troublesome union to heel. Last week, for example, the official East German news agency accused Solidarity of raising "the flag of counterrevolution" and threatening Poland's "internationalist obligation" -- meaning its membership in the Warsaw Pact. Those charges were echoed through the Soviet bloc, whose leaders are expected to meet in Moscow later this month. In addition to chiding Poland's recalcitrant workers, the propaganda barrage seemed to be telling the five-month-old Kania regime that the honeymoon was over and that his comrades now expected results. Fast. -- By Thomas A. Sancton.

Reported by Richard Hornik/West Berlin and B. William Mader/Bonn

With reporting by Richard Hornik, B. William Mader

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