POLAND was rocked last month by a miners' strike in Silesia, the country's main industrial region, on a scale reportedly exceeding even those held in the heyday of Solidarity.
The British modia stayed surprisingThey feared a fangerous example.
While a new year's ove peace deal between the government and the leaderships made a return-towork ikely at the time of wring, the dispute lays down a marker for future Small-scale protests began on December 14, but escalated so rapidly that even the hostle local media reported that 350,000 workers were on www of writas - aound one per cent of the country's entire population.
There were no indications of any scabbing, while rail, steel, textile and tractor factory workers in other parts of Poland gave ready support.
The miners' grievances flow from programme, which could cut the country's coal mining capacity by as much as 50 per cent.
The government has promised "so cial guarantees to mining areas; whether they are worth the paper they are written on remains to be seen.
Solidarity Waclaw Marszewski has promised that strikes will resume if the government did not stick to its agreements or showed bad faith. He may have to back up his vords with actions pretty soon, as the Fund give the government litte room for manoeuvre Under Stalinist rule, the miners enoyed a relatively privileged position. Nevertheless, they were at the forefront of the Solidarity cause in the earty eighties, and many paid with their Iberty and even their lives after the crackdown of 1981. former Solidarity chief Lech Walesa who, as national President, accused strikers of destabilisation, and it was Solidarity veteran Jacek Huron, now minister of labour, who threatened the working class with repressive measures, Most of the strikers were from the The free market is coming apart in Poland thanks to the more positive parts of Solidarity's contradictory legacy. Socialists should seek to heip as well as leam from the struggles of the Polish working class and link up the struggles in our two countries. WOMEN'S CAMPS AGAINST CLOSURES Contact numbers: Doncaster area: Hatfield Main 0302-841365 Barnsley 0226-202687 Women Against Pit Closures NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION LONDON SATURDAY FEB 6 Assembie 11am Embankment, march to Hyde Park Picket NW region TUC Saturday February 6, Mechanics Institute, Manchester No. 35 TUC General Council Demand action to support miners Congress House, Great Russell St, London WC1 8am Weds Jan 27