Move to outlaw Solidarity

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from SO, c/o 28 Middle Lane, POLAND'S ruling Stalinist bureaucracy is to introduce a law at the weekend which will definitively outlaw the ten million strong union Solidarnosc, and rule out even the use of its name.

Instead all that will be permitted to Polish workers is the formation of organisations at local level following the acceptance by the state bureaucracy of charter seeking a union.

Outlawed

Political strikes will be outlawed, any strikes at all will only be permitted after prolonged and complex procedures are exhausted, and wide groups of workers will be banned from ever taking strike action.

This full-scale legal prohibition on Solidarnose follows on ten months of savage military and police repression of the union by the Jaruzelski regime, which imposed martial law last December.

Since then there have been varying schemes discussed for the longterm solution of the probl em posed to the bureaucracy by the existence of a union. The dramatic and militant growth of Solidarnose reflected the opposition of the Polish working class to bureaucratic rule, and their willingness to Latest issue of Polish Solidarity Campaign News - articles on resistance in Poland and solidarity in Britain and abroad. fight for control Poland's nationalised economy which in the hands of successive Stalinist leaderships has run headlong into chaos and massive debts to Western banks.

Some, including Church leader Archbishop Glemp, had advocated some form of token reconstitution of Solidarnosc to head off any possible eruption of resistance. Others, gaining in confidence after the military crackdown and the consolidation of power in the hands of the state, advised the firm line which has now been adopted, arguing that the repeated pro-Solidarnosc demonstrations which have taken place represent only a small minority of the union's former membership.

Disturbances

Glemp has now cancelle a planned visit to Rome saying that he fears di: turbances at home i Whether or not this is correct assessment, there i no doubt that in the ner phase of their struggle ag ainst the repression of th parasitic Stalinist burear cracy the Polish worker need not prayers from th pulpit but the full-scal support of the internatione workers' movement. 4510 Jury Auror 198:

Polish Solidarity Campaign News• VATI V: r "GRLEM." 18 8PL. 30p plus 20p p&p.

The indications are that Begin's personal support among Oriental and working alass Jews remains solid and that his Likud Party could expect to win. around 60 seats out of 120 in a General Election - far outstripping the opposition parties.

Having held his coalition government together through the immediate of the post-massacre events, Begin has given no sign that he is about to concede to pressure and jettison Sharon, whom many tipped succeed him as Likud leader.

Meanwhile, cashing in or the defeats intlicted upon the Palestinians and the Syrians by the rapid Zionist invasion of Lebanon and the installation of Amin Gemayel as Lebanese President the Reagan administration - acting in effect as Begin's broker - is stepping up its efforts to force further concessions by the PLO and Syria.

Special "peace" envoy Philip Habib has been hawking a 3-stage plan for the vacuation of the 32,000 Syrian troops and 15,000 PLO fighters from Lebanon, and the eventual withdrawal of Zionist troops.

Reportedly both Syrian and PLO leaderships have agreed in principle to withdraw provided that 'guarantees' are given on the safety of remaining refugees.

What such guarantees are worth in the light of the recent massacre by Lebanese fascists is highly doubtful. The withdrawal of still more of the limited armed protection for Palestinian camps under conditions where Phalangist gunmen continue to roam freely could only be seen as extremely dangerous.

Nor would the danger be averted by the incorporation of Gemayel's thugs into the Lebanese army which, according to the Habib plan, •ALL of a sudden there is a rush of enthusiasm to send imperialist troops to Angola.

Of course the South Africans head the queue, - at it.:. no and witn thel repeated talus alle mini-invasions of the Southern part of Angola, and their sponsorship of the reactionary UNITA guerrilla organisation of Jonas Savimbi, the former stooge of Portugal's fascist regime.

The nationalist MPLA regime in Angola has been supported against these SWAPO (above) attacks - and against the militancy of the Angolan working class - by a strong presence of Cuban troops, which assisted in the liberation of the country in 1975.

Cuban forces are seen as the "acceptable" face of Soviet military support in black Africa, but the link to the USSR has not meant any transformation in the Angolan economy betweeh balances delicately the imperiaust ou monopuries on the one hand and trading links with Moscow's Comecon group on the other.

This political ambiguity in a strategically-placed country in Southern Africa has concerned the US State Department - which refuses to open diplomatic relations with Angola - and of course the South African regime itself.

Now the question of the future of Namibia - the nation illegally occupied by over 100,000 South African troops and administered as a colony of South Africa - is being used as a means to increase the pressure for a withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola.

Guerrilla fighters of the Namibian liberation organisation SWAPO operate from bases in Angola.

Block talks

While continuing their own incursions into Angola, the South African regime is now effectively suggesting that it will block all talks on Namibian independence until the Cubans are pulled out. Such a stance is tacitly endorsed by the USA.

In response to this the French government unde Mitterrand - keen to see a diplomatic solution to the Namibian issue which will contain the struggles in the region - has offered tc replace the Cuban troop: with French soldiers.

These imperialist force: would, it is argued, protec Angola from South Africa while freeing it from it: "dependence" upon the Cubans.

In other words it woulc cut the most overt link between Angola and the USSR, pulling it decisively into the orbit of imperialis control. And it would pu imperialism's foot back ir the door of Southern Africa.

Not to be outdone Angola's old colonia masters, the Portugues military, have also offerer their services as a "peace keeping" force, to ease thr exit of the Cubans.

No-one should be fooler by the apparent benevoleno of these offers. The Presi dents of both Mozambiqu

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