Poland: Heads High, Hands Empty

Heads High, Hands Empty

Marching behind a 10-ft. wooden crucifix, 500 workers last week ended their nine-day occupation of Gdansk's Lenin Shipyard -- and with it Poland's most serious outbreak of labor unrest in seven years. The strikers failed to win any of their demands, which included a 40% pay increase and recognition of the now banned Solidarity trade union. "We are not leaving the shipyard in triumph," declared the strike committee. "But we are leaving with our heads high."

Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa, who had feared that the workers' revolt was ill timed and had joined it only reluctantly, admitted that the finale amounted...

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