Poland Hail Maggie, the Mentor

Just before Margaret Thatcher’s visit to Poland last week, Prime Minister Mieczyslaw Rakowski had nothing but praise for her firmness in tackling Britain’s economic problems. “I would very much like to be a pupil in her school,” said Rakowski. Polish officials admired her effectiveness in curbing unions that blocked industrial reorganization.

Thatcher was hardly pleased, however, when Rakowski cited her policies as a precedent for another government assault on the outlawed Solidarity movement. As part of Rakowski’s new economic reform program, the government announced, it would close down on Dec. 1 the famous Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, whose workers gave birth to Solidarity during a strike in 1980. Its 11,000 employees, including Solidarity’s founder, Lech Walesa, a shipyard electrician for 21 years, would be forced to find jobs elsewhere.

Pruning such an unprofitable state-run enterprise may make economic sense — the Lenin shipyard soaked up $18.6 million in subsidies last year — but because the government’s move was so obviously aimed at Solidarity, it threatened to set off a fresh round of political turmoil. The maneuver raised further doubts about whether the government would stick to the offer it made in August to Solidarity in exchange for ending labor unrest: “round-table” meetings during which the legalization of Solidarity could be discussed.

Thatcher did little to hide her sympathies. She paid an emotional visit to the Warsaw grave of Jerzy Popieluszko, the priest murdered by government security agents in 1984. The next day Thatcher became the first Western leader permitted to visit Gdansk for a meeting there with Walesa, receiving a rousing welcome from thousands of Poles chanting “Solidarnosc! Solidarnosc!” “You have achieved so much,” she told Walesa and other Solidarity officials after lunch at St. Brigid’s presbytery. Polish intellectuals pointed out a crucial difference between Thatcher’s efforts to rein in British trade unions and Rakowski’s confrontation with Solidarity. Unlike Poland’s government, said Stanislaw Gebethner, a political science professor at the University of Warsaw, “Mrs. Thatcher carries legitimate power through democratic elections.”

The Prime Minister adhered to protocol, holding talks with Cabinet officials and joining Communist Party leader General Wojciech Jaruzelski at Westerplatte in northern Poland to honor defenders against the German invasion in 1939. But she did not hesitate to speak bluntly to her hosts. Turning to Jaruzelski at a banquet, she proclaimed her support for “freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to form free and independent trade unions.” It is vital for the government, she said, to hold “a real dialogue with representatives of all sections of society, including Solidarity.”

Thatcher made a modest offer to give Poles management training but snubbed the government’s pleas for Western loans and relief on Poland’s $36.4 billion foreign debt. The day when Polish officials grant real political freedoms, she said, “you will find your friends ready, not just to stand and cheer, but to help in practical ways.”