LABOR

nner

The televised spectacle of Jack
Munro on the Vancouver
dockside exhorting Polish
fishermen aboard their vessels to
defect and ‘“‘come down here
where you belong’’ must have
raised disturbing questions in the
minds of all unionists who saw it.

Did Munro, as president of the
IWA and first vice-president of
the B.C. Federation of Labor,
belong there himself? What had
he in common with the group of
emigres clustered around him,
none of them supporters of
labor’s causes but many of them
familiar figures at every anti-
Soviet demonstration in Van-
couver? What did he hope to ac-
complish for the Polish people by
inducing fishermen to desert the
difficult struggle to restore
Poland’s economy and deny

privileges, every defection is a
propaganda victory to be spread
across the headlines. But for
Munro, knowing the length of the
unemployed lines he is inviting

Polish fishermen to join, and
nowhere longer than in his own
woodworking industry, it is
demogogic deception.

Munro and B.C. Federation of
Labor publicity director Tom
Fawkes can plead that they are
only following the lead of AFL-
CIO president Lane Kirkland, for
whom President Reagan’s
economic sanctions should be ex-
tended to include a grain em-

desperately needed fish catchesby bargo. But then they align
keeping the vessels tied to the themselves with a union-busting
dock? president who did not hesitate to

For the emigres and their ilk, smash the Air Traffic Controllers

the answers are simple, no matter
how they are disguised. Dreaming
of a counter-revolutionary coup
in Poland to restore them to lost

and who hopes through sanctions
to impede construction of the
Soviet-West German gas pipeline

union for defying a strike ban,

his administration so bitterly op-
poses. Just as American farmers
were the chief losers by President
Carter’s grain embargo, so
American workers will be the

EDITORIAL

chief losers by Reagan’s sanc-
tions. Do Munro and Fawkes
identify themselves with the
Canadian Polish Congress’ fren-
zied lobby to persuade the
Trudeau government to impose
similar sanctions at the expense of
Canadian workers and farmers?

They can argue that CLC presi-
dent Dennis McDermott has
pledged his full support to
Solidarity, having refrained from
doing so earlier, by his own state-
ment on CBC, because it might
lay the CLC open to charges of
supporting counter-revolution —
a restraint cast aside now that
Solidarity’s counter-revolution-
ary aims have been bared.

But where do Munro and Fawkes belong ?

Between the legitimate
grievances of the Polish people
and the exploitation of these
grievances for counter-
revolutionary aims by
Solidarity’s leadership there is the
difference of two.social systems.
The grave mistakes, the economic
distortions, of the former Polish
government have openly been
stated by the Communist Party
itself. The grievances have been
recognized by the government’s
conclusion of agreements with
Solidarity for fundamental
reforms. For Solidarity’s leader-
ship, however, not strengthening
of the socialist system but its over-
throw was the objective. The pur-
pose of the incessant round of
strikes — during which, unlike
IWA members last summer,
strikers received full pay — was to
discredit the government and
replace it with a provisional
regime which would open the way
to a restoration of capitalism.

Imposition of martial law by
the Polish constitutional govern-
ment to prevent “national:
calastrophe: stands in contrast to

Street interview: ‘‘Although I’m

the military coup in Turkey,
where the Republican People’s
Party, a Socialist International
affiliate, has been-dissolved and
52 militant union leaders 4
among 1,300 people facing the
death penalty in current trials.
Surely Munro’s and Fawkes”
silence cannot be attributed to thé
absence of Turkish ships in po
at Vancouver. And where is the
demand from McDermott in Ot}
tawa and Kirkland - in}
Washington for imposition off
sanctions in face of the Reagan}
administration’s readiness to
modernize Turkey’s armedij
forces? |
Perhaps the most revealing
commentary on the abuse of)
British Columbia labor’s fine’
traditions by Munro and Fawkes
comes from a worker, John Dur-}
rant, questioned by the North]
Shore News in a man-on-the-}

anti-union here in Canada, I’m in}
favor of the Solidarity move-
ment.” That should give Munro
and Fawkes pause to wonder who
belongs where. :

Claims by Solidarity representa-
tives here that fishermen aboard
Polish fishing vessels in Vancouver
are prepared to conduct a ‘‘sym-
bolic”’ or ‘‘moral’’ strike if ordered

But according to Parma first
mate Henryk Gorski, there ‘‘was
no vote held nor was there one
scheduled’? among the 75 crew
members who have remained

to sail are extremely questionable, aboard the ship.
according to alltheinformationthe — Gorski, whom the Tribune inter-
Tribune has been ableto gather, in- viewed New Year’s Eve, added that

crew members had indicated they
would sail as soon as the necessary
fuel was received.

Gorski himself is not a mémber
of Solidarity but rather of one of
the autonomous branch unions
which takes in sailors and other
maritime workers. He said, how-

cluding an interview with a ship’s
officer.

Tadeusz Kawecki and Zygmunt
Przetakiewicz, who have said they
are the Solidarity representatives in
Canada, released a crew members’
statement last week which declared
support for a symbolic strike and

asked for the assistance of the B.C. ever, that 90 percent of the crew
Federation of Labor in keeping the members belong to Solidarity.
ships in port. (Although the ratio on the ships

does not reflect it, the branch un-
ions — made up, in part, of the un-
ions in existence before Solidarity
was formed — have been gaining
strength in recent months, particu-.
larly as Solidarity’s leadership
has moved toward political con-

The statement reportedly was
signed by crew members aboard
the Parma and the Regulus.

The Solidarity representatives
had earlier said that a vote was be-
ing conducted among the crews on
possible strike action.

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PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 8, 1982—Page 8

frontation. The branch union’s
founding congress, held Oct.
16-18, 1981, brought together dele-
gates representing 24 unions and
four million workers.)

But some crewmen have now
claimed that Solidarity representa-
tive Przetakiewicz has misrepre-
sented them and have accused him
of being a “publicity seeker.”’

The Globe and Mail reported
Jan. 31 on its interviews with crew
members who made the charge
about Przetakiewicz. The same
crew members also levelled criti-
cism at the media and the B.C. Fed-
eration of Labor.

The Globe story also confirmed
Gorski’s comments, quoting the
crew members as saying that they
had made the decision to return to
Poland.

Since declaration of martial law
in Poland Dec. 13, the Polish fish-
ing vessels in Vancouver have be-
come the focus of international at-
tention, with television crews — the
three U.S. networks among them
— + making several trips to the pier
daily.

There are currently three Polish
ships berthed at Pier B-C, the Par-
ma, Regulus and Sirius, and an-
other, the Delfin, in North Van-
couver. Three others, the Manta,
Humbak and Garnela, have all
sailed since Dec. 13.

But for Solidarity representative
Tadeusz Kawecki and for the Pol-
ish community’s Canadian Com-
mittee in Support of Solidarity,
keeping the remaining ships in port
has become the chief objective —
apparently whether the crews want
it or not.

Kawecki told a rally organized
by the Polish community Jan. 3:
“These ships cannot and will not be
allowed to be used by the military
junta.”’

He called for support for Soli-
darity’s efforts to keep the ships in
port.

In Toronto, Przetakiewicz urged
the federal government to prevent
the ships from leaving port.

Przetakiewicz, a former student
in Warsaw, was originally appoint-
ed to head Solidarity’s office in
New York which opened last Sep-
tember and closed a month later.

Kawecki, who has been given an
office in the B.C. Federation of La-
bor, is a doctoral student at York
University in Ontario.

The two representatives hope
that by adopting the tactic of a
symbolic strike, they can get the
B.C. Fed to block deliveries to the
ships and prevent a pilot from go-
ing aboard to take the ships out.

B.C. Fed president Jim Kinnaird
said Dec. 31 that the Federation
would support the strike if Solidar-
ity mounted a “‘proper’’ picket
line. But what would constitute
such a picket line is not known.

Meanwhile, four crew members
from the Parma decided Jan. 5 to
change their minds about defecting
and returned to their ship, throw-
ing more doubt on the massive
campaign that has been directed’ af
the Polish fishermen.

The four, who were caren
by the skipper of the ship, said that
they ‘‘hadn’t thought it out’’ at the
time they jumped ship. The ship’s
maritime agent, Wayne Fallif, add-
ed that there had been ‘‘a lot of en-
couragement from people on
shore.”

Parma first mate Henk Gorski
had earlier told the Tribune that his
crew had been ‘‘bombarded by
propaganda’”’ from all directions
urging them to defect.

“Most of them knew it was false
propaganda, that you have more
than one million unemployed in
your country,” he said speaking
through an interpreter.

But some of them were attracted
byit,’’ he said, adding that some 20

TRIBUNE

Polish fishermen say views misrepresented

crew members had left the sh F|
Since that time, the four returné@
Gorski, said that he, like the 0
ers in the crew, was still await
detailed news from Poland. But
situation which had prevailed wh
he left Poland early in Decem!
‘‘could not continue,’’ he said.
‘‘Over the last 18 months, it
been anarchy,”’ he said. ‘“‘Farmef
have been flooding into the citieé
workers have been striking, thet
has been too little production. H¢
long could that have continued?

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