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COVENTRY: Julia Redman reports on edman reports on the setting up of a le setting up of a solidarity campaign. lidarity campaign. ON February 6 the first meeting was held in Coventry to launch support tor Solidarnosc.

We were lucky to have Piotr Koslowski addressing the meeting. He gave a really inspiring speech which I want to recap briefly.

The Polish people's history of fighting the Soviet bureaucracy goes back to 1935 when Stalin called the leaders of the Polish Communist Party to Moscow, and liquidated them. It has continued, bitter and bloody, ever since.

Stalin

By the time of Stalin's death, 4½ million Poles had been : murdered for refusing to kow-tow to Moscow. In 1947, the first conference of the new Polish CP, Stalin claimed 80% support for his policies-in fact it was only 18%.

In 1956 Soviet tanks were sent in against demonstrators protesting against food price rises. JAN FOLLOWING on from their successful speaking tour fortnight previously, Solidarnosc members Marek Gartzecki 1. (Radio Warsaw shop steward) and Piotr Kozlowski (chief shop steward, Ursus tractor works) returned to Scotland last week for a second round of visits to factories and unton branches.

In the Central Region they made two visits to Grangemouth docks, the first time to meet the stewards and the second time to address a mass meeting of the dockers, and they also addressed this month's meeting of the Central Scotland District Committee of the TGWU:

From the Central Region they went on to speak at the February meeting of Edinburgh Trades Council, and then attend a reception and meeting organised by the Glasgow branch of the National Union of Journalists.

Wherever they spoke, Piotr and Marek stressed the need to step up support for Solidarnose, and to translate passive into active support, by campaigning for the British labour movement to break off all links with the fake state-run 'unions" in Poland, and by organising labour movement blacking of trade with Poland.

Their appeal for support found a ready response: NUJ members in Glasgow promised to ensure that a Solidarnosc speaker was invited to address their annual conterence, for example, whilst Central Scotland TGWU District Committee members said they would raise the question of blacking on the TGWU National Executive.

The second evening of their tour, they addressed a public meeting organised by the Glasgow Polish Solidarity Committee. In their speeches, the Polish comrades stressed that, contrary to reports in the Western media, there was no relaxation of martial law in Poland.

On the contrary, repression was increasing, with a second wave of arrests now taking place. Marek's father was among those recently arrested.

Tour

The final day of Piotr's and Marek's speaking tour was taken up with a series of meetings in Glasgow: with shop stewards at the BL Albion factory and the Clydebridge steelworks, a meeting at Glasgow School of Art at lunchtime, addressing the NUPE (Hospitals) Glasgow Branch and Strathclyde NALGO branch, and also an interview with Radio Clyde.

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