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WORKERS in factories all over Poland last Thursday responded to a call from the clandestine leadership of Solidarnose for token strike action against Jaruzelski's Stalinist regime.

Thousands took to the streets in demonstrations which were attacked by riot police - bringing over 600 arrests.

The events were å Luhan runfluention of tha turtner conurnadon or bute popular support for the 10-million strong trade union whose activities were banned under the martial law restrictions introduced on December 13.

They followed on major demonstrations which rocked Warsaw and other major cities ove r the May Day weekend.

The May 13 action to mark 5 months of martial law, had been called by four Solidarnosc leaders -Zbigniew Bujak (Warsaw); Wladyslaw Frasynink (Lower Silesia); Wladyslaw Hardek (Krakov)

Bogdan Lis (Gdansk).

But it had been opposed not only by extensive state intimidation - riot police had been on the prowl at least 48 hours in advance - but also by Church leaders.

In repeated sermons, Archbishop Glemp had warned young people in particular against demonstrating. and clashes with the police.

Warnings His attitude to the resistance combined with warnings that Solidarnose must function only as a trade union and avoid taking political positions -flows from the search of the Catholic hierarchy for a new form of peaceful coexistence' with Jaruzelski and the Stalinist bureaucracy.

The • Catholic leaders argue that the working class in Poland must tailor their demands to an acceptance of the country's "geo-political reality"

But of course there are other currents within the Church: those who see the Solidarnosc movement as a lever to further the interests of the Church, and those less elevated priests and bishops who have responded to the movement at rank and file level.

The dialogue between a military commissar and workers at Polish radio and TV from which we published extracts in last week's Socialist Organiser, shows that the Stalinist bureaucracy itself is aware of such divisions of opinion.

The Commissar points out:

"In the hierarchy of the Church, there are differences of opinion. The most, shall I say, docile is Glemp (The Primate), who is in favour of certain talks with the government and who, generaly speaking, has accepted the necessity ot the introduction of the state Thursday, May 13. of war in considering that it conforms to the law..

But Glemp does not accept all the consequences: the internments, the suspension of Solidarity, and he even says that the Church can guarantee that Solidarity will behave as a trade union and not as a political organisation.

Macharski (Cardinal of Krakow) represents a more radical position, but not extreme. As for, what's his name, Gulbinowicz (Bishop of Wroclaw), he's of the extreme.

That extreme is made up of the oldest generation in the Episcopate. It's * si As the same time the ferment of debate in the growing Solidarnosc movement brought the emergence of currents which tend rather towards revolutionary socialism - calling more or less openly for the development of workers' control of the nationalised economy and mass action to oust the bureaucracy.

It is in part their shared Adopt