POLAND: NEW POLITBURO

Created: 7/20/1981

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

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POLAND: New Politburo

Tha neolyli'yuixito reflect the moderate vieve of party leader Kania. WWJ

Most of the members appear to be centrists who favor reform. At least three of the members, however,one of the newly elected workers, are conservatives. For the first time, the Polish Politburo willorker who reportedly belongs to Solidarity.

Newcomers dominate the Politburo, holdingf theositions. The four members from the previousmoderate Barcikowski, conservative olszowski, and Premierthe two newly elected members who are government ministers bringto the leadership. Counterbalancing them are three provincial party leaders, two local party activists, two workers, and two academics. Under new party rules, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Internal Affairs will resign their posts to serve on the enlarged bm

Current plans call for the congress to end today, but that timetable may not hold. In addition to other business, the delegates still must approve new party statutes. WW

The new leadership will have to deal almostwith the challenge posed by Baltic coast dock-workers and employees of the national airline LOT, who have scheduled strikes onnd Friday,Transportation workers in Warsaw and other Solidarity union members have expressed support for the LOT strikers. MW

Both strikes still can be avoided, but the regime appears to regard the threatened LOT strikeajor challenge. At issue is whether the government or the workers have the right to appoint the directortate-run organization. If the strike takes place, Jaruzelski might order the military to take over the operations of the civil airline. WW

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Jaruzelski may have hadove in mind when he publicly warned yesterday that thn authorities would "fulfill their constitutional duties to save the state" if "anarchy were to deepen." Such an action could lead to widespread sympathy strikesew confrontation between Solidarity and the government.

Soviet Reaction to Elections

Soviet commentary remaina sparse, but Moscow has made clear its lack of enthusiasm over the retention of Kania and has stepped up its criticism of allegedinterference in Polish affairs. President Brezhnev's message to Kania yesterday omitted the customaryand was from him alone, rather than from tha entire Central Committee as usual. While expressing confidence that Soviet-Polish friendship would continue to grow, the message did not refer to Kania's role in the process.

Oneteran TASS commentator claimed that attempts by the West to interfere in Polish affairs and thereby weaken the entire socislist community hadduring the congress; he asserted that the USSR would not permit such schemes to succeed. fMMf

Original document.

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