Demand French government allows Kowalewski to stay!
the 'passing event' of the state of war declared against the Polish workers and Solidarnose.
This hypocrisy has provoked opposition. An appeal published in Le Monde nas gained over two hundred signatures of well-known personalities from polit-
Zbigniew Kowalewski, a regional leader of Solidarnosc in Lodz, caught in
France by the installation of the state of war on December 13, 1981, has been 'invited to leave the country' by April 28.
On December 13 Kowalewski was in France at the invitation of the
CGT and CFDT (the two major unions, Communist-led and Socialist majority respectively) sections in the national economic and statistical research centre INSEE.
Since that time he has lived in France and worked to build a movement of solidarity with Solidarnose.
As a member of the Solidarnose praesidium in Lodz and a delegate to the Solidarnosc first national congress,
Zbigniew Kowaiewski is well placed to build a movement of solidarity with
In the more than two years he has been forced to remain in France he has widely in Western Europe at the invitation of solidarity activists, and further afield, to Mexico for example.
This activity, along with his open and vigorous commitment to workers self- management and socialism, have made him the object of virulent attacks in the official Polish media. His comrades from the local Solidarnose leadership, Jerzy
Kropniwnicki and Andrzej Slowik, have been sentenced to heavy prison sentences; a similar fate would face Kowalewski if he were forced to return to Poland.
Political tensions within the French committee as a result of Kowalewski's openly espoused socialism led to the formation of two separate committees in 1982, which have both continued to work in organising political and mate-
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rial solidarity with Solidarnosc.
have protested against his threatened explusion.
The news of the French government's decision to expel him has provoked widespread protest. The official reason given was "lack of visible means of support. However, a report in the Paris daily Le Monde on April 6 stated that official circles had 'let it be understood' that Kowalewski had been asked to leave the country because his activity rendered him 'undesirable'
This action comes at a time when a 'thawing' of relations between the French government and the Jaruzelski regime is being much heralded. The leader of the Socialist group in the National Assembly, Pierre Joxe, visited Poland at the beginning of February, and an official visit by a delegation of the Polish Diet visited France at the end of March. The leader of the delegation took the opportunity to explain that 'A fundamental element of politics is the ability to forget Pierre Joxe responded in agreement by stating that Franco-Polish relations should not be blocked by passing events, however
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-вco_7e.00 ical, academic and cultural circles, as well as trade-union and human-rights bodies. The text noted the suddenness of the decision, after two years in which Kowalewski was able to remain in France with a residence permit, and the weal justification for his expulsion. Asking it it was not because the Solidarnose mi tant is too actively involved in the strug gle for socialism and workers self-management, the signatories call on the government to reverse its decisions, pledging themselves to guarantee means of support if necessary.
Protests have also come from a number of European countries. In Switzerland many members and elected representatives of the Socialist Party of Geneva, unionists, human-rights activists, and singers and actors have joined with the Solidarity with Solidarnosc Committee in calling on the French government to reverse its decision. This protest has also been joined by two well-known British Labour MPs, Eric Heffer, chairman of the party, and Tony Benn, leader of the left wing In Italy, Democrazia Proletaria national and European parliamentarian Mario Capanna, and a number of leading trade unionists from the metalworkers federation and the Communistmajority CGIL have also protested, as have labour movement bodies and individuals from West Germany and the Spanish State.
The general secretary of the International Metalworkers Federation, Herman Rebhan, has written 'in the name of 14 million metalworkers' ', asking the government to reverse its decision. letter outlines Kowalewski's role as a • Solidarnosc leader and his activity in building solidarity since the December 1981 coup and, recalling the 'generosity" of French policy on political asylum, as well as its disapproval of the Jaruzelski and sympathy for the movement workers democracy exemplified in Solidarnosc, it asks the government to reverse its decision.
The breadth of opposition from the French labour and democratic movement, and its rapid extension, show that it is possible to build a campaign powerful enough to force the French government to reverse course. This is top priority for all those in the international workers and democratic movements who wish to continue to defend the Polish mass movement for workers democracy and to uphold its tradition and example.
International Viewpoint
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