Police, Protesters Clash in Polish Cities

WARSAW, Poland--Police clashed with demonstrators yesterday in at least 15 cities as thousands of people heeded Solidarity's call for a national "day of protest" on May Day.

Authorities detained at least 200 people nationwide, according to Zbigniew Romaszewski, a spokesman for the outlawed Solidarity union. The violent protests came at the end of a week of strikes and the worst labor unrest in Poland since the communist government suspended Solidarity in December 1981 and later declared it illegal.

There were scattered reports of injuries but figures were not available.

Government spokesman Jerzy Urban confirmed 90 detentions and said at least 12,000 people took part in illegal demonstrations nationwide. Reports from witnesses and opposition spokesmen put the number at more than 30,000.

The state-run news agency PAP said more than nine million people attended official May Day ceremonies throughout the country and "attempts to boycott the May Day demonstrations ended up yet again with a complete fiasco."

Polish leader Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski took a tough line on wage demands during ceremonies in Warsaw.

A strike was in its sixth day at the Lenin steel mill in Nowa Huta outside Krakow. About 800 strikers gathered for a Mass around a makeshift altar with a homemade cross in the pressing department.

Thirty to 50 people outside the gates were detained when they tried to stage a sympathy march to the plant, which was ringed with platoons of riot police.

Earlier, about 3000 people marched a half-mile from a Roman Catholic church in Nowa Huta toward the steel mill but followed police orders to disperse.

Organizers said about 16,000 workers are on strike at the plant, demanding recognition of their union rights and an immediate 50 percent raise on the average salary of $105 a month.

Police withdrew from around the mill in the afternoon. About 120 strikers and 50 family members and friends then had an emotional meeting at the plant gates.

Strike leader Andrzej Szewczuwaniec, brushing back tears, vowed the strike will continue. "We will not disappoint our wives, our sons, our mothers," he said.

In the evening in Nowa Huta, 5000 people rallied at a church and taunted police, saying: "So long until the third." Anti-government demonstrations occur every May 3, Poland's pre-war Constitution Day.

The Lenin mill strike committee yesterday wrote Deputy Prime Minister Zdzislaw Sadowski, in charge of the economy and planning, asking him to negotiate directly because management was unable to reach an agreement, said Grzegorz Surdy, a spokesman for the strikers.

Solidarity founder Lech Walesa, speaking outside St. Brygida's Catholic Church in Gdansk, told about 6000 supporters that the time had come for them to take a stand in support of the striking steel workers.