THE BATTALION
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1980
Page 7
world
1
terekhas ‘heart a ttack ’
United Press International
Poland — A fierce power struggle pre-
ng the maltel
said the Cll
ise if the J|
>sLiiV?S arsaw - ^ 00 „
veiinjr y. ;e( ^ c ^ Stanislaw Kania’s selection as Communist Party
Moscow f t .y Saturda y to replace Edward Gierk, who was
spent bvB eC ^ ^ 0r tRe econom * c policies that put Poland’s work-
liee custodtS 011 a co H ision course with the state, diplomatic
ources said.
’ Hania, 53, was elected unanimously by the 116-
rt hearing, neniber Central Committee in a midnight session, an
bald spot ’fflcial announcement said.
er’s headulBierek, 69, at first held tenaciously to his position as
s in 1962.fta recent wave of strikes rippled across Poland,
history ofbi iparked by demands for labor and political reform. But
irren Conn hsK r >P began to slip when he lost his power base in the
radconsidei iouthern coal fields, where miners joined the strikes,
[her, then? 1 lfl' s authority was further weakened when his best
treatment riend and relative, the former head of Poland’s state
Revision, was embroiled in a multi-million dollar
jmbezzlement scandal.
ver, he hadJ|jOntrary to the habit of new party leaders, Kania has
,eer“spi rot made an address to the nation to disclose his prog-
.i t B> and a speech he made at the Central Committee
months oil#® 8 - -
Kania
the talk
jMting has been kept secret.
, , Observers and diplomats interpreted this as a sign of
tcri'd thi'p. n | hting at the tQp
® ven Moscow, in a puzzling delay, waited 16 hours
ife Hire sending Kania a congratulatory telegram signed
Hoviet President Leonid Brezhnev.
Hccording to official accounts, Gierek was removed
rom office after suffering a heart attack early Friday.
But diplomats and observers said they believed
nei
:ent
Gierek’s supposed illness was “political” — a face-saving
way of removing him from office.
They noted the statement describing Gierek’s condi
tion was nearly identical to the one that ushered in the
downfall of his predecessor, Wladyslaw Gomulka, fol
lowing similar but less wide-spread labor strife 10 years
ago.
A veteran of 35 years of party work, Kania, the former
locksmith from a village in the south was made a mem
ber of the Central Committee in 1971 and elected to the
Politburo — the party’s inner circle of power — four
years later.
To ordinary Poles, the change at the top was unlikely
to mean much. “The party rules above our heads,”
shrugged one Polish journalist.
Observers said Kania, who is considered somewhat
more liberal than the hardline Gierek, was unlikely to
depart from existing policy or to take back the conces
sions that the government gave to workers to end the
crippling strikes.
These included the rights to strike and to form inde
pendent labor unions — rights unprecedented in a
Communist state.
Beyond that, Kania was still too much of an unknown
to predict how he would face the new facts of Polish life.
A compromise candidate acceptable both to the
Soviets and to the hardline and liberal wings of the
Polish Politburo, Kania is seen as an “apparatchik,” a
product of the party apparatus.
Hostage debate may begin
Poles’ new leader
virtually unknown
United Press International
Until he was chosen to replace ousted Polish leader Edward Gierek,
Stanislaw Kania was virtually unknown to most Poles — a quiet mid
dle-of-the-road official who stood close to the inner circles of power,
but never in the spotlight.
Official biographies of him reveal only that he is 53 years old and was
a locksmith before entering politics 35 years ago, quietly working his
way up through party ranks.
Observers said Kania’s elevation to the top party job appeared to be a
compromise — a compromise between the hardline and liberal wings
of the Politburo and, perhaps more importantly, a compromise with
Moscow.
Among his colleagues he has a reputation of being more moderate
than Gierek, but still to the right of the liberals who were one of the
prime forces behind the decision to oust Gierek in the aftermath of the
Polish labor strikes.
Like most things about Kania, his attitude towards the strikers who
won unprecedented concessions from the Communist state was not
immediately known. But observers said they believed he would not go
back on the agreement the government reached with the strike
leaders.
They predicted he would not depart radically from either domestic
or foreign policy as they were practiced by the ousted Gierek regime.
Before his appointment, Kania had been responsible for internal
security and the police. He kept Poland’s militia-police force out of the
labor unrest and observers said that may have contributed to the
decision to elevate him to the top.
A man who had stayed in the shadow of Gierek and other high-
profile party leaders, Kania was made head of the Central Committee’s
administrative department in 1968, and entered the inner circle of
power with his appointment to the politburo in 1975.
He evidently has the full support of the Party’s Central Committee,
which said it had endorsed his choice by unanimous decision.
USED
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unit any lint j United Press International
:1 help it. 1®*H0SHEN, lud. — Eight teachers
arthis. Tlml®Hi China were delighted by the
id 1 dontf Hie jam they ran into on their way
xisted. Tal; Hoshen College but, recalling the
>n, 1 strong' ftnerican meals they had on their
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United Press International
A committee of the Iranian parlia-
nent met Saturday to make prepara-
ions for the long awaited debate on
herfate of the 52 American hostages,
jow entering their 45th week in cap-
ivitv.
Hhe meeting of parliament’s fore-
! Tn relations commission was the
rst sign that the assembly was get-
ing ready to begin its hostage debate
yince Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
marged it eight months ago with de-
nding the outcome of the now 308-
lay-old crisis.
. Tehran Radio said only that the
:ommission met to discuss “the
rrphlems of the hostages and prepa-
ations for a debate on the issue in an
(pen session of Parliament.” No de-
ails were disclosed and no date for
he debate was mentioned.
But there were indications the de
bate may finally be close to starting.
The Islamic hardliners who control
the parliament had said they could
not begin to consider the hostages’
fate until a prime minister had been
chosen - now selected - and a cabinet
was formed - close to completion.
The radio said Prime Minister
Mohammad Ali Rajai has selected 15
cabinet members who were
approved by President Abolhassan
Bani-Sadr and who will now be sub-
mitted to the parliament for
swearing-in.
Once parliament approves the
cabinet, the hostage debate can be
gin. Most of the deputies, clerics and
other hardliners who belong to the
powerful Islamic Republican Party
controlled by Bani-Sadr’s rivals,
have said they favor putting the hos
tages on trial as spies.
Both Bani-Sadr and Ghotbzadeh
have said the hostages should be
freed. However, Bani-Sadr has only
limited influence and Ghotbzadeh
has virtually none.
Both men, moderates by the stan
dards of the Iranian revolution, have
criticised Rajai as a total incompetent
who has no idea how to run a govern
ment.
“What is extremely important is to
end the confrontation with the Un
ited States. We have to resolve this
problem, get rid of this problem, in
order to have Europeans and Third
World countries on our side. As long
as we have this problem of the hos
tages they are not on our side — they
are not even indifferent or neutral,”
Ghotbzadeh said in an interview
broadcast Friday.
3 ALTERATIONS 5
IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF
OLD TEXAS WHERE MOTHER
TAUGHT DAUGHTER THE FINE
ART OF SEWING — SO HELEN
MARIE TAUGHT EDITH MARIE
THE SECRETS OF SEWING AND
ALTERATIONS
"DON'T GIVE UP — W£LL
MAKE IT FIT!"
7
AT WELCH’S CLEANERS WE NOT
ONLY SERVE AS AN EXCELLENT
DRY CLEANERS BUT WE SPE
CIALIZE IN ALTERING HARD TO
FIT EVENING DRESSES. TAFtERED
SHIRTS, JEAN HEMS. WATCH
POCKETS. ETC
(WE RE JUST A FEW
BLOCKS NORTH OF FED
MART.)
WELCH’S CLEANERS
3819 E. 29th (TOWN & COUNTRY SHOPPING CENTER)
cided to eat their first dinner in the
country at a Cantonese restaurant.
The group will take a course at
Goshen on teaching English as a
foreign language. In exchange, 20
Goshen students and faculty advisers
are in China for seven weeks.
VW Specialist
REPAIR
VOLKSWAGEN — PORSCHE
— AUDI — TOYOTA
SELL
VW PARTS
REBUILD
VW ENGINE
THE BUG CLINIC
822-5383
HOT DOGS!
and more at the
TAMU Collegiate 4-H Club
Hot Dog Social
Come One Come Alt
Wed. Sept. 10 Kleberg Center
7:00 P.M.
KAPPA SIGMA
the newest Fraternity at
A&M invites all interested
men to the
rush party
of the semester.
Tonight 7 p.m. 7
Sundance Apt. #9
on Hwy. 30.
For more information about Kappa Sigma,
tonight’s party, and this week’s rush parties
call Craig 846-6265 or Clint 693-0174.
“PRESENTS:
ISL QE NERAL
^MEETING
cfMojor Qeneral e L,axvrie
601 Hudder
7 30 i?M.
September 8^
all visitors welcome
provided.