Thatcher was Supicious of Polish Solidarity Movement

[UrbScotty]

Until now, Helmut Schmidt appeared to be the only top Western politician who was skeptical about the Polish trade union Solidarity in the early 1980s. But SPIEGEL magazine reveals British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher also had deep reservations about the movement and its leader Lech Walesa.

With the trade union Solidarity, the charismatic leader Lech Walesa helped rattle the foundations of Soviet communism. But new evidence, reported in Monday's SPIEGEL magazine reveals British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was suspicious about the influential movement and Lech Walesa, the man who later became a Nobel Laureate.

In September 1981, British Premier Thatcher even considered supporting the Eastern bloc regime in Warsaw in quelling Solidarity, a German Foreign Ministry document, long treated as classified, showed.

According to the document, Thatcher's Foreign Secretary, Lord Peter Carrington, told colleagues in New York that Britain sympathizied with Solidarity. But if Solidarity got out of control and the government had to take repressive measures, it might make sense to help the government, he added.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,817778,00.html

[KitSileya]

1. This is pretty obvious, really, considering the participants.

After all, we're talking about a trade union, and we all know how Thatcher and her ilk feel about trade unions!

[Old and In the Way]

2. Rightwingers instinctively support other authoritarian regimes over democratic socialist movements.

Not really surprising that was Thatchers instincts as well.