after the strikes and massacres in fact in Poland in 1970, what contacts were you able to establish with the opposition and the Movement for Free Trade Unions?
LK: There was a movement in Poland prior to the formation of Solidarity, that went under the emblem of KOR, the Committee for Workers’ Defense, and we were in contact with people in Poland who were associated with KOR, both directly through our office in Paris and through emissaries that came to that office from time to time, and through a man by the name of Leo Lovetts, who lived in London and published a journal of Polish affairs called Survey – I would meet with him from time to time, and he was a useful intermediary. INT: So what were you able to do, then, in that period before 1980? LK: Well, during that period there was little in the way of demands upon us or requests for assistance. We were just kept informed and… it was only with the strikes in Gdansk and Ursus and Nowahuta, in the mines, out of which Solidarity developed, that substantial requirements for assistance emerged. INT: … Well, July was the Ursus and then August the Gdansk strike. … It was obviously quite touch
