Poland holds Walesa, associates

Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa said he would join the banned trade union's underground if police did not stop treating him ''like a rabbit in a cage.''

Polish authorities detained Mr. Walesa and at least nine of his associates after they met here Friday with other labor activists. Walesa was hustled back to his Gdansk apartment and remained under heavy guard over the weekend, reports Monitor special correspondent Eric Bourne.

In Krakow, meanwhile, Poland's Catholic primate, Archbishop Jozef Glemp, delivered an impassioned appeal for peace between the divided factions in Polish society. His message was clearly directed at the government and comes at a time of deteriorating church-state relations.

On Saturday, Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski hinted at long-term gains for the Roman Catholic Church in return for cooperation with government moves to end domestic strife. He said the invitation to Pope John Paul II was no temporary tactical move but an event of benefit to the nation as a whole that could lead to long-term agreement and cooperation between church and state.

General Jaruzelski was speaking at the inaugural conference of a new political organization, PRON, a body created by the Communist Party and its allies to help bridge the chasms that divide Polish society. PRON is being held up to the nation as more democratic than its Stalinist-type predecessor, which collapsed in the August 1980 crisis. Its draft program envisaged plural candidacies (like those allowed briefly in the late 1950s). But candidates would still need PRON's approval.