Sign of Solidarity

The Solidarity trade union will present Polish athletes going to Beijing with Solidarity armbands, as a gesture of solidarity with Tibet and abused Chinese workers. However, the athletes and sports officials say they're unlikely to wear them. A couple of weeks ago the Tygodnik Powszechny weekly asked Solidarity to grant permission for its globally recognisable logo to be placed on the Polish athletes' costumes.

The petition was discussed by the union's National Council. 'We should have stepped forward with the idea ourselves", said Wojciech Buczak, head of Solidarity in the Rzeszów area. "My proposition is that we print a couple of thousand of the kind of Solidarity armbands that we used during the strikes in the 1980s. We would present not only the Polish Olympic committee with them, but also other committees, from all over the world. Let the athletes wear them during the opening ceremony and the medal-awarding ceremonies. This would be a clear and beautiful gesture of solidarity with the abused Chinese workers and the persecuted Tibetans".