Polish leader Wojciech Jaruzelski today opened a two-day meeting of the Communist Party Central Committee with a plea for national reconciliation and a promise that more independent groups will be legalized. But he appeared to rule out talking to the outlawed Solidarity trade union, which Polish authorities have maintained accepts money from the U.S. government. ``We can talk to anyone, as long as he is not a client, especially a paid one, of a foreign court,'' Jaruzelski said. The plenum was the first meeting of the 230-member Central Committee since Poland was shaken by strikes in April and May, and it was expected to give important signals of the authorities' future moves to prevent more unrest. Jaruzelski, first secretary of the Polish United Workers Party, said upcoming nationwide elections for municipal and provincial councils offer Poles an opportunity to chose active candidates who could represent their needs. The elections Sunday are structured in a way that assures in advance that the Communist Party and its allies will dominate the councils. But Jaruzelski said more seats have been set aside for non-party members. He said those independent people who refused to join the councils were ``another case of missing the train of history.'' The party leader, who also is president of the Council of State, said a government-social commission should be established to monitor price increases in Poland and said across-the-board price increases such as were introduced earlier this year should be avoided in the future. Jaruzelski confirmed that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will visit Poland next month and said the trip will be important for Poland's future. And the Polish leader spoke at length about the disenchantment of youth with the Communist Party and called for redoubled efforts to win the allegiance of the younger generation. Referring to the strikes between April 25 and May 10, Jaruzelski said they increased the chance for national understanding because they showed the majority of Poles displayed ``a front of realism.'' Strikes took place in five factories, with brief stoppages or strike threats in 25 others. But the labor unrest did not spread out of control to factories around Poland as it did in 1980, when Solidarity was born. A new law on associations is awaiting enactment, said Jaruzelski, but that should not stop new groups from being legalized in the meantime. He mentioned no specifics, but there have been official hints that at least three independent groups _ a Warsaw-based pro-private enterprise Economic Society, the dormant Polish chapter of the PEN writers' club and the Dziekania political discussion club in Warsaw _ may soon be legally registered. Jaruzelski also suggested a ``round table'' meeting of representatives of existing and proposed associations to discuss solutions to Poland's problems. He gave no details on who would convene the meeting, who could be invited or when it might take place. ``National reconciliation and one of the goals of the socialist renewal,'' Jaruzelski said. ``It is broader today than in past years.''
