Poland: Sad Anniversary

The iron grip remains

First came the good news: the state of martial law that was imposed by General Wojciech Jaruzelski exactly one year earlier would be suspended by year's end. But then, as Jaruzelski proceeded with his nationwide television address, came the bitter reality: the government was preparing new laws that would, if anything, further restrict the freedom of Poles.

As if to confirm the message, hundreds of heavy police trucks, vans equipped with water cannons and armored personnel carriers rumbled through the streets of Polish cities following the anniversary. In Gdansk, the birthplace of the now illegal independent union Solidarity, paramilitary ZOMOS concentrated on sealing off access to the downtown area. In a symbolic confirmation of their victory over Solidarity, the authorities detained the union's leader, Lech Walesa, 39, who had been released from eleven months of government detention only a month ago.

The garrulous, chain-smoking Walesa, who has been uncharacteristically subdued since his release from detention, had intended to deliver a memorial speech. Instead, a few hours before his scheduled appearance, half a dozen policemen in full riot gear, equipped with machine guns and crowbars, appeared at Walesa's apartment door. They took him to the local office of the Polish Finance Ministry, where he was interrogated for an hour on alleged financial irregularities in the operations of Solidarity. Walesa was then bundled into an unmarked car by unidentified men and driven aimlessly around Gdansk for eight hours. The reason for the incident, which Walesa later described as a "kidnaping," seemed to be to avoid any possible disturbances as a result of Walesa's scheduled speech, even though the bland text, released in advance to foreign correspondents, did little more than counsel Polish workers to "go home in peace."

Jaruzelski's "liberalization" proposal amounts to taking back with one hand what he was giving with the other. The ban on public gatherings, for example, will be lifted, but the penal code has now been amended to make it illegal to "incite public unrest." The punishment for the new crime: up to three years in prison. In addition, it is illegal to "collect" antistate publications; under martial law it was only illegal to print or distribute them. Similarly, the routine tapping of telephone conversations will be suspended. But the government will retain the right to tap phone calls at its discretion, and is now permitted, for the first time, to use tape recordings of those conversations as evidence in trials.

A number of Polish factories will be released from the military supervision that has proliferated since the declaration of martial law. But the same disciplinary rules will continue to prevail, meaning that managers can fire workers without appeal, and that workers cannot resign without management approval. The government also plans to review managers of state enterprises, top government officials and officials in schools of higher learning for both professional competence and "moral character."