Shades of Former Glory

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Shades of Fomer Glory

Once again workers were marching through the streets of Gdansk, shouting out the name of Solidarity and flourishing their familiar V signs, and once again Lech Walesa was walking at their head. As the passionate faithful, 3,000 strong, neared the town's 151-foot monument to workers slain in 1970, they were stopped by a cordon of security police. Walesa and his bodyguard were permitted to pass. Advancing to the monument, the stocky electrician knelt before its three towering steel crosses and gently laid at its base a bouquet of red and pink gladioli. Then, flanked by security police, Walesa slowly raised his right hand in the defiant V sign.

That symbolic gesture marked the third anniversary of the founding of the now outlawed independent trade union Solidarity. It was also part of the most spirited public protests since the government put an end to 19 months of martial law. The turbulence was initially triggered by the appearance of Deputy Premier Miecyzslaw Rakowski before 700 shipworkers in Gdansk. His address was interrupted by heckling; it was followed by a speech in which Walesa boldly rebuked the government. When the authorities decided to broadcast the incident on national television, thousands of sympathizers around the country took to the streets. Walesa and other opposition leaders contrived to dampen the fervor of the crowds, and the militia managed to suppress the dissent without much difficulty. Still there was a message in last week's outbursts: though Solidarity may be nonexistent on paper, it is still very much alive in spirit.