Poland: Calling for Freedom

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Workers, intellectuals and clergy denounce the excesses of martial law

The 3,000 Poles who jammed into St. John's Cathedral in downtown Warsaw last week had come to celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. What they witnessed, along with the Mass, was one of the most courageous displays of free speech since martial law was declared on Dec. 13. Archbishop Jozef Glemp, the spiritual leader of Poland's 33 million Roman Catholics, mounted the carved oak pulpit to attack the excesses of General Wojciech Jaruzelski's military regime.

Glemp branded as "unethical" and "invalid" the government's demands that Poles sign loyalty oaths and renounce their membership in the suspended Solidarity union federation. He deplored the deaths of workers killed in clashes with troops—17, according to authorities, although unofficial estimates range as high as 200. Glemp also condemned the prolonged internment of thousands of workers and intellectuals who had been rounded up in the crackdown. Said he: "We would not like to see a society divided into the authorities, who order and coerce, and subjects, who are silent and who hate."

Glemp's sermon was one more dramatic indication that Jaruzelski was failing in his bid to impose national unity by force after four weeks of martial law. If his troops had managed to crush the last of the major strikes and restore outward order, the regime had won neither loyalty nor respect from the Polish people. A stubborn spirit of resistance still lived in the land (see box, following page).

Despite government claims to the contrary, economic activity has not returned even to its torpid pre-Dec. 13 levels. Production in Gdansk, where Solidarity was born in August 1980, is said to be at a standstill. In Warsaw, there is little apparent activity at the three main plants, the Ursus tractor factory, the F.S.O. car factory and the Huta Warszawa steelworks.

Solidarity's underground continues to encourage passive resistance. Former union activists issue at least three regular newsletters, all bearing the message COPY AND PASS ALONG, because most copying equipment has been confiscated. One appeal from an unnamed member of Solidarity's national commission urged on the resistance and said, "Let us not forget that 'every nation can lose, but only the most vile ones surrender.' " Though most union leaders, including Solidarity Chairman Lech Walesa, are in government custody, a number of prominent Solidarity figures remain at large. Among them: Zbigniew Bujak, the Warsaw regional leader; Bogdan Lis, a former Walesa deputy; Zbigniew Janas, union leader at the Ursus factory. In an underground letter circulated last week, Janas called on workers to "prevent the destruction of Solidarity" and urged preparations for a nonviolent general strike.