"The Ideals of Solidarity Remain"

"The Ideals of Solidarity Remain

Life under martial law: hard times and disillusion

One year ago this week, Poles were still adjusting to the rigors of martial law. They could not travel, make telephone calls or receive uncensored mail. More than 5,000 people were interned, the independent Solidarity union was suspended and its leader, Lech Walesa, was being held at a government complex outside Warsaw. During twelve months of martial law, General Wojciech Jaruzelski has succeeded beyond most people's expectations in crushing the overt opposition to Communist rule in Poland. As a sign of its self-confidence, the government last week announced that it was releasing all but seven of the estimated 200 people who were still being held under martial law. But Jaruzelski had also hoped to persuade a majority of Poles that martial law would pave the way to a better life through a process of gradual reform. To assess how martial law has affected the lives of individual Poles today, TIME Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Richard Hornik spent some time with a farmer, an intellectual and a factory worker. He reports:

Miroslaw Macierzynski, 30, is a farmer in a village 45 miles south of Warsaw. On his twelve-acre farm he grows potatoes, wheat and fodder for his three milk cows and two plow horses. He would rather move to the city and get a job as a mason, but his wife Ewa thinks the country life is better for their two sons.

Although the government has raised food prices by up to 400%, Miroslaw has seen little of that increase. Says he: "I sell the state my milk because otherwise it would spoil." But even with the money they have, things are difficult because village stores are poorly supplied. Says Miroslaw: "There are no shoes for my boys or tools for my farm. When I was young, I believed that if you worked hard you could do anything. Now I am disillusioned."

Under martial law, farmers were supposed to receive coupons giving them special access to such essential goods as coal. But, like many reforms, that has not worked. Says Miroslaw: "I have coupons for 1,500 lbs. of coal, but I still have not got any, and winter is just beginning." Miroslaw thinks that farmers and workers may now cooperate more. One way is through barter: "Miners bring their coal and trade it for our potatoes. We want to be as independent of the state as we possibly can. Unfortunately, we cannot make our village into an independent republic."

Like most Poles, he believes that the only thing martial law accomplished was to crush Solidarity. In his village it was hard to see any evidence of a "state of war," Jaruzelski's term for martial law. Says Miroslaw: "Here you do not really sense martial law. We did not have tanks or soldiers warming themselves by roadside fires. And a curfew in a village is ridiculous. Who could enforce it?"

Miroslaw has not seen much change among his countrymen either. "Deep down in people's hearts the ideals of Solidarity remain," he says. "They cannot be suppressed for too long, and when the occasion comes they will rise up again."