Behind the Bravado Polish Regime Fears Solidarity

Scan page 5

May Day in Warsaw: Solidarnose demonstrates defiance me the answer is simple but on the following fact. We that the solution is extreme- have a state of war and the ly difficult. outcome of that state of war The state of war in can either be dictatorship or Poland will last until the democracy. There is no third Party revives. And 1 am possibility. If we speak of a thinking not of the bureau- passage to democracy - to cracy of the Party, because it democracy in the socialist revives quickly, but of the system, and such is the situation of the rank and file hypothesis - there must be in the large economic enter- a certain force around which prises. this democracy will form.

ONE OF the consequences of the declaration last December of a 'state of war' in Poland by the Stalinist regime was the establishment

of a system of military commissars - parallel to the government and Communist Party apparatus - to run the factories, farms and government offices.

One such commissar at the state radio and television networks recently conducted a meeting with Communist Party members under his supervision to explain the current situation.

A tape recording of the session was made and was circulated and copied in Warsaw. The French newspaper Le Monde obtained a copy of the tape and made a translation from Polish.

We publish here extracts of the transcript.

Military. Commissar: Some comrades are saying Solidarity was a paper tiger that was liquidated overnight, December 12 and 13, that it is no longer dangerous and that it has ceased functioning. Given this conviction, we have had to deal with statements saying that we have won, that it is high time to celebrate our victory and lift the state of war; that everything is back in order.

This idea is being put forward by comrades who sit in their offices in armchairs under potted palms, people who not very long ago were threatened, but who no ¡ longer are because they are under the umbrella of the army.

Well, their evaluation of the situation is wrong; what's more, it is very harmful. Because, dear comrades, the situation is complex, complicated and it is fundamentally difficult to foresee how it will evolve in the months to come.

And if one of you asks: how much longer will the ; state of war last? It seems to This reasoning is based DYKTATUR NIEL In our situation, that force can only be the Party. There is no question of political pluralism, of any form of more or less organised opposition. It is because of this that the premises for lifting the state of war will exist only when the party can resume its political supervision of the working places, and it flows from that fact that the state of war will last for a little while longer in this country. It is not a question of months, but of years. (Noise in the hall).

Recently, we have observed a sharp rise in the activity of anti-socialist elements in this country. After the shock of the introduction of the state of war - I must note here parenthetically that its introduction was simpler than we had supposed - all this organisational system was introduced so smoothly with so few victims, many fewer than had been forecast when the concept of a state of war and the technique of its introduction were born.

Shock

There was (momentarily) a great shock to the ideological adversary, but ... we are observing that... the adversary is starting to organise.. we see that Solidarity, shall we say in its clandestine version, is beginning to organise more and more.

And its organisations are starting to function. I must say that I don't attach too great an importance to tracts. On the other hand, sheets of all kinds which appear in the form of periodicals with numbers in a series are an indication of organisation.

For example, if in Warsaw they edit Tygodnik Wojenny (War Weekly) and if they have already published five editions of it, that means there exists a group involved in editing it and that a certain system has begun to function. Besides, there are lots more like it. I don't have the information that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has.

What stands out in the content of these illegal newspapers? Well, they are trying

to convince trade union members that Solidarity exists and that it is organising in the present situation.

Then, in the articles in these illegal editions there is

an appeal against the use of terrorist acts. They clearly forbid terrorist-type acts.

In his interview (Zbiegniew) Bujak (former leader of Solidarity's Warsaw chapter who is now in hiding) ... said to organise small independent resistance groups. For passive, not active, resistance.

According to them (the underground papers), the resistance can take diverse forms. Most important is to slow down the pace of work, for if that is done in an imperceptible way it cannot provoke repression.

There are instructions about activities to show that Solidarity is functioning: extinguishing lights at a specified time, lighting candles. We know that often these actions are a success.

The situation is extremely complicated. We are still far from celebrating our victory. We can still find ourselves confronted by things, occurrences, events that we are not now in a position even to imagine. Anything is still possible comrades.

Voice in the hall: Comrade, what you are saying is frightening.

Other voices: Right, it's frightening!

Military Commissar: Comrades, I cannot tell you that everything is OK if it is not. The situation, overall, is bad. I am not going to • repeat what you can read in the (official) press or hear in the speeches of the Prime Minister.

Voice in the hall: Why haven't you caught Bujak? What is the fucking MSW (Interior Ministry) doing? Military Commissar: Where is Bujak? What is the MSW doing? I have no information from the comrades who. are involved in that.

I don't know if the MSW knows where Bujak and the others are. Maybe so. Maybe not. But at this time it is difficult to get to them because they are in

monastry or even - which is more probable - in a convent. A raid on a convent would have to be organised - you'd have to send a company or a battalion and bust everything up. And I don't know whether Bujak is worth the domestic and international repercussions that would bring.

Voice in the hall: Then we must negotiate with the Church.

Military Commissar: My boy, who can come to an understanding with the clergy? I haven't the slightest proof ot it, but 1 am ready to bet, that most of the underground papers are being edited in the Churches and the convents.

Besides, if we were certain, convinced, if we had a conception of what the unions would be, of what Solidarity would become, there would be some firm action in one direction or another.

Police

If this conception doesn't exist, how can we know whether this fucker Bujak will not be of some use to us? Are you so certain that he won't? Because I am not sure at all. I personally don't know what game the SB (political police) are playing. Isn't Bujak being used as bait?

Voice in the hall: Comrade, why doesn't the militia arrest those people who turn out their lights and light candles?

Military Commissar: It's not so simple. First of all, the practice is rather widespread, and second, Jaruzelski has said clearly that in Poland a state of war is in force but that no rights have been suspended. By what right then do you want to go into apartments and ask people why they turned out their lights? They turn them out because they want to. They turn them out because it is their right to do so.

Voice in the Hall: What do you mean, they have the right?

Military Commissar: Oh yes, comrades, they do. What juridical principle do you have against it? There is none. So it would be an illegal act, an act of repression.

Shut the trap

The same is true for the scientific community. Carry out investigations? And then what? Such investigations are going to upset the community enormously. And then I don't know whether this scientist who works at the university - even if he is not with us, he is under our supervision - will be less dangerous than the same man who is thrown out of the university and starts organising unbeknownst to us.

I don't know. And there are lots of questions of that sort. Untortunately, there are no simple solutions. lt there were, we wouldnt be ın the situation we are.

You can't shut the trap of the whole nation. There are no miracles. And not by