[correct itself during Solid- Personally, would from SO…]
Socialist Organiser1982 1982-08-19Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 10 →
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correct itself during Solid- Personally, would from SO, c/o 28 Middle Lane, the schools - where the school students wear black bands.
As far as I can see the most effective way of oppressing society by a totalitarian regime is by cutting its link with information. And this is the area where the regime was least successful.
An enormous number of underground bulletins, newspapers appeared. In one city the local Solidarity bulletin has a daily circulation twice that of the Party paper.
Yet to be caught with a copy of this bulletin is enough to land you in jail for three years!
A society that is able to organise itself and maintain links between cells, between factory organisations, between regions is very important, especially it the outcome of the current struggle is the disbandment of Solidarity.
It is not a fight for days or a fight for months. We are quite prepared to fight for years because we are not going for hait measures - that must be made very, very clear. We are not going for some corrections of the system. That is long gone. The system has had arity's legal existence.
What assessment do you make of the strength or weakness of the regime?
The regime is certainly strong because it is based on force. It is strong because it is part of an alliance, so it has the military strength.
The question is how will developments affect the military establishment because in Poland we don't have a volunteer army, we have conscripts.
Conscription in Poland is for two years, but the government has kept all the present conscripts for an additional year. Why? Because these are the people who were never in touch with Solidarity. They have been kept in barracks for three years, totally indoctrinated, totally alienated from society.
That is why the government never allowed the media to be more democratic.
Now they have gone home and the government have drafted new conscripts who were in Solidarity. That is going to affect the whole army. Also the Generals and Colonels are now military commissars together with Party people sharing positions of power, enjoying the perks. This is going to Latest issue of Latest issue of Campaign News Campaign News - articles on resistance in Poland and solidarity in Britain and abroad.
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