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Solidarity Isn’t Dead Yet

Click to see original imageSolidarity, the Polish experiment in worker democracy, was “killed” under a new unionism law adopted by Poland’s Parliament-but it obviously has a very live “ghost.” Unrest has been evident in intermittent strikes, riots and demonstrations since the repressive action Oct. 8. Recently 10,000 people crowded a small Nowa I-luta cemetery for the burial of a 20-year-old demonstrator fatally shot by police. Many carried banners declaring, “Solidarity Lives,” One banner said; “lt is better to die standing than to live on your knees.” Outlawing of Solidarity after a 16-month “taste ogfreedom” followed 10 months of martial law that began last Dec. 13 and still continues. Polish military rulers arrested Lech Walesa and other of the union’s leaders and they are still detained. Premier Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski’s calls for support of the new government-proposed arrangement of weaker unions have met with mixed response; and in the face of the unrest he has hedged on a date for ending martial law. Solidarity’s ban has exposed anew the divisions between the Polish rulers on the one hand and the Roman Catholic Church and a large segment of people on the other. Pope John Paul Il condemned outlawing of the union in his homeland as a “violation of the fundamental rights of man.” Josef Glemp, Polish head of the church, said Solidarity’s “structures can perish but its values will not.” In America, President Reagan said the ban “tramples hopes and aspirations of the majority of Polish people.” However, his proposed new sanctions that would deny Poland “most favored nation” tariff status apparently would be mostly symbolic since exports by the Poles to the U. S. have dwindled to minor proportions. No end apparently is in sight in the contest between workers seeking a greater voice in their destiny and a regime which doesn’t look favorably on fundamental dissent. A severe economic crisis adds fuel, and across the border looms a potential threat of intervention by a Soviet Union concerned about keeping a communistruled buffer nation between itself and Germany. The problem is of global concern. Polish unrest already has illustrated the danger of suppression. The Polish rulers would do well to recognize the staying power of those who yearn for liberty and find a peaceful accommodation that will end martial law and reinstate a Solidarity-type worker arrangement.