Word: gdansk
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Many Poles had been fearing a violent reaction to Solidarity's growing militancy. "Operation Birdcage" is what they called the anticipated crackdown, in which the union's freer spirits would presumably be caged. Even Walesa, upon learning the crackdown had begun, angrily told Solidarity leaders in Gdansk: "Now you've got what you've been looking...
...terrorized by military force," and demanded the release of the Solidarity leaders. The army appeared loyal, but its ranks include large numbers of draftees who are sympathetic to Solidarity and sensitive to the country's problems. Only two months ago, just after Jaruzelski took over as Communist Party boss, Gdansk Party Secretary Fiszbach insisted to visiting TIME editors in Warsaw that a declaration of martial law was too dangerous even to contemplate. "I cannot imagine the aftereffects of such a course of events," he said. "Whoever even considers martial law does not take into account his responsibility for the destiny...
...also under way at the famous Lenin shipyard in Gdansk, the birthplace of Solidarity. On Tuesday night a few friendly soldiers had shared coal fires with some of the workers, trying to stay warm in the bitter Baltic winter. But early the next day, special armored units and elite Red Beret forces arrived to seize the plant. As six helicopters circled overhead, troops attacked the occupied buildings. They met with only passive resistance from the workers inside. A crowd of spectators was kept to a distance of 500 yards and tear gas was sprayed in the area. At one point...
...somber tones that seven Poles had been killed and hundreds wounded in a clash between miners, fighting with picks and axes, and troops at a coal mine near Katowice, in southern Poland. In addition, it acknowledged, 160 militiamen and 164 civilians had been injured during continuing disturbances in Gdansk...
...leaders of Solidarity gathered in Gdansk for their final, fateful meeting before the crackdown, TIME Correspondent Gregory H. Wierzynski was with them. He was scheduled to spend the entire next day with Lech Walesa and his family, an interview that never took place. After scouring Gdansk for details of the mass arrests and strikes, Wierzynski drove to Warsaw, into a setting of total censorship. It was five days after the military takeover that Wierzynski was able to make his way to West Berlin, from where he sent his reports. Among them was this personal look at Poland under siege...