Word: martially
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...capital city, it was surely the Baltic port of Gdansk. Solidarity, the independent trade union, was born in the city's sprawling Lenin shipyard in August 1980. When the government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski crushed that movement last Dec. 13, it died hardest in Gdansk. Three days after martial law was declared, protesters there engaged security forces in pitched battles that, according to the government, left at least nine civilians dead. Gdansk continues to resist. The government announced last week that new street clashes near the Lenin shipyard had ended in 14 injuries and the detention of 205 demonstrators...
...hour uprising began after shipyard workers placed flowers at the base of a 140-ft. steel monument honoring their comrades who were killed by government troops in Gdansk during the riots of 1970. Teen-agers and university students began chanting slogans against martial law and, according to Polish authorities, tried to storm public buildings. Independent witnesses, however, report that the incident began when ZOMO police suddenly charged the peaceful gathering. Police hurled tear gas grenades into the crowd and fired water cannons through the narrow streets of the city's old town to contain the demonstrators. The riots were...
Ironically, since the crackdown against Solidarity. France has been cited in many countries as a model for the whole West to emulate. The French have poured more than five billion dollars in various forms--cash, food, consumer goods, etc.--into Poland since the imposition of martial law and the government has exerted intense diplomatic pressure, most notably through the Vatican and the Churches of other Eastern Bloc nations, on Jaruzelski's regime. And, of course, the French government's rapid condemnation of the Polish military dictatorship and of the Soviet involvement in Poland provided an unusual instance of gallic solidarity...
Nonetheless, it is equally clear that French refusal to sign the contract with the Soviets would have had little if any impact on Poland. Certainly, it would not have prompted the Russians to pressure Jaruzelski to lift martial law. By doing "business as usual" with the U.S.S.R, the French communicate to the Poles--at least to those who heard of the deal--that they can expect little but token gestures from the West and will have to fend for themselves. The lesson is a cruel but necessary one; only the Poles themselves, through whatever means of resistance they choose...
Rurarz defected to the United States shortly after the December 13 implementation of martial law in Poland and is now living under FBI protection somewhere near Washington D.C., Loofbourrow said...