Word: newswalkers
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Dates: during 1982-1982
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With the same savvy that helped them endure past occupations, Poles are proving particularly ingenious in devising new stratagems in their psychological war with the martial-law regime. After pioneering the newswalk, Swidnik residents disrupted plans for a local May Day parade by announcing that they were going to show up barefoot. Many Poles with a flair for the dramatic still dress in black, or at least wear a black ribbon, as a sign of national mourning over freedom lost. Others flaunt plastic badges of the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, the religious emblem associated with imprisoned Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa...
...that the red and white background of the Black Madonna pins represents a misuse of Poland's national colors. The authorities have fined badge wearers as much as 5,000 zlotys ($60), or about half the average monthly wage. The same penalty applies to anyone caught organizing a newswalk. Some methods of retaliation are even harsher. Students arrested in demonstrations are routinely expelled from school. After workers at Swidnik's factory joined a 15-minute work stoppage on May 13, some strikers received pink slips. But the Poles show little sign of yielding to this kind of government...
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