Word: sejm
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Without his forbidding dark glasses, speaking calmly, General Wojciech Jaruzelski seemed eager to soften his stony image as he began addressing the Sejm, Poland's rubber-stamp parliament. "The introduction of martial law was not a universal medicine for our illnesses," he declared. "It was an act of defense, a necessity." The general then made a long-anticipated announcement: after 19 months, martial law would be lifted the next day, Poland's National Day. But Jaruzelski also issued a stern warning: "Any attempts at antistate activity will be curbed no less aggressively than during martial...
Indeed, the lifting of martial law will have a negligible effect on most Poles. Earlier in the week, the Sejm approved a constitutional amendment that gave the government substantial new powers. The Premier was granted the authority to declare a state of emergency whenever necessary, and the definition of "antistate activities" was broadened. In addition parliament passed several measures that would apply during a 29-month "transition" period. It set the official work week at 48 hours, eliminating the free Saturdays won by Solidarity. It also gave the government the right to force people who quit their jobs to take...
Just before Jaruzelski spoke, the Sejm gave its final approval to an amnesty bill that, claimed Deputy Minister of Justice Tadeusz Skdra, would apply to 190 political prisoners and 465 persons awaiting trial. All women, all persons who were under 21 at the time of their arrest, and anyone serving a sentence of three years or less would be released. Those with prison terms of more than three years would have their sentences cut in half. Not covered are 60 former leaders of Solidarity and of the Committee for Social Self-Defense (K.O.R.), a dissident group...
...work has long been indivisible from the obligation to do so. The Soviet Union, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria even have laws on the books making it a crime to remain without a job. Draft versions of similar laws against "social parasitism" have been circulating in Poland's Sejm, or parliament, for more than a decade, but none has ever made it out of committee. The Roman Catholic Church has opposed the idea for fear it would be abused for political, anti-religious or personal purposes. The Academy of Sciences has argued that forcing goldbrickers into factory jobs would...
Last week the revived draft law was rammed through the 460-seat Sejm. This time, in addition to targeting the usual loafers, drunks and black-market speculators, the law appeared to be aimed at Solidarity supporters who lose their jobs for engaging in strikes and antigovernment demonstrations...