Word: sejm
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...came quickly, if not unexpectedly. In the wood-and-marble chamber of Poland's Sejm (parliament) last week, row upon row of Deputies lifted their right hands high. By an overwhelming vote, they decreed the death of Solidarity, the 9 million-member independent union federation that for 16 months had shaken the entire Soviet bloc with its bold cry for freedom. That vote, approving a sweeping new trade-union law, finished the job that General Wojciech Jaruzelski had begun when he imposed martial law and suspended Solidarity last December...
...with accelerating speed: to mark National Day, the anniversary of the founding of the Polish People's Republic on July 22, 1944, the military government of General Wojciech Jaruzelski would ease the state of martial law that has been in effect since December. In an address to the Sejm (parliament) that was broadcast over nationwide radio on the eve of the holiday, Jaruzelski appeared to be doing just that. He announced that "most of the internees will be released, including all of the women." The government followed up by promising to free 1,227 detainees and announcing that Poles...
...measures fell far short of satisfying most Poles. He did not mention Solidarity Leader Lech Walesa, who is being held in a hunting lodge in southeastern Poland. Although Jaruzelski said the governing military council hoped to end martial law "before the end of the year," he added that the Sejm would first have to grant the Council of Ministers unspecified "special powers." It did not take long for Poles to see for themselves that little had changed. Before dawn on National Day, security forces destroyed a cross of evergreens and flowers that had been placed in Warsaw's Victory...
Equally disappointing, particularly to the 10 million Poles who were members of Solidarity before the independent trade union was suspended last year, was Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Rakowski's address to the Sejm. Rakowski claimed that a majority of the workers who had been in contact with the government favored a new structure in which unions would be organized by industries rather than by regions. Solidarity supporters disputed Rakowski's statement, seeing it as an attempt to weaken the independent trade-union movement. Said a 30-year-old skilled worker from Warsaw: "Maybe [Communist] Party members want such unions...
...some Polish government sources, Jaruzelski was pressed by the Soviets to make the move. About a month ago, according to these accounts, he was given an ultimatum by the Kremlin. Soviet representatives told him?and him alone?that the Polish party was no longer in control, that the Sejm (parliament) was running wild, and that if he did not act to restore order, the Warsaw Pact would do it for him. Though Jaruzelski emphasized last week that Poland remained a sovereign state, many people regarded the crackdown as a Soviet invasion by proxy. On Tuesday, some 30 ranking Soviet officers...