Word: warsaw
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Early last week, Warsaw radio announced that talks on the future of the labor movement had begun among government officials, the old party-controlled industrial unions and unnamed Solidarity "activists." That report, which suggested an attempt to make Solidarity meaningless by absorbing it into the bureaucracy, was categorically denied in an underground statement signed by "members of Solidarity's national leadership...
...trials of Solidarity members accused of organizing strikes and resistance to martial law. In Katowice, for example, five union members received jail sentences ranging from three to 6½ years. In Tarnow, three workers drew three-to 3½-year terms. Three employees of the F.S.O. automobile plant in Warsaw got two years each. In the same Warsaw court building, meanwhile, proceedings began in the highly publicized trial of Maciej Szczepanski, the former head of the state broadcasting networks, who is accused of embezzlement and bribetaking. He is one of several former officials, including former Party Boss Edward Gierek...
Even as the Communist regime prosecuted its own ex-leaders, the party itself continued to crumble from within. Since the crackdown began, 4,000 party members in Warsaw alone have turned in their cards in protest. Gdansk Party Leader Tadeusz Fiszbach, a leading liberal, resigned last week. Many others are likely to be expelled as the party executes what Politburo Member Kazimierz Barcikowski called a "purge of opportunists, careerists and immoral people." Totally discredited in the eyes of the public, the party now has an estimated membership of only 2 million, compared with some 3 million before Solidarity was organized...
...Rakowski, who visited Bonn two weeks ago to explain the imposition of martial law to the West Germans, confessed to a private gathering of diplomats and journalists that the military coup had brought Poland "back to square one." He gave the impression that the military, having grabbed power in Warsaw, was uncertain about how to proceed and might prolong martial law in definitely because of a lack of alternatives. The main problem, said Rakowski, was that the regime had no potential partners left to help repair the country's ravaged economy...
TIME Correspondent Richard Hornik was in Gdansk on Dec. 13 when martial law was declared. He has watched General Jaruzelski try to subdue the country and has seen the Poles react and resist. Shortly after leaving Poland last week, Hornik filed this report on what life is like in Warsaw in the wake of the crackdown...