radio station of the Lower Silesian region of Solidarnosc. (Fragments of an interview with Piotr Bednarz for the clandestine journal of the Polar plant).
Question: What message like to give to the Polar workers?
Bednarz: I would like to pay tribute to the Polar workers and greet them at a time that is so difficult for all of us. But if we are not prepared to change our own situation, no one will do it for us." Speaker: Today, Piotr is in prison waiting trial. Our task is to continue to carry out the program outlined by Wladek (Frasyniuk) and Piotr, so that they and others like them can come back to us.
(Station identification of Radio Solidarnosc.)
Speaker: The following statement has been issued by the Lower Silesian Regional Solidarnosc on the November 10 actions:
"In the days preceding the second anniversary of the registration of our union, the military junta intensified its repressive operations. There were massive arrests and internments of workers. Persons known for their independent views were called up in large numbers by the army and the police reserves. Several factories were de facto militarized. For example, an inspection committee of forty air-force officers was sent into the Pafawag plant.
A campaign of psychological terror was set in motion in the workplaces and the mass media. In these conditions, since the factory committees could not risk acting openly, the strike proved to be an ineffective method in most workplaces.
For these very reasons, all the more honor is due to the workers in those enterprises where, under these conditions, the strike was successfully carried out. Such enterprises include the transport combine, the building materials complex, and the Wroclaw
After the end of the first shift, peaceful demonstrations took place throughout the region. In particular, workers and youth came out. In Wroclaw, the demonstration drew more than 15,000 persons. These demonstrations were proof of the spirit of resistance and the determination 6 management, for a free and independent society. The November 10 protest action was a general rehearsal for the clandestine factory committees and for the liaison groups. It was an important experience in the search for new forms of resistance.
"On the basis of this protest, the Solidarnose Regional Committee will develop the union's tactics for our region, new areas of discussion in the factories, forms of action that correspond better to the war conditions imposed on us by the
Signed for the Regional Committee:
Jozef Pinior
Wroclaw, November 12, 1982."
Speaker: The strikes called for November 10 developed in a different way than those called before. What was different mainly was the tactics of the regime, its attitude toward the workers. Previously, the regime carried out repression only after the launching of a strike. This time, the repression and arrests came well before the day set for the strike, and they effectively limited the extent of the action. Here are some of the preventative repressive actions the regime carried out:
In Pafawag, before November 10 they arrested and interned the most active workers. Many were sent off to the army or the police reserves. On November 5, forty air-force officers came in and searched everywhere, in the smallest corners. On November 5 also, there was a meeting of 200 Party members, half of them retirees. It voted an motion, which called for firing workers en masse and rehiring selectively. Pickets of Party members went on guard twenty-four hours a day, reinforced by the plant security services cell.
In Polar, on November 5, 96 persons were taken away, and other arrests took place on the night of November 9-10. The foremen and brigade chiefs were warned that they would be fired if there was a
At Padroma, more than fifty persons
At the university and the agricultural academy, many people were arrested and
The authorities threatened to dissolve the mathematics, physics, and
These are the sort of steps the regime took. Further ones were taken on the day
At Pafawag, close mounted inside the plant by the management, the military security services, and the Party activists. Every worker was made to feel personally threatened. The forty air-force officers constantly patrolled the plant. But they were not the most enthusiastic.
In private conversations, some of the officers complained about being used as boogeymen against the workers. Some even said: "We have as much to say about this as the voters do about who is elected to the parliament." They had reason to complain, all right, because they were given a ridiculous role. But there are orders that honest people should refuse to carry out.
At Polar, the workers came in in organized groups. At the gate, these groups were dispersed and the workers were sent to their jobs. The management patrolled the factory, accompanied by checking every
At Fadroma, on November 10, a section of the personnel were sent to work at the plant educational center. In the production shops, only about 30% of the workers remained. Despite the forms of intimidation that were brought to bear, no real work went on at Fadroma. The production that day amounted to zero.
At the Polytechnic, the flag of Solidarnosc went up in the morning. A second Solidarnosc flag was hung between the two buildings. The students met in the morning and decided not to go to class. The doors of some auditoria were blocked and could not be opened. At 10:00 a.m., even the students who were still in the classrooms joined their comrades and the school employees in the corridors.
The boycott of classes lasted until 2:00 p.m., when the majority of the students went to the monument comme-
: the professors murdered in They sang the national anthem. After that, everyone dispersed in a dignified and peaceful manner.
The character of the regime's activity in the plants was that it was directed against individuals. The regime has stopped trying to take on whole groups at
It is now attacking individuals Committee, W. Frasyniuk, and his replaceonce. separately in order to break up our uniy. It is trying to create the impression that each one of us is being personally watched and followed. This method will probably be extended to all areas of society. It has been tried and tested already in the USSR for years, where everyone is taught from an early age to be afraid of everyone
We must not lose our heads! There are 35 million of us; there are only a few hundred thousand, at most, of them. They will never have enough informers to put one of them on every one of us, if we act with unity, courage, and intelligence.
Speaker: The new chairman of the Regional Committee of Solidarnosc for Lower Silesia is Jozef Pinior. We are now turning the microphone over to him.
Pinior: My friends, I am speaking to you at a time when we are all shocked by the arrest of Piotr Bednarz and when we are still shaken by that of Wladyslaw Frasyniuk. I have worked together with them since December 13. We were particularly strikes in Wroclaw, since we worked together in the clandestine structures of the union. A true friendship also developed among closest friends is a severe personal trial.
I am, however, conscious of the responsibility that falls on me to carry on the coordinating work of the Regional Committee. I promise that I will never give up fighting for the ideals of Solidarnosc. I promise that I will never give up fighting for the release of all those who have been sentenced and interned, for the release of the chairman of the Regional ment, Piotr Bednarz.
I know how difficult a struggle we have to wage, how easy it is to let yourself become discouraged. I am well aware of the fact that we are facing a powerful enemy, that every day we run the risk of imprisoned, of being from those who are close to us. But I am strong in the conviction that we will not yield to oppression. The essence of the totalitarian system is the attempt to paralyze our will to act; it is based on degradation. Everything that gives life beauty and value is abased - work, creativity, the relationship between human beings.
what General Jaruzelski's Pax amounts to. And it is up to us alone whether we will accept or reject such "normalization."
Solidarnose was born in the factories; they are the source of its power and its vitality. For eleven months, we have been building clandestine trade-union struetures, we have been creating an independent society. Forms of mutual aid of the society are developing. Liaison groups to build links among the various sections of society are forming. The preparations for a general strike are going on. Continuing our struggle is a moral duty to the work. ers who have given their lives for the ideals of Solidarnosc, to our imprisoned
The state of war has ruled out any possibility for reform. The most important thing for the development of our society - our economic life — has been paralyzed. What belongs to us, our national inheritance, the work of several generations, is falling into ruin month after month. In such a situation, time is not on our side.
A real economic reform is not possible without a republic based on self-management. The struggle for an open society, for democratization, liberalization is also a struggle for improving our material conditions of existence, for decent hous ing, for hospital rooms, for food, for medicine.
I am speaking to you now, my friends, at a time that is particularly hard for our region. I appeal to you to defend our union, to continue the struggle for a self-managed republic, for freedom and social
I am convinced that we will not yield to discouragement and indifference. We have to go on building an underground society. I appeal to everyone to build forms of social mutual aid in order to perfect the clandestine organization of our union and of the various areas of society. It is the future of our country that is at stake. Our struggle is the only possible response to the state of war, to violence, and to poverty.
Speaker: Jozef Pinior's statement confirms that our objectives have not chang ed, that our struggle must continue. The situation has changed. But despite the delegalizing of our union and the repres sion, we cannot give up, because would mean accepting the role of slaves. Today, as in the period when the union could operate openly, Walesa's words remain valid, the words of Walesa as he was before he was imprisoned as we hope he
(Selections from a speech by Walesa on the need to struggle, to unite, the impossibility of retreat "Nothing can break us, we must remain united." A song. A poem.)