The Achievements of General Jaruzelski

...As a military man par excellence, Jaruzelski may deceive himself into thinking that he has achieved his paramount goal: social peace...

...Furthermore, many priests had seen their hopes of moderating the regime's repressive policies dispelled...

...During the week marking the anniversary of martial law and the December 16, 1970 massacre of Polish workers on the Baltic coast, Jaruzelski dispatched "military teams" into the countryside...

...in fact, their presence was intended to deter any new outbreaks of public unrest...

...A few weeks ago, the authorities dusted off a body called the "National Defense Committee" and invested it with greater powers--both under "normal" conditions and during a state of emergency-than those accorded to the government or the Party apparat...

...It is also true that the efforts to portray the Solidarity leaders as a group of fanatics bent on overthrowing the regime (complete with properly doctored documents and tapes that just happened to fall into the hands of the police) have reaped some results...

...So this achievement, like the others, also may be more apparent than real...

...by General Wojciech Jaruzelski...

...And public (read: State) ownership is still the declared goal of the regime...

...Yet evidence exists of the perennial internecine battles, of "moderates" having to deal with hard-liners keen on whipping society into shape...

...Industrial production remains abysmally low, agriculture is stagnating, prices have climbed steadily and steeply (in some cases by more than 200 per cent), food supplies are scarce, real incomes have fallen (by 10 per cent in 1983 alone), inflation is rising, and better than a third of the population lives below the poverty level...

...Jaruzelski's policy is not one of mass terror...

...On December 13, 1981, martial law was declared...

...In his effort to bring about "law and order," Jaruzelski has sought to secure the collaboration of the Catholic Church...

...Union leader Lech Walesa's stature as a national idol--especially now that he has been awarded the Nobel Prize--is as great as ever...

...A few weeks ago the Minister of Interior, Czeslaw Kiszczek, complained that Poles feel they are living in a "climate of occupation...

...Although some of the day to day problems are aired in the official press, the newspapers are not allowed to print the obvious: that Poles will not tighten their belts, work harder, and accept the rigorous sacrifices entailed by any comprehensive program without a political quid pro quo...

...The tactics pursued by underground Solidarity are, of course, fundamentally different from those employed by the free trade union in its above ground days...

...There are no death squads, a la El Salvador or Guatemala, newspapers sometimes print exposes or engage in polemics, and a secret directive recently urged local authorities to desist from "provocative" actions likely to enrage the populace...

...Two years later that military elite is still running the country...

...The situation has long been reflected in the malaise afflicting Polish agriculture...

...In the long run, though, the internal strife of the Party is probably irrelevant...

...The social teachings of Vatican II and the various encyclicals of John Paul II--hich view political activity as on a par with "social activity," hence a legitimate concern of the Church--have made profound inroads in Poland...

...That the government finds it difficult to "digest" the population is borne out by the actions and statements of the authorities themselves...

...History has another name for it: a continuing state of undeclared warfare...

...A new law enables the government to declare a "state of emergency" if threatened by a natural calamity or "a breach of peace and public order"--hardly the act of a regime secure in its power and legitimacy...

...There are many reasons for Poland's unyielding economic troubles, but two deserve special stress: the natural resistance of the managerial bureaucracy to any steps that might deprive it of its power and privileges, and the ideological animus toward any efforts to revive private enterprise...

...Peasants have always been reluctant to improve their private farms because they have been told that the lands will eventually be taken over by the state...

...Mass demonstrations--which continued to take place, despite sometimes violent opposition from the zomo special riot police, during the first year of martial law--have become a rarity...

...Jaruzelski may be able to claim one victory: He has allayed the fears of his Moscow allies with assurances that the "counter revolutionary threat" is gone, and that the Party, albeit leaner after the defections of hundreds of thousands of members, is more united than ever before...

...What about Jaruzelski's claim that he has succeeded in crushing Solidarity and political opposition in general...

...Centralization has, if anything, increased...

...Today, while acknowledging the persistence of a few nagging "difficulties," the regime claims that history has vindicated the General's drastic action...

...Then the maneuver lost momentum...

...Some members of the hierarchy and lower clergy, convinced that Solidarity belonged to the past, seemed ready to compromise...

...the power of the enterprise manager has been enhanced...

...Dues are collected (and their disbursement is openly announced...

...The Committee, consisting of military men, is headed (need I mention it...

...An underground radio operates...

...Over the first nine months of this year, he added, the police were subjected to more than 1,000 physical assaults that citizens regarded as "acts of heroism...

...Two years after the introduction of martial law and one year after its bogus rescission, Poland remains a smoldering and volatile volcano...

...The country's march toward "normalization" is well on its way: The threat of a "civil war" has been averted, law and order has been established, a genuine reconciliation between the rulers and the ruled is clearly in the offing, the quality of life is being upgraded...

...there is a growing sense of despair, fatigue and, last but not least, fear...

...No doubt he is at least partially right...

...Abraham Brumberg, a frequent contributor, is editor of the recently published Poland: Genesis of a Revolution...

...The surprise, then, is not that most people remain quiescent...

...Any attempt to retreat to a "confessional" clerical role tends to stir opposition as much among clergymen as the faithful, who have come to depend on the Church for guidance and support...

...Under these circumstances, there simply cannot be a genuine economic recovery...

...All were promised by the authorities in the agreements signed with the workers in the summer of 1980--and all were subsequently reneged upon...

...Yet neither the occasional carrot nor the mailed fist can have an effect on the country's "climate...

...In particular, production of the country's most exportable commodity, coal, has perceptibly risen over the past year or so...

...True, Glemp in his Christmas message again urged reconciliation and called on the clergy "not to deal in politics...

...The Polish economy would seem a good place to start, for Warsaw maintains that it has greatly improved and, indeed, some progress has been registered...

...Otherwise, however, official statistics--and occasional frank discussions in the press--show that the economic crisis is no less acute than before...

...Moreover, the much heralded reforms that were to abolish centralized planning in favor of a limited "market economy," and to introduce "workers' self-management" in the factories, are a dead letter...

...Thus he permitted the Pope's visit last summer and he offered the Church a number of concessions, such as permits for new structures and for new religious publications...

...Now even the promises have been withdrawn...

...A vigorous underground press functions...

...Consequently, the putative partner largely resumed its traditional position as adversary--or at least critic--of the government...

...There are considerable differences among Solidarity leaders about precisely what strategy to adopt, but ultimately there is agreement on following Rousseau's admonition: stay alive, keep up the spirit of defiance, organize yourself, and be prepared for the next round that is bound to come sooner or later...

...Ostensibly, they were to help local officials discharge their economic and administrative duties...

...In 1980-81, that meant free trade unions, democratization of public life, and social justice (i.e., a more equitable distribution of goods and services...

...By the same token, potential small entrepreneurs currently refuse to invest their meager earnings in private businesses with the Damocles' sword of nationalization hanging over their heads...

...The latest statement by the Polish bishops, for instance, forcefully protested new price rises and affirmed the need for extensive economic and political reforms...

...By way of accompaniment, the press has launched a spate of articles extolling the historic and patriotic virtues of the Armed Forces (a campaign singularly reminiscent of the one promoted by Poland's Right-wing "colonels' government" on the eve of World War II...

...More than 200 years ago, following the first partition of Poland, the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau offered the Poles some sagacious advice: "If you cannot prevent your enemies from swallowing you whole, at least you must do what you can do to prevent them from digesting you...

...But the Primate's stance is more likely to divide the Church against itself than to unite it with the objectives of the State...

...it is that despite the relentless harassment, Solidarity carries on...

...The myth of the "leading role of the Party" must, for ideological reasons, be kept alive...

...Solidarity is no longer what it once was, nor can it be, since it has been forced underground and is subjected to rigorous reprisals...

...For a while there was speculation about a new trade union organization controlled by the Church, and several conciliatory statements by the Primate, Jozef Cardinal Glemp, suggested that there were forces in the Episcopate amenable to a new "understanding," similar to the one that existed between the Church and the State in the late 1940s...

...Such remarkable achievements deserve further examination...

...For the actual rulers of today's Poland are the military and the riot police...

...But it is the military elite--well-fed, generally well-educated, loyal, with a vested interest in preserving the status quo-that was instrumental in staging the coup of December 13, 1981...