‘There was no other
option left forus...’

Wieslaw Gornicki is.an advisor to
the Prime Minister of Poland and a
Member of the Presidential Commit-
tee of the World Peace Council.
Attending the WPC Bureau meeting in
Copenhagen earlier this month, Gor-
nicki outlined the dramatic events
underway in Poland and the key
points of the situation prior to martial
law, Dec. 13. He also appeared on
international television from the
Danish :capital which was seen by
many Canadian viewers. Here, in ab-
ridged form, are his comments:

‘Public opinion asks what happened
in Poland. To our minds, the relevant
question is just the opposite: what did not
happen in Poland. Unless we discuss this
paramount issue, nothing can be put into
proper proportions.

“A bloody, prolonged civil war did not
take place in Poland, although we were
on the verge of it.

‘A military dictatorship has not been
established in Poland. Martial law is a
temporary measure and it will be lifted as
soon as possible. Civil liberties will be
restored. Legal authorities were neither
removed or incapacitated. The Polish
parliament, the government and the
State Council, which is our collective
presidency, are functioning according to
the Constitution. The armed forces are
merely an effective tool of reinstating the
rule of law. They are safeguarding law
and order, but positively do not issue
laws. The Military Council does not put
itself over any lezal and political struc-
ture.

‘*Finally, European peace and stabil-
ity were not put into jeopardy. This was
a very real, very imminent prospect.

‘‘Nobody can blame the Polish
authorities for lack of good will. They did
their best to prevent the confrontation.
As of last March, I participated in all
negotiations with Solidarity as a member
of the government delegation and that is
why I can speak with a considerable de-
gree of competence on the subject.

“For about 14 months ‘the Polish
government was willing to reach a com-

promise. We did see — perhaps wrongly
—achance of widening the structure of
our political life by including an inde-
pendent trade union into the pattern of
our state. The sad truth is, however, that
it simply did not work. Solidarity ceased
to be a trade union almost as soon as it
was born. It became an opposition politi-
cal party. The very name of an opposi-
tion party may not sound very repulsive
to many of you. But let me make it quite:
clear: Solidarity was never intended by
its extremist leaders to be an opposition
party in the western meaning of the
word. Gradually it became a conglomer-
ate of just about everything right of
centre. From conservative openly pro-
capitalist tendencies to the brink of fas-
cism.

“On Oct. 30, General Jaruzelski ne
fered from the rostrum of the Polish
Parliament an entirely new formula of the
Front of National Coalition. It was meant
a8 a way of sharing executive power with
non-party groups and organizations. All
meaningful groups of Polish society, in-
cluding the Roman Catholic Church, ex-
pressed their desire to participate in the
Front. There was one single exception:
Solidarity.

‘‘During the month of November, the
government undertook several initia-
tives aimed at national conciliation.
General Jaruzelski met with the Primate
of Poland, Archbishop Glemp, and with
the chairman of Solidarity, Mr. Walesa.
A proposal was’ made to establish a
mixed commission of all three trade
union centres and the government as a

_main consulting and advisory body on

matters related to essential labor prob-
lems in Poland. This proposal was re-
pudiated by Solidarity in a very vehem-
ent way. I remember Mr. Walesa saying
that Solidarity speaks on behalf of al! the
Polish nation and everything else is just
‘trash’.

“On Nov. 12, in the town of
Trzeviatow, vice-president of Soli-
darity, Marian Jurczyk, delivered his
famous speech, which was recorded in
his own voice and played back by. Polish
Radio. Jurczyk said, among other things:

Gdansk August 1980 when workers demonstrated their legitimate grievances. In n
past 18 months however, extremist leaders in Solidarity betrayed the'confidence afi
trust that a considerable part of the Polish working class had vestedin the new unit

‘What we need are gallows ... Those
people who run Poland are not Polish,
they are either Russians or Jews with
changed names ... No talk with a
government of traitors’. Is that a trade
union activity? When in the world does a
trade union call for death and extermina-
tion of fellow workers?

“On Dec. 4, the Presidium of Solidar-
ity met in Radom.-This was an open
declaration of warfare against the Polish
state, against the very basic idea of
socialism, against Polish alliances.
Chairman Walesa said: ‘ There is going to
be a confrontation and soon... We want
power ... This is the last moment that
we can reach for power’. Another mem-
ber of the presidium, Mr. Kosmowski
said: ‘This is a government of thieves
and bandits ... whoever is willing to
negotiate with them on any single matter
is a bandit and a thief himself... There is
no time left for us ... We must reach for
power!’ These voices are also tecorded.

‘*There is ample evidence that be--

tween Dec. 4 and 11 preparations were
being made for a regular counter-revolu-
tionary coup d’etat patterned after the
classical CIA style. Not all the docu-
ments are revealed so far, but I may as-
sure all whom it may concern that they
may expect impressive revelations.
“On the night of Dec. 12, after the
Central Commission of Solidarity openly
proclaimed a declaration of war against
the state, no other option was left for
Poland, except extraordinary measures
to restore law and order in a country that

was brought almost to a stand-still:
‘The western mass media stubbo
and persistently refused to carry the
picture of Poland in the first week of
cember. And the truth was tragic. Ti
gross national product had dropped 0)
15% in 1981 — this is a record for th
twentieth century, for. even the Gre@
Crisis of 1929 brought about a drop @
only 9%. In early December there ie

2 eS

them reaching the outer levels :
absurdity. 4

‘* The crime rate exceeded both Italia!
and American indexes. No one was $s
in the streets any more. All authority
worn out — there were tens of thousand
of cases a day, when an order of a fore
man ina factory would not be carried ol!
and he would be told ‘Go to hell’. AP
proximately 200 public buildings w
occupied. In the press, socialist coul’
tries were slandered to the extent that n@
even western news media would match _
In Lublin we had a teachers’ strike, int
which 11-year old children were forced
to participate .

“This was the kind of democracy sok
idarity leaders proposed. This was thé
kind of freedom they advocated. This
was national suicide, with its grave intel
national ramifications, that became af
avowed aim of irresponsible, blinded by
hatred, well paid from the West extrem”
ist leaders of Solidarity. They had bé
trayed the confidence and the trust of |
considerable part of the Polish working
class.”

an

Salvage effort seen at NATO meet _

By TOM MORRIS

The special one-day NATO meeting in Brussels Jan.
11 fell far short of what the United States had in mind. In
fact, days before the meeting took place, the White
House was already backing down from its publicly-ex-
pressed aim of lining up NATO members behind a pro-
gram of economic sanctions against Poland and the
USSR.

What emerged was a nebulous series of warnings that
reflected the contradictory public statements being made
and the fact that the western allies were not ready to be
stampeded into accepting the U.S. plan of widespread
boycotts.

The meeting itself produced a warning to the USSR
that it faced western reprisals if it interfered in Polish
affairs. Then, in a strange twist of logic, it went on to
warn the USSR it also faced reprisals if the Polish situa-
tion did not proceed at a pace suitable to NATO.

Underlying all the rhetoric and bluster, however, is
the fact that the United States and other western im-
perialist powers were caught with their pants down.
Years of preparation to destabilize Poland, which ap-
peared on the verge of success, came to an abrupt halt
Dec. 13 with the imposition of martial law.

The long-heralded Soviet invasion predicted and
awaited by NATO didn’t materialize and carefully laid
plans became obsolete. The scenario, timed to come to a
head Dec. 17 with overt acts of sabotage and a grab for
power by anti-socialist forces within Poland was pre-
vented.

And with this sudden turn-about, the coordinated ef-
fort of NATO states to ‘‘answer Soviet military aggres-
sion against Poland’’ went down the drain.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JAN. 22, 1982—Page 6

The Brussell’s NATO meeting, therefore, was de-
signed to hammer together the best possible face-saving
program out of the wreckage. This task, already com-
plicated by the fact that the USSR hadn’t moved a sol-
dier into Poland, was made more difficult by Reagan’s
unilateral sanctions programs.

In the first place, there is a serious rift among NATO
states on the advisability of bringing sanctions against
Poland. Several states, including Canada, argue that cut-
ting off food supplies and economic links would hurt the
Polish people and be hard to reconcile with the West’s
professed concern for Poland’s future.

Secondly, Reagan’s argument that the series of events
are orchestrated by the Soviet Union is not selling well.
“I couldn't say, for instance,’’ Prime Minister Trudeau
told the press after the Brussels meeting, “‘what evi-
dence there exists now of increased Soviet respon-
sibility.”

Thirdly, the U. S. boycott program against the USSR
will hurt the U.S. economy much more than bother the

Soviet Union. Other NATO allies with long-range eco- —

nomic relations with the USSR are not eager to add to
their already strained economic picture to suite a White
House public relations campaign. The Federal Republic
of Germany, for example, with $10.5-billion in FRG-
USSR trade, has made it clear it will not join any boy-
cott. Similarly France, notwithstanding its tough verbal
stance, has said it will not change its trade patterns or cut
off existing agreements.

Fourthly, the U.S. cry of indignation has a particularly
hollow ring at the NATO round table with the Turkish
military representative present. On the same day NATO
met, the press reported 20,000 political prisoners await-

ago, that the U.S. had publicly welcomed.the move’ and

ing trial in muittey: torture and repression rampant, trad¥
uffions and all political parties banned. Haig, when aske®
by one reporter if this didn’t show a duplicity by the U.S:
and NATO, lost his composure. He was reminded thé
Turkish right-wing junta had grabbed power 16.month®

had since greatly stepped up weapons sales to its NA U
partner. q

‘NoWS Analysis

But the entire Brussels event, the USSR warned, ba
another very serious aim — to set the groundwork to
scuttle the U.S.-USSR talks on nuclear arms reductio#
under way in Geneva. Ina public statement Jan. 12 thé
Soviet Union said, ‘‘ There is good reason to think tha!
by whipping up hysteria over events in Poland
Washington is preparing the scound for torpedoing . -
the talks.” 4

This Soviet warning again paints up the central ‘hal i
of the dangerous policy of the current U.S. administra’
tion to wreck détente in Europe by every means avail
able. And while the White House may have overplayed
the Polish card, the task of safeguarding peace in Furor
is far from*complete.

Tom Morris is assistant editor of the Tribune.

Marxism-Leninism Today

is on leave of absence