Crackdown has not cracked Solidarity

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"THE ENEMY is ant de- by Alexis Carras

feated. He continues to show himself... One of our major tasks is to fight against underground activities. Information we have suggests that an organisation is being rebuilt"

That is how the Warsaw chief of the notorious paramilitary militia, the ZOMO, assessed the situation in an interview with the Russian weekly Literaturnaya Gazeta.

It could be a ploy by the more hardline elements of the new regime, seeking even greater vengeance.

More likely, however, it represents the truth - that although the military has taken over the country, its ability to continue running it in the face of an alienated and bitterly hostile working class is dubious.

In official jargon - 'The Gdansk events show that there are still in Poland forces out to provoke the population, hostile to law and order and to all the efforts aimed at leading the country out of the crisis"

One of the measures aimed at resolving the crisis has been the across-the-board price increases, instituted from February Ist, averaging about 400% for foodstuffs and 70% for industrial goods.

The bureaucracy has justified these devastating price rises by citing the need to soak up the enormous amount of paper money by Jim Farnham in circulation. The rises, it is argued, will stabilise the supply and demand of goods and hence re-value an increasingly worthless Polish currency.

Problems created by bureaucratic distortions will be 'solved' by further attacks on working class living standards and civil rights.

Tighten the screws even further! That is the call coming from the likes of so-called "trade union leader' Albin Siwak and from the Politbureau members dissatisfied with the "mildness' of the regime since December 12 and unhappy with the presence of 'liberals' such as Rakowski and Barcikowski in the ruling bodies.