"i Didn't Recog My Country

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Gdansk: a gut reaction to the announcement that Solidarity was outlawed' Avaitable from SO, c/o 28 Middle Lane, ondon N8 8P L. 30p plus 202 28 3.

from a visit to

nearly a year afte

describe workers recent I CAN compare the situation in Poland now with what it was a year ago. Last september when I went back, there was a fantastic feeling of freedom - there was hope and enthusiasm. Of course there were shortages of basic things, food and so on, but people were fighting - they were optimistic.

Now, a year later the situation is terrible. Though coupons were introduced last August (1981), they were only for some things. Now there are coupons for everything. All the basic necessities aré rationed, so there are long queues at the shops you have have to go to to get your meagre rations.

It affects every aspect of life, even weddings. If you want to get married, you can get a coupon ior one weading dress, two rings and an amount of alcohol: And of course there is a flourishing black market and corruption is rife.

The other major aspect is the extremely visible Militia and Zomo (Army) presence on the streets. When you go out you are stopped and searched. In Warsaw, simply going from A to B I was stopped at best five times and at worst, on one occasion, Il times. They don't just ask where you are going, they give you a complete body search in the middle of the street.

You are always very scared as they patrol in groups, usually of 9, and Latest issue of Polish Solidarity Campaign News - articles on resistance in Poland and solid.

arity in Britain and abroad. arry machine suns an ong truncheons Most of the Zomo are criminals who have been offered an exchange of their prison sentence for a job in the Zomo.

I suspect they are fed on amphetamines or something, too, as sometimes they just go ! mad. I was in Gdansk when the shipyard workers went on strike and I was in the street just behind the Militia and Zomo buses and vans.

I had taken a picture as they began to throw tear gas and attack a group of people they had trapped in the street beyond. I fell to the ground and watched as they set to work.

Screams One was hitting a lamppost with his long truncheon - another was hitting a fellow Zomo man who was shouting It hurts me as well!' - it was terrible, you could hear the shouts and screams of the people they had trapped in the streets beyond as they were beating them, those people could not get out and no one could Mational day of protest get in as they cleared everyone away.

They also recruit from boys up to the age of 18; the ones who aren't going to university.

They force them to go into the Zomo. There have been suicides of young boys who don't want to go. They won't act like animals.

When people are beaten, usually they can't get to hospital. The Military won't allow it. I had a friend who was walking with his father. He happened to be a doctor.

My friend was taken to the police station and beaten - beaten blue, he could hardly walk. They took him back to his father like this and told him to look after him.

I have a very close friend who was beaten, raped and had her flat destroyed. Her mother complained and they interned her.

When they throw tear gas, they don't let you out. I know of a four-year old child who has terrible asthma because of the gas -they just live near the centre of Warsaw, yet they cannot get to hospital, the military won't let them out. They have total power over your life and aim to terrify.

I was totally intimidated when I was back. I've never been so scared in my life. There is no appeal against the military.

Some of the things the authorities do would be laughable if they weren't so tragic. For example, the Minister of the Interior came onto television on the official government news to tall chant the ornnamu the walk dovut we coulony, future, food and so on.

Simple

He declared that the Polish people had to return to a simple life, and that we should fast a lot as he had been looking around him and had seen so many fat ladiès on the streets! That was the official government exnlanation for ratinnino!

All telephone calis are listened to. Every time you pick up a phone to make a local call (all connections with other towns are cut) a voice says 'conversation controlled' I had this absurd experience. I was calling a friend I'd not seen for a long time and we were talking about our kids, a pretty boring conversation to listen to, and suddenly this voice cut in saying 'You're boring me, I have to write everything you say down and you're talking and talking"

Cursing

So I said Well, it's not my fault if your tape recorder's not working' and he started cursing and swearing, not so much at us but at the ludicrous situation he was in.

Polish TV is dead. There has been a boycott by Polish actors since last December, so all the programmes are Russian, Bulgarian, from the GDR or repeats.

The news is non existent. For example they reported the recent shipyard workers' strike in Gdansk by showing a picture of the crowds outside the shipyard gates and saying there were only a few tronhle-makers. The rest. as you could see, were just LYLI -w people coming along to have a look!

But there have been some nice episodes of protest. In a town called Swiebodzin, the people organised themselves to go for a walk at 7.30 when the news came on the TV. Curfew was at nine, so military could do nothing, the entire town was 11. % | 11on the streets.

So the curfew was brought forward to 7.00pm and the people all put their television sets up to the windows. So the streets were empty, but the news was ringing round.

There is the underground radio which comes on, and there was the tremendous ariana no (nliAnnitir-mn.t out leaflets asking people in Warsaw to flash their lights on and off so many times if they could hear. That night all of Warsaw had lights flashing on and off.

There is also a play showing in Warsaw. How it's allowed by the authorities I don't know. It's a thinly disguised historical play; translated roughly 'Liberation' ', and it's about previous occupying forces in Poland.

It's clearly a comment on the Jaruzelski iegime. gives an indication of what has happened to people -the audiences are packed and they go wild, clapping, standing up and cheering when Helena Mikoajska, a member of KOR, appears. This is just recently as she was interned.

Every night people cry and the actors end up on the stage with tears pouring down their faces.

A prominent doctor demanded that the Red Cross be allowed to do a medical check on Walesa. Of course they were refused. But the suspicion is that they're using psychotropic drugs on him.

There was a picture released, the one wnere he has a beard, and he was incredibly fat and lethargic looking. I think they are trying to make a madman out of him so they can release him and get him to say 'Solidarity? What is that?' They have intimidated other Solidarity leaders in terrible ways too. A member of Kuron's family 'died' when he was interned and Michnik's father "died" then too. Marian Jurczyk's son and daughter-in-law (who was eight months pregnant) 'jumped' from a sixth floor window.

Exhausted

People are tired and exnaustea, as maruda law nas no meetinl tary hae destroyed them. Every day they are faced with the 'decisions' martial law imposes - they have to lie and say they're nothing to do with Solidarity or face the consequences of losing their job, losing their food coupons or being shot.

That's what martial law means - if you don't come to work vou are a deserter and you can be shot on sight. That's how they forced the Gdansk shipyard workers back ... at gunpoint.

That's how they'll force the new 'unions' in. This is part of the same legislation as that outlawing Solidarity. It means that the new 'unions' will only cover one particular workplace, there can be no contact with other workers outside your factory. They'll claim success as everyone will join. They'll have to, or they won't get food coupons.

Courage

The courage of those who do resist is tremendous. The strike in Gdansk was spontaneous, a gut reaction to the announcement that Solidarity was outlawed. The response of the militia and the Zomo was terribie, trapping people, beating them and forcing them back to work on pain of death. For the other workers to come out in other areas of Poland was incredible after that.

The authorities must be scared stiff. They'll never lift martial law, as it is the only way they can stay in control. They're terrified of what will happen on November 10. Perhaps an indication of just how scared they are is this. Walmy, a government official, quite high up, was watching Jaruzelski on the television one night, with his daughter and son-in-law. They expressed disagreement with the broadcast, and me turned round and shot them.

Polish people talk about the situation now as 'war' Before December 13 last year is 'before the war' -that's how people think.

Even children at school resist, in perhaps childish ways. They go to school wearing all black, they answer teachers by putting their hands up with two fingers in the Solidarity symbol and they wear resistors from radios as they can't wear badges.

But perhaps the most courageous are those people who everyday, at tremendous risk to themselves lay flowers. In Gdansk they put them under the huge cross erected in memory of the workers killed in 1970. The military clear them away every two hours, yet there are always flowers there.

In Warsaw, the authorities dug up Victory Square where. huge crosses of flowers were laid. People now gather in another sqaure in Warsaw. at St. Anna.

There crowds gather, somehow people know when to come, with flowers under their coats. They lay a huge cross in the time it takes for the Militia and Zomo to appear.

It's very dangerous, as it is close to a motorway and that's the only direction to escape if the militia come in.

Scattered in amongst the flowers are appeals for the release of Walesa and other internees. The flowers are always cleared away immediately, yet people keep on coming back and laying more. Just because they dug up Victory Square, they've not been able to stop the most regular, consistent protest.

The Church has become a

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