The Real Solidarity

Adam Michnik is a symbol of the great betrayal in Poland among people in opposition. Why?

 

The story starts in 1979. In June the new Pope, John Paul II, came to Warsaw. During a Holy Mass that gathered around two million participants he said: "Do not be afraid to tell the truth. Do not be afraid of the system. People are created not to enmity but to solidarity. Let the Holy Spirit descend and renew the face of the land, this land." 

These words inspired people like Anna Walentynowicz and Andrzej Gwiazda who started a new worker's union in Gdansk. They wanted this union to bring people together so they could help one another, pray for the Fatherland and the Holy Father and contemplate his teaching on solidarity. Soon the Pope published his encyclical titled "Laborem Excercens." It was dedicated to the fathers of Poland's new movement. The communists were amazed when they saw this new movement, when they saw new unions in all the bigger cities. That was the beginning of Solidarity. 

The new movement had two aims: to reconcile people and to draw them near to each other. They had their prayer meetings, lectures and discussions over steaming cups of tea. It was the first movement since 1946 that united normal people such as workers and farmers and at the same time was out of state control. It influenced thousands of families. People basically wanted to spend time together to discuss life issues. Then they decided to strike and demand free speech. (Many people participated except doctors, nurses and teachers. Solidarity thought that it was immoral to leave children and the needy.) They demanded also to register new unions as the Independent Self-governed Worker's Union "Solidarity Movement."

Only three percent of Solidarity members were intellectuals (professors, known experts, etc). At this time the communists thought of how to infiltrate the movement. First they sent a group of advisers together with Geremek and Mazowiecki. Tadeusz Mazowiecki proposed to resign from his "philosophical postulates" in order to emphasize higher pensions and payment. But these advisors left Gdansk without success.

Eventually the union was registered and got its legal status.

SECOND SOLIDARITY

Meanwhile, the Polish communists were collaborating with the Kremlin on plans for a military coup in Poland. Gen Jaruzelski (one of the most important commanders in the Warsaw's Pact), who was obviously a Soviet general in Polish uniform, wanted to ask Moscow for help to silence Solidarity forever and to continue with socialism. At that time however, as we already know, Brezhnev was not so happy about that idea. From one side his soldiers were dying in Afghanistan, from the other side the Kremlin lost billions of dollars because of cheap oil prices and the expensive, unsuccessful pipeline project in Siberia (URENGOI 6). So Moscow supported Jaruzelski with clothing, tanks and thousands of bottles of vodka.

In December of 1981 Jaruzelski became a dictator. He introduced Martial Law. Around 600,000 people were arrested during the next seven months. Nobody knows how many of them were killed, sent to Russia or forced to leave the country with one way tickets to Germany, Sweden or France. Most of the documents regarding this matter were destroyed in 1989 by the last communist government. However, during Martial Law the communists built a network of secret agents inside Solidarity who would eventually replace Solidarity's real leaders. Then, step by step, Moscow's people began playing the role of dissidents and informers for the Western Media. (The communists wanted to deceive Poland and the Western media was the best way to do it.) If the communists would say something on state TV then immediately most people would ignore it. The Western media appeared to be reliable at that time. But most of the correspondents did not properly investigate the information that was offered. They based their reports on what they were told by the "dissidents."

There were two cases of journalists who wanted to know the truth but both disappeared, and were probably taken to Russia. One of them contacted the real underground in Katowice. He worked for AP. The other was from VOA, if memory serves. Here is where the story of Mr. Adam Michnik begins. He was arrested like many others, but in special place. The communists opened the door of his prison for Western reporters. Slowly he started to convince the West that there were hardliners in the Communist Party and reformers. The first group were somewhere inside the Party but to the second group belonged Gen Jaruzelski, Mr. Jerzy Urban and Mr Kiszczak (who ordered the killing of father Jerzy Popieluszko - the chaplain of Solidarity).

Michnik misinformed the Western and Polish public through media such as Radio Free Europe. (However, the people of real Solidarity understood these tricks.) During his hardest time in prison Michnik managed to write books on Gen. Jaruzelski's intended reforms. He published in London. Other people who were imprisoned could only dream about reading underground press or writing letters to family. Censorship was pervasive from phones to school libraries, from radio to letters. (I personally have several envelops stamped with a "censorship" stamp and three of them were local and not foreign correspondence). Now we know from documents and from his behavior today that Michnik cooperated with Jaruzelski's regime during this entire period. The real leaders of Solidarity were either beaten or killed. (I.e. Mr Marian Jurczyk's -- leader of Solidarity in Szczecin  -- son and daughter were killed by the militia. There are many such examples. Recently documents were published which contain the names of 26 priests who died on orders of the Communist Party between 1979-89. History will reveal many more such names.)

But coming back to the 1980's: Communists (mainly Gen. Kiszczak) were preparing a round table event. They knew that Reagan's hard line towards the Kremlin would be successful and eventually Moscow would retreat. A few smart communists who studied at Harvard, Yale and other academies wanted to create controlled capitalism. They invented mechanisms to support leftist structures. Now, thanks to a brave lawyer (Mr. Michal Falzmann) who exactly ten years ago sacrificed his life, we know about the biggest fraud, the Foreign Debt Fund. Communists decided to share power with Solidarity in the following way: "We have money and you can control the economy except interior security units, army and intelligence police. Do not dare to judge us in any way. Mr. Jaruzelski will become your first president in the new Poland; 30 percent of the legislative mandate is yours but not more. The structures of state will remain the same. The whole administration is ours. Banks are ours and media as well. You can have one newspaper and some bulletins if you like. History will judge us not you."

Mr. Kiszczak chose people from the so-called opposition who had nothing to do with the original Solidarity and called them the "Second Party" at the Round Table meeting. For people who understood what was going on, it was a shameful betrayal. Around 200 people took part in that event. But again everything was prepared for foreign public opinion to show how democratic the communists were. However, the communists did not trust all the participants and organized the meeting with only twelve people from the Second Party. There were talks where secret agreements were signed. (From the perspective of time it is possible to draw the following conclusion: First, it is unbelievable that several important persons were not manipulated by the communists because these were people who took key
positions and made a "soft landing" possible for the communists; secondly in 1989, during the Round Table, there were rumors that the communists managed to control people who were portrayed as "dissidents" in West.)

Adam Michnik took money which was given by Solidarity and started the "Gazeta Wyborcza." Soon he wanted to silence anti-communism and defend former Party members. He was told not to use Solidarity signs in that newspaper. His paper became popular. He started to lie: 1) to accuse the Polish of anti-Semitism "which they drink with their mother's milk"; 2) to name people who wanted to tell the truth about communism as "hate-loving people"; 3) he started a press campaign against the government when it was going to take communist murderers to court; 4) he opposed the lustration - the legal procedure of explaining the alleged secret work of communists; 5) he lied about the mechanisms of robbery through the Foreign Debt Fund; 6) recently he even defended the murderers of father Popieluszko in a long,
terrible interview with Kiszczak.

His newspaper is full of lies. One day Michnik wrote "F... off from the general." He still thought of Jaruzelski. In 1989 Michnik and two or three other people had access to state archives and he took his documents. (The former Minister of Interior admitted this to me). Many articles about this have appeared in the anti-communist media.

A year ago a journalist investigated the issue of the money Michnik took out of the Solidarity fund. He never explained how the money was spent. Instead he managed to sell his "Gazeta Wyborcza" and to establish a new company which bought it again, and much more, including a Hungarian radio station. He
never answered questions raised by his past actions. Last Friday he went to Moscow to celebrate Gorbachev's birthday. His companion was ... Gen. Jaruzelski.

THE MAIN QUESTION

What happened to the real Solidarity? People were persecuted. Before 1989 most of them were fired from their companies. The communists made sure that they would not influence other people in any way. They were most often isolated and sometimes labeled "idiots," "irresponsible" or "crazy." I had a chance to talk to them and can see that they have wisdom and understanding. They know about their limits. Since the communists were able to destroy the real solidarity they want to unite people under one demand: to have true, free elections. The Polish people had no chance to elect as they wished. There is one reason for that - the electoral system does not allow for it. 

The fight for democracy in Poland goes on....