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OPINION
Saturday, September 25, 1982
The Michigan Daily
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d's future: Repression or reform?
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LBy Richard Walawender
" Already nine months have passed
since General Wojciech Jaruzelski
;leclared martial law in Poland and few
'eople, understandably, are bold
ehough to predict what the next nine
months hold in store.
An extrapolation of Poland's future is
difficult because even average Poles
probably do not know how their neigh-
;bors will react at any given time. On the
one hand, Poles are inculcated with
government propaganda denouncing
Solidarity as terroristic and urging Poles
to work hard and sacrifice to get the
nation out of its terrible economic
mess.
ON THE OTHER hand, most Poles
have had enough of sacrificing; they
have been told to sacrifice for the sake
of "Socialist Poland" for more than
thirty years. Poles remember the days
of Solidarity, when the worker finally
got a voice in a "workers' state." They
remember how their union, even
though unsuccessful, took on the old,
socialistic order and demanded reform
(and that's whyi 10 million Polish
workers joined Solidarity in the first
place).
So most Poles would probably like to
carry on the tradition of Solidarity and
rebel at Jaruzelski's humiliating mar-
tial law. But how? Some Solidarity
dissidents, like Jack Kuron, have called
for strikes and demonstrations, even.
violent, against the military regime.
But~ the Catholic church in Poland
and other Solidarity moderates have
pleaded for restraint and, at most,
passive resistance. Led by the new
primate of Poland, Archbishop Jozef
Glemp, the church feels a violent
uprising would be futile, given Poland's
geographic location. Instead, it ad-
vocates a more patient and less roman-
tic approach, learned from the ex-
periences of the late Cardinal Stefan
Wyszynski. It hopes Jaruzelski, pressed
by the church and the people, will see
the light of reality and reform.
WITH ALL OF this conflicting advice
being given to the Poles, it.is difficult to
predict how they will ultimately
respond. However, by comparing the
present Polish crisis with past East
European uprisings, namely, in
Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia
in 1968, one can approximate the course
that the Polish government and
Jaruzelski will take in the next nine
months.
Although the Polish case has its
unique attributes, with different socio-
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was a series of economic reforms
departing from the command
economies of the other Soviet bloc coun-
tries. With the NEM, Kadar managed
to satisfy both the population deman-
ding reform and the "Big Brother of the
East," demanding orthodoxy.
Many had compared Poland to
Hungary; Solidarity was seen as a
mass movement like the Hungarian
Revolution and unlike the 1968
Czechoslovak intelligentsia - initiated
reforms. Therefore, many had con-
cluded, Jaruzelski would become
"Poland's Kadar" and initiate a "Polish
road to socialism." ,
But strict martial law still exists in
Poland and reforms are nowhere in
sight. Whether it is Jaruzelski's
militaristic training or an orthodox
community ideology which makes him
so inflexible to reform, no one knows for
sure. Just recently, he resumed for-
cefully suppressing demonstrations,
arrested thousands more, and made
refresher visits to Leonid Brezhnev and
even Colonel Qaddafi of Libya, a newly-
found comrade.
PERHAPS JARUZELSKI has
decided to follow the ways of Gustav
Husak, who took over Czechoslovakia in
1968. After more than a year of strict
authoritarian rule, Husak initiated an
all-out attack on party liberals and on
the intelligentsia, purging the univ-
sities of hundreds of "reformist"
professors and students.
Jaruzelski, like Husak, seems to
prefer a thin shell of stability through
coercion rather than risk reconciliation
for some yoke of normative legitimacy
with the people. The worst from
Jaruzelski, intimidated by the Soviets,
may be yet to come. Like Husak, he
may shortly turn his attention - and
government purges - on the Polish
Communist Party and the universities.
Something, somewhere must give.
Poles have shown throughout their
history of living under subjugation that
they cannot be appeased for very long.
Even under martial law many are
risking their lives by taking to the
streets daily.
Jaruzelski will either have to be
replaced by a more open-minded
regime willing to face up to reality and
reform, or he will be forced to use even
more repression to quell the restless
Poles-as Brezhnev and Qaddafi have
undoubtedly suggested.
Walawender, a University senior,
is vice president of the Polish-
American Student Association.
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economic conditions than the other two
countries after their unsuccessful
revolts, Poland's future in the com-
munist bloc can either follow that of
Hungary, more liberal and open, or of
Czechoslovakia, more repressive and
orthodox to Soviet-style communism.
Many Poles and Western observers
thought martial law would be of short
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duration, a period of respite from the
deadlocked Solidarity-government
quarrels. Many thought that., after or-
der was secured, Jaruzelski would
emulate the policies of Janos Kadar,
who led the Hungarians in a reformist-
centrist path.
KADAR instituted the New
Economic Mechanism of 1968, which
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Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Wasserman
Vol. XCIII,
Editoria
HINGS WERE
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parties to the lab
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lion was a well-fo
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No. 15
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opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Back on track
E starting to get back permit further negotiations on such a
n the nation's rails contract, but it forbids a strike over the
both passenger and matter.
ring again for the fir- But by forbidding such a strike,
il service was shut Congress has not so much limited the
er's strike. rights of unions as it has reaffirmed
d only four days and the economic priorities of the nation.
act of Congress that The strike, which involved 26,000
vent on the rail com- engineers, was costing the economy
on. billions. It was forcing layoffs in
roubling that the set- dozens of industries, snarling
me from the gover- passenger transportation systems, and
om either of the two making a relatively quick economic
bor dispute. Yet the recovery even more improbable.
d Congressional ac- The strike by the
unded effort to keep engineers-triggered by disputes of
dy faltering economy tradition and status-seemed petty
er into the abyss. when compared to the suffering in the
s triggered by the rest of the country from the recession.
oad companies to The engineers should have recognized
ngineers would con- that, but, unfortunately, they did not.
ir traditional 15 per- In the absence of wisdom on the part
ential between them of the engineers, Congress and the
il workers. The set- president acted wisely in ending the
d by Congress will strike and keeping the economy alive.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
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Laying the blame for Beirut massacre
To the Daily:
We, as Israeli citizens, accuse
the Israeli government of com-
plicity in the massacre of hun-
dreds of Palestinians in Beirut:
complicity through training and
supplying the Christian militias,
complicity through letting these
militias enter the refugee camps,
and complicity by letting the
massacre continue after being
aware of the indiscriminate
killing. We accuse the Israeli
government and the hierarchy of
the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
of allowing the massacre to con-
tinue for 36 hours, while claiming
to stop it, and for letting the
murderers go free. We accuse the
Israeli government of im-
mediately denying any
knowledge and any respon-
sibility for the massacre. "We
didn't know," "We are not
responsible," "We didn't do it"
are words with which Israelis and
Jews are all too familiar. These
are the same words that we
refused to accept from the Ger-
man people regarding the
Holocaust.
We, as Jews, accuse the Jewish
establishment in the United
States of unconditional support of
Israel's attacks on the
Palestinians and their rights in
Lebanon, the West Bank, and the
Gaza Strip. This blanket ap-
proval of all Israel's actions is in
contrast to the true spirit of
Judaism. Shame on those Jewish
leaders who say about the Beirut
massacre: "Any suggestion that
Israel took part in it or permitted
it to occur must be categorically
rejected. It is time for the Jewish
community to realize that con-
demning Israel does not equal an-
ti-Semitism and that uncritical
support of Israel makes them ac-
complices to the massacre.
We, as residents of America
accuse the U.S. government of
conducting a policy which
allowed Israel to invade Lebanon
and enter Beirut with the con-
sequent immense suffering of
many thousands. We denounce
the U.S. government for condem-
ning the latest event, while not
doing anything to prevent it.
Israel could not have invaded
Lebanon in the manner that it did
without U.S. arms and tacit ap-
proval.
We accuse the United States,
Israel, and Lebanese
collaborators of the Beirut
massacre. This tragedy is the
culmination and the direct result
of fifteen years of Israeli oc-
cupation of Palestine land, and it
follows the mass destruction in
Lebanon since June 6 of this year,
for which Israel is responsible. It
is time to repent and ask for
forgiveness, but the shame of
Beirut cannot be atoned by
prayers and words alone.
A pogrom was conducted in the
refugee camps of Beirut. As
Jews, we know more than others
about pogroms. This time,
however, we were not victims;
we were perpetrators. To prevent
more such tragedies, we call on
all Israelis, American Jews, and
other U.S. citizens to do all they
can to ensure a national
homeland for the Palestinian*
people in the peaceful solution in
the Middle East now.
-Uriel KitroD
Micah Kaminer,
Sept. 22
No laughing matter
*1
-, 4}
To the Daily:
I must admit I chuckled at your
editorial "Fun with Nuclear
War" (Daily, Sept. 21). However,
I must say that the civil defense
plan is no laughing matter. Let's
get serious and vote yes on
Proposition E, the nuclear
weapons freeze, this November.
The people of Becket have to
laugh at the government's plan
directing city-dwellers to flee to
"farms and hamlets" such as
B L.. 1,id. tT t LL..t~n
cities to perform essential ser-
vices. Would you hang back and@
mind the store if you knew a
nuclear missile was on its way?
This same government defeated
the nuclear freeze proposal
presented in the House of
Representatives last month, 204-
202.
We must rely on our own in-
telligence-and voting for the
nuclear freeze proposal on the
November ballot is a step in the
Memorial inappropriate
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