Poland: Did Solidarity Push Too Hard?

Exiles and experts say no and blame the party's intransigence

"We protest the brutal breaking of workers' strikes by the police and army, the shooting of people, beatings, the internment of many thousands of people in prisons and camps." With those searing words, more than 100 prominent Polish intellectuals and artists last week denounced the martial law regime of General Wojciech Jaruzelski in a petition sent to the nation's parliament and Archbishop Jozef Glemp, the Roman Catholic primate.

In an open letter that circulated in Warsaw last week, ex-Communist Party Member Stefan Bratkowski, the...

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