(17 of 18)
That was the perfect pretext for the government to impose martial law. Near the end of the session, when communications with the outside world had already been cut, Walesa stood up, raised both arms in a gesture of despair, and angrily told his fellow leaders: "Now you've got what you've been looking for."
The end had begun. Within hours, most of the union leaders had been arrested, Walesa had been flown to Warsaw, and army vehicles were clanking across the country. By the time Jaruzelski appeared on television, Solidarity's tumultuous revolution had been gagged and shackled. No one could know if Warsaw's leaders would honor their pledge to restore the people's freedoms once "order" returned. But one thing was certain: the flame that was lighted in August 1980 had brightened all Poland, and Poles do not give up easily. In the words that emblazon the tomb of the venerated Marshal Pilsudski: "To be defeated and not to surrender, that's victory."
Jaruzelski's brutal crackdown will only multiply the problems of governing Poland and building its economy. The Poles' suspicion of the government prevented them, and Solidarity, from cooperating with Warsaw to aid the economy. That mistrust will run even deeper now that the officer who had promised never to shed Polish blood has done so. Moreover, the workers could totally sabotage the economy. As Walesa put it in a discussion with TIME editors last October, "We can be defeated, but we will not be compelled to work. Because if people want us to build tanks, we will build streetcars. And trucks will go backward if we build them that way. We know how to beat the system. We are pupils of that system."
Nor can Jaruzelski expect much help from the Western banks and governments. Indeed, the banks are resisting Poland's attempt to rewrite its present loans, and President Reagan has ordered a series of economic reprisals against the country. The Administration is also urging its European allies to consider invoking trade sanctions against the Jaruzelski regime. To help stave off disaster, Poland has applied for membership in the International Monetary Fund. But the IMF will undoubtedly demand economic reforms painful for a Communist regime. Among them: decentralized planning and a price rise that would lower the standard of living. In any event, the presence of martial law will indefinitely delay IMF action on Warsaw's application. So Poland may have to turn even more to the Soviet Union and the other East bloc countries and thus automatically be pulled back into the morass of Communist control.
As long as Solidarity existed, Jaruzelski had some chance of enlisting its help to sell a skeptical nation on the need for belt tightening. But the general has now cut his main link to the people. The church, moreover, has accused the government of turning the country into a "nation terrorized by force."
Having silenced all dialogue, Jaruzelski may be condemned to continue his rule by force, thereby giving the world yet another glaring example of Communist government by repression. And should he fail to restore order, the Soviets are still poised to come in and finish the job for him. If it comes to that, a chapter of Polish history that began in hope will