[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 196 (Monday, December 19, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2310-E2311]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       REMEMBERING THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MARTIAL LAW IN POLAND

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, December 19, 2011

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as Chairman of the 
Helsinki Commission and Co-Chairman of the Congressional Poland caucus, 
to remember the declaration of martial law in Poland 30 years ago

[[Page E2311]]

this month, and to pay tribute to the men and women of Poland who 
triumphed against repression, ultimately helping to bring democracy to 
a whole continent.
  It is well known that in Poland the resistance to communism was 
particularly broad and deep--Stalin is reputed to have said that trying 
to impose communism on Poland was like trying to put a saddle on a cow. 
And so for several decades, Poles pushed back against the dictatorship 
that had been imposed on their exhausted country at the end of World 
War II. They pushed back in 1956 when workers from Poznan marched to 
Warsaw demanding ``bread and freedom.'' They pushed back through 
actions by students and intellectuals in 1964 and in 1968. And workers 
took to the streets again in Gdansk in 1970, including one young man 
named Lech Walesa. Each time the communist government managed to keep 
itself in power through a combination of force, threats of force, 
concessions, and by divisively playing one group of Poles off against 
another group. But never was the Poles' desire for freedom extinguished 
or even diminished. Indeed it seemed to grow year by year.
  In June 1979, when Pope John Paul II made his historic visit to 
Poland, he urged his countrymen and women: ``Be not afraid.'' A year 
later, in August 1980, the world stood in awe as shipyard workers 
struck at the Lenin factory in Gdansk, catapulting an unknown 
electrician, Lech Walesa, to the world stage. On August 31, Solidarity, 
the Warsaw Pact's first truly independent trade union was born.
  Solidarity, of course, was much more than a trade union. Strikers in 
Gdansk included in their original 21 demands not only improved working 
conditions, but respect for freedom of speech and the press, religious 
liberties, and freedom for political prisoners. Over the next year and 
a half. Solidarity's card-carrying membership would grow to encompass 
nearly one-third of Poland's working-age population, but its influence 
was beyond measure. Moreover, Solidarity ultimately brought together 
diverse segments of the population--workers and peasants, students and 
intellectuals--that had not previously worked together for a common 
cause. And in Solidarity, one could see a nation acting for a high 
moral purpose, informed by church and conscience, and by a tradition of 
Polish patriotism.
  Inevitably, Solidarity was seen as a threat not only to the communist 
authorities in Warsaw, but to their taskmasters in Moscow, who 
escalated pressure on Warsaw to impose a crackdown that would silence 
the growing movement. At midnight, on December 13, 1981, martial law 
was declared, and a military government was established. Poland's 
borders were sealed and its airspace closed. Phone service throughout 
the country was suspended. The routine sale of gasoline ceased. A 
curfew was established. Strikes, demonstrations, meetings, and public 
gatherings were banned. Solidarity was outlawed. Open censorship of 
mail was introduced and normal radio and television broadcasting was 
replaced with a loop of General Jaruzelski intoning that Poland was on 
the edge of an abyss. Tanks rumbled down Warsaw's broad boulevards, and 
the whiff of tear gas tinged the air.
  Approximately 10,000 people were arrested during the Martial Law 
period, and dozens of people were killed, most notoriously during the 
``pacification'' of the Wujek Coal Mine. The harshest controls were 
eased within weeks or months and martial law was formally lifted on 
July 22, 1983, but various forms of oppression continued for years. 
Many political prisoners were not released until the general amnesty in 
1986, 5 years later.
  Nevertheless, throughout the 1980s, and notwithstanding martial law, 
dissent in Poland burgeoned. By 1988, the ability of Solidarity to 
mount continuing strikes had forced the communist regime to blink--
roundtable negotiations between the authorities and the opposition 
began in early 1988, and the Solidarity movement was formally re-
legalized on April 7. When Solidarity's official spokesman, Janusz 
Onyszkiewicz, testified before me at a Helsinki Commission hearing in 
September 1988, it was the first time that the Helsinki Commission 
received testimony from a Warsaw Pact dissident who was actually 
planning to return to his home country.
  The roundtable talks eventually led to an agreement that 35% of the 
seats in parliament would be freely and fairly contested in the June 
1989 elections, and all of the seats would be contested 4 years after 
that. The die, of course, was cast: when it came time to form a 
government, Solidarity put forward their own slate of candidates for 
prime minister. On August 19, 1989, Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected 
Poland's first non-Communist prime minister in 40 years. Poland rightly 
deserves credit for playing a critical role in advancing human rights 
and democratic forms throughout the entire Warsaw Pact region. In fact, 
Poland rightly deserves credit for helping to dissolve the Warsaw Pact.
  We all remember the fall of the Berlin Wall--one of the greatest 
moments of the 20th century. Let's not forget that, to a very great 
extent, the movement that brought down the Wall was ``made in Poland,'' 
or at least owes an immense debt to the Poles. For 45 years the Poles 
took the lead, within eastern Europe, in pushing back on communist 
rule, testing the limits of what the Soviets would tolerate. In other 
words, taking the risks. The rhythm of Polish uprisings and mass 
movements against communism is instructive: in 1944, the Nazis, with 
nearby Soviet forces blocking allied assistance, crushed the Warsaw 
Uprising; 12 years later, in 1956, the Poles were rioting again, and 
they wrung concessions out of the communist government; 12 years later, 
in 1968-1970, the same thing happened; then six later, in 1976; then 3 
years later, in 1979 the visit of the new pope saw what amounted to 
massive demonstration of support for the Polish Catholic tradition 
which were at the same time demonstrations against communist tyranny; 
then 1 year later, in 1980, Solidarity was formed. But as the 
declaration of martial law demonstrated, the communists would only be 
able to exercise meaningful control through the use of an ultimately 
unsustainable degree of force. By the summer of 1989, it was clear that 
the Poles had stood down the Soviet Union. The communist parties of the 
eastern bloc were on their own, facing their peoples without Soviet 
military backing, setting the stage for them all to be swept from 
power.
  So let's remember that from the 1950s through the 1980s the Polish 
people, acting for high moral purposes--religious freedom, human 
rights, liberty, solidarity, patriotism--ran great risks--even the risk 
of another Russian invasion and they succeeded to the enduring benefit 
not only of their own citizens, but all those around the globe who 
share those purposes.
  At the end of this month, Poland will wrap up its tenure as the 
president of the European Union. It has come a very long way from the 
dark days of martial law and I am grateful that, as the United States 
seeks to promote democracy and human rights around the globe, Poland 
stands beside us as a leader in this effort.

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