Rebirth and Peril

The tension eases--for now

Precisely at midnight, Poland's Communist-controlled radio gulped, then sent out over the air waves the combined symbol of the nation's rebirth and peril: midnight Mass. Though most Poles were at that moment in their own parish churches, the broadcast from Cracow's Wawel Cathedral, the former seat of Archbishop Karol Wojtyla, was a telling concession from the country's atheist government to the changes that have swept the land in the past four months. As if the Mass were not unusual enough, Pope John Paul II--who after his election two years ago was denied his wish to send an uncensored Christmas message to his home archdiocese--was accorded twelve minutes on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day to address his countrymen in a taped television spot. Said the Pontiff: "I pray with you for our common fatherland. I recommend to Christ and to his Mother all that has happened in Poland in the past months and, above all, this unity of peace and mutual respect and understanding."

Thus Christmas passed in Poland without the Soviet tanks that only a few weeks before had threatened a deadly holiday for the U.S.S.R.'s nettlesome neighbor. The turmoil-weary nation enjoyed a calm but austere Christmas, free for the moment from the testy confrontations between the authorities and the independent new Solidarity unions led by Worker-Hero Lech Walesa. Thanks to a last-minute rationing plan, stores in many areas were stocked with requisite hams and trimmings for Christmas dinners, though lines were still long.

Concern over food supplies kept the labor struggle pulsing. Workers in Piotrkow Trybunalski, southwest of Warsaw, occupied local government offices for four days before authorities agreed to provide more meat and butter. Meat rations were also increased in the eastern town of Chelm, where workers held a one-hour strike to protest short supplies. Solidarity, meanwhile, announced a "massive petition drive" for the release of seven political prisoners. In another move that may have repercussions, Solidarity seemed to spurn a government proposal for alternate Saturdays off. The union has been insisting on every Saturday, as the authorities promised last September.

At the same time, the dispute over the role of organized dissidents, especially the Committee for Social Self-Defense (KOR), seethed just below the surface in the independent labor movement. Party Boss Stanislaw Kania charged last week that the views of KOR were "not favorable to the stabilization of the country."He apparently hoped to exploit the growing uneasiness between the union and the dissidents. KOR has been on the defensive since earlier this month, when a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Church charged that its leading activist, Jacek Kuron, had made "noisy and irresponsible statements" against Moscow. Stung by the church attack, KOR replied that it was "contrary to the stand of the whole history of the Catholic Church for the past 35 years."

Indeed, the Polish church, at least until the advent of Solidarity, has been the mainstay of opposition to the Communist Party. But the church is politically "liberal" only in relation to the party. It supports Poland's odnowa (renewal), but its prime concern is upholding the faith and Catholic institutions. Above all, it does not want to risk an intervention by the Soviets, who might try to stamp out religious rights. The church's censure of Kuron could aggravate a split between moderates and militants in Solidarity. Walesa, himself a moderate, has resisted all efforts to disavow the dissidents so far. Nevertheless, grumbling about his supposed timidity has increased among union militants. "The clergy has an important influence on him," says one unionist, "and I'm not sure it's a wise one."

But with Soviet troops still poised on the frontier, even the militants do not want to change the union's conciliatory course--at least just yet. At week's end, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev met with Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Czyrek in Moscow. While expressing confidence that the Polish party could solve the country's internal difficulties, the two leaders assailed "attempts of imperialist and other reactionary circles" to undermine socialist Poland. For the restive militants, it was a grim reminder of the limits of Soviet tolerance.

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