Prisoner of Events

By Thomas A. Sancton

As party factions vie, Jaruzelski steers a cautious course

The twin events had promised to be the most important since the declaration of martial law on Dec. 13: a major speech by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, the country's ruler, and the first meeting of the party's 200-man Central Committee since the emergency began. Poles hoped that the general and the committee would give them some clear signals about the nation's future and perhaps even announce a recovery program for an economy that was growing weaker day by day. But the expectations came to nothing, and that in itself was significant. By doing so little, the rulers of Poland revealed how much they were still the prisoners of events that were far from being resolved.

The Central Committee's inertia reflected the party's disarray in the face of an ideological power struggle within its dwindling ranks (29% of its members have resigned since August 1980). In recent weeks, a hard-line faction has increasingly attacked party moderates and called for a return to Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy. Led by figures like Politburo Member Stefan Olszowski, this group draws its strength from the bureaucrats whose privileges are threatened by reform.

The hard-liners have been circulating a six-page platform that might have been written by Joseph Stalin himself. The document blasts the "revisionist" reform policies adopted after August 1980, when the Solidarity labor movement was launched, and calls socialist. a drastic purge of party moderates. While it cautions against a prompt easing of martial law restrictions or the release of some 4,000 political prisoners, the pamphlet criticizes the military regime for usurping the party's leadership role.

The hard-liners blame the present crisis not only on ex-Party Boss Stanislaw Kania, who cooperated with Solidarity, but on some of the major figures in the current leadership. Among them: Kazimierz Barcikowski and Hieronim Kubiak, both Politburo members, and Deputy Premier Mieczyslaw Rakowski. Since all three are close to Jaruzelski, who is thought to side with the moderates, the general also seems to be an indirect target. But Jaruzelski's position appears to be secure: not only does he control the army, he seems to enjoy the full confidence of the Kremlin. On the eve of the plenum, the Soviets publicly invited the general to consultations in Moscow this week. The timing was widely seen as a show of support.

Under these conditions, Jaruzelski was understandably cautious when he spoke for nearly three hours before the Central Committee. Instead of launching any controversial initiatives, he sought to steer a resolutely middle course. Thus while the general implicitly rebuked the hard-liners by denouncing the spread of "factional activity" and "libels," he also appeared eager to placate them on a number of points. Speaking in his usual monotone, he promised not to ease the emergency restrictions too soon, blaming "tensions, acts of extravagance and poster campaigns" for their continuance. He declared that the power to name the country's economic and industrial managers would remain in the hands of the party, thus assuring the threatened bureaucrats of their continuing influence. Hard-liners must have also been gratified by the expulsion of two leading reformists, Marian Arendt and Jan Malanowski, from the Central Committee.

Jaruzelski saved his rhetorical punches for a target that both wings of the party could unite in vilifying: the U.S., which he accused of waging a "propaganda and economic war" against his country. He charged that "psychological warfare services," presumably meaning Radio Free Europe, originated the widespread resistance slogan, "The winter is yours, the spring will be ours." Said he: "The spring will be neither 'ours' nor 'yours,' but simply Polish and socialist." The general blamed U.S. sanctions for aggravating food shortages by suspending poultry feed shipments and excluding Polish fishing fleets from American waters. Although the Central Committee had little to offer in the way of economic solutions, the nalion's parliament met at week's end and passed eight bills aimed at launching a recovery. The measures included bills on planning, prices, banking, taxes and trade.

Poland's economic problems were complicated by a new wave of foreign sanctions last week. The governments of Canada and Japan indefinitely suspended negotiations over rescheduling Polish debt payments due this year and imposed severe restrictions on most new credits to Poland. The Japanese also postponed official trade talks with the Soviets. Foreign ministers of the European Community, meanwhile, agreed to put a mild squeeze on Moscow by increasing the interest on Soviet export credits and limiting some Soviet imports.

But Western attempts to encourage moderation seem to be having little effect on Warsaw. Hardening their position on the future of Solidarity, Polish authorities launched their first full-scale propaganda attack on Union Leader Lech Walesa, who is still interned in a government villa near the capital. The army daily Zolnierz Wolnosci accused Walesa and other union leaders of deciding in December that "the gallows have to be built" for the Communists. The union leader was personally denounced by the Polish Press Agency as a "front for the anti-Communist crusade" and a traitor to "working-class interests." In an interview with the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, Deputy Premier Rakowski dismissed Walesa as "an unhappy man" who "failed to live up to events."

The campaign to discredit Walesa seems aimed at eliminating him from forthcoming talks on the future of trade unions because he refuses to negotiate without his former Solidarity advisers. The martial law regime last week published its own guidelines, insisting that trade unions be organized by profession instead of following Solidarity's regional and national structure. While they will be "independent and self-governing," the unions must have no political role. The right to strike would be allowed only as a "last resort."

The government is calling for "public discussion" of its proposals, but warns that there is "no place" in that dialogue "for the people who have led the country to the brink of civil war." That presumably excludes the entire Solidarity leadership, most of which is now shivering in Jaruzelski's detention camps. The irony is palpable: for 16 months those men commanded far more respect and allegiance from their fellow workers than the party that now rules, at gunpoint, in the name of the proletariat. --By Thomas A. Sancton. Reported by Richard Hornlk/Warsaw

With reporting by Richard Hornik

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