THE SOLIDARITY DECADE 493Major disturbances on 31 August, the second anniversary of the Gdansk agree-
ment, and on 8 November, the anniversary of Solidarity's legal registration, did
not present the ZOMO with any insuperable problem. In several provincial
cities — at Nowa Huta, at Lubin in Silesia, and particularly at Wroclaw — out-
breaks of determined resistance persisted well into the autumn. But all the logis-
tics of repression, treachery, and misinformation stood on the side of the Crow.
On 8 October the authorities felt strong enough to announce that Solidarity,
and all other free unions, had been abolished, not merely 'suspended', and in
November to release a powerless Walesa. In December, most internees, though
not political prisoners, were released. By this time Government spokesmen had
begun to talk disparagingly of Solidarity members as 'criminals', and to brag
that 'the spring, too, will be ours'.
Step by step, as the Communists took stock of their miraculous escape, they
tried to re-establish control over the organizations which had earlier repudiated
them. Their main target, to begin with, was the intelligentsia, that incurable
source, from their point of view, of festering dissent. The Journalists'
Association (SDP) was abolished in March; the Film Makers' Union and the
Actors' Union (ZASP), which had bravely boycotted the official media, were
dissolved in December. Even PAX, the Party's pet association of 'progressive
Catholics' had to be purged. Perhaps the WRON thought it was attacking the
roots of the crisis; but it was only scratching the surface. No important sector of
Polish society was won over to the Communists' cause.
All Jaruzelski's attempts at constructive politics fell flat. Despite the Primate's
initial desire to compromise, the General did not re-establish any real dialogue
with the Church. His fine-sounding Patriotic Movement for National Rebirth
(PRON) was packed with his own dependants talking exclusively to themselves.
His new, official Trades Unions were shunned by everyone who could not be
pressured into joining. The declaration of the 'suspension' of the State of War
at the end of December was greeted as an empty gesture.
Economic performance continued to deteriorate. Contrary to the claims of
official propaganda, which had blamed everything on Solidarity, the suppres-
sion of Solidarity did not produce any overall improvement. Despite a modest
increase in one or two sectors, such as coal production, industrial productivity
actually decreased. For the fourth year running, Poland's GNP suffered a fur-
ther catastrophic drop, of fifteen per cent. The mounting foreign debt headed
towards thirty billion dollars; even current interest payments had to be resched-
uled. The demand for food was eased by the draconian and long overdue price
rises of up to 300 per cent, introduced in February; but most Poles continued to
survive on the breadline. Queuing remained a way of life. The Government
expressed its hope for self-sufficiency in food by 1990. The standard of living
plummeted. The vast gap between the purchasing power of the average family
and the goods available for sale continued to widen, even though real incomes
had fallen by forty per cent. Government finance, with the budget deficit accel-
erating through the hundreds of milliards of zlotys, was running out of control.