Solidarity in the crypt
Timothy Garton Ash
Zoliborz It was in Zoliborz as if the communist regime did not exist, as if martial law had never been. 'The National Commis- sion of Solidarity, with Lech Walesa,' announced the loudspeakers from the bal- cony of Father Jerzy's church, and ap- plause rolled up like thunder from the vast crowd, from the steelworkers and the nuns, from old women clutching rosaries and youngsters waving Solidarity flags, from every roof and tree-top. During the Pope's visit last year most of the banners c,arried spiritual messages, albeit in the unmistakable jumbly Solidarnosc lettering. Here, before the coffin of Father Jerzy Popieluszko, the banners were explicitly temporal: 'Solidarity, Gdansk region,' they said, 'Solidarity, Mazovia region', 'Solidar- ity from Nowa Huta' — the giant steel- works near Krakow; chapters of the ban- ned, persecuted and supposedly crushed independent trade union, assembled from all over Poland to take leave of the murdered priest.
No matter that dumpy Primate Glemp managed to avoid even mentioning Soli- darity in his characteristically pedestrian homily. The other celebrants said all that was necessary, in moving prayers addres- sed directly to the spirit of Father Jerzy. lurek!' said an engineer from the Huta Warszawa steelworks, in a firm, low voice, `Jurek, do you hear how the bells of freedom ring?' And Lech Walesa: 'A Poland which has such priests, which has a people capable of such self-sacrifice, faith and solidarity, such a Poland has not perished and will not perish . . . Solidarity lives, because you died for it.' At the end of the day, as a great wreath of thorns lay on the catafalque, with a riband from `NSZZ Solidarnosc', the popular beatifica- tion seemed already complete. The Polish Catholic Church has its first post-war martyr. Solidarity has a patron saint.
But has Popieluszko's martyrdom really given new energy and direction to the Solidarity opposition, as several correspon- dents have suggested? Certainly, since the July amnesty the opposition has been slightly at a loss for short-term political
goals. Certainly, Solidarity leaders and advisers, both under and overground, have been galvanised by the case. Walesa has declared that it should lead government and people back to the negotiating table, in the spirit of August 1980. His old rival in Gdansk, Andrzej Gwiazda, has called for strikes this week. Activists from the pre- Solidarity democratic opposition are look- ing to the formation of Committees in Defence of Legality (Polish acronym KOP), perhaps rather on the lines of the former Workers' Defence Committee (KOR). Other Solidarity advisers wonder about a Gandhi-style mass movement of non-violence.
The great problem for them all is to find things which workers or farmers can actually do. The potential support among those masses who turn out to sing 'God who protects Poland' and raise their hands in the V-for-Victory sign, is still immense. But how to convert this into constructive opposition in everyday life? The bread- and-butter issues are there in plenty: for example, a new decree which will remove the guarantee of an eight-hour working day. But if to join the new, official trade unions is 'collaboration', which most work- ers still think it is, and if Solidarity cells in most factories are no longer strong enough to organise effective strikes, then what is to be done? Who can find lasting forms of de facto pluralism in Jaruzelski's Poland?
The one independent institution which is stong, enough to create and defend such forms, if it wants to, is the Catholic Church. But as I suggested in these pages 'Let's play hunt the NUM money.' at the time of the Pope's visit last year, the Church is not a little confused and even divided by the new social and political roles which are being thrust upon it. There are many, especially younger clergy, who feel. like Father Jerzy, that they have a spiritual and patriotic duty to sustain the de facto pluralism of Solidarity's Poland. In the village of Zbrosza Duza, not far from Warsaw, Father Czeslaw Sadlowski has regular history lectures for the farmers, films on video, and a Saturday-night rave- up for the local youth — all in the crypt of his church. In Mistrzejowice, an ugly nevi satellite town near Nowa Huta, there is a 'Catholic University for the Workers'. In a Dominican monastery in Poznan I saw 3 marvellous studio theatre performance of a play about Osip Mandelstam and his perse- cutors. The theatre group had recently been banned from giving public perform- ances.
• At the other extreme there is Primate Glemp, who seems to have spent most of the last fortnight trying to pacify public outrage, in a strange double act with the government press spokesman Mr JerzY Urban (not to be confused with Mr George Urban, Director of Radio Free Europe). The Primate apparently does not see a role in his Church for such 'turbulent priests -- let alone for their Solidarity friends. .10 fact, he actually turned the Solidarity activists out of the vicarage where they had been so welcome during Father Popielusz- ko's lifetime. (They only retreated under ground — to the crypt, of course.) Howe' er, Glemp is not the Church. He is mat even the Church leadership. Several of his leading bishops have consistently suP- ported such positive social engagement bY the clergy; and these bishops have goOd relations with the Pope. Moreover, if the Pope's cycle of homilies last year was a life programme for the Polish clergy, Father Popieluszko's life and death is now a personal example. 'Greater love hath IW man than this . . .
After the Primate's uninspiring sermon, the white-haired senior vicar of Father Jerzy's church rose to speak. In a voic,e breaking with emotion, he recalled his curate's life and work; he pointedly thank- ed Pope John Paul II 'who was so pleased with Father Jerzy's work'; he thanked Lech Walesa and 'all those devoted to the idea of Solidarity'; and he concluded defian0Y, 'one priest has died, but many priests have come forward to take up and carry on this work for the glory of God and the good of the fatherland — and will always celebrate the mass for the fatherland (initiated by Father Popieluszko) on the last Sunday:3i the month.' You see,' said a leading Catholic intellectual, 'if before there were twenty Popieluszkos in Poland, now there will be a hundred.'
Perhaps this martrydom may have significant effect on the internal politics 01 the Polish military-party-state, or on the secular opposition. But its most certain, profound and lasting results will surelY appear within the Church itself.
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