"Many were inclined to write off Solidarity as yet another ineffectual spasm of resistance against the irresistible power of the modern state. But they looked again and the grave of Solidarity was empty."
-Ronald Reagan, November 1985
The recent arrest in Poland of 32-year-old Zbigniew Bujak, one of the leaders of the underground wing of the outlawed Solidarity trade union, was hailed by the Western including American, mass media as the end of Solidarity and the opposition movement in Poland.
Time magazine, for example, ran the story of Bujak's arrest under the headline "A Nail in Solidarity's Coffin."
However, despite the romantic image prevailing in the West of Bujak as a contemporary Robin Hood, he and his colleagues in the Polish underground are extremely pragmatic and practical people, and his arrest will not seriously undermine the activities of the Polish opposition movement.
To understand why the Polish government has been unable to crush Solidarity and the opposition in Poland - despite the wide powers given to security forces during the last five years - one has to understand the Polish version of an underground.
By all estimates there are some 1.2 million Poles currently involved in the operations of the underground. That, of course, does not mean all of them are in hiding.
The underground wing of Solidarity is headed by Provisional Coordinating Committee (TKK), consisting of five to six members who head to biggest Solidarity regions in Poland. Bujak, who headed the Warsaw region, was the best-known member of the TKK. All members of the TKK, plus some 30 of their closet collaborators, are on the run from the authorities, using false identities and constantly changing their whereabouts.
The TKK loosely controls a highly decentralized organization embracing tens of various smaller groups operating in different parts of Poland. These groups concentrate on different fields, including politics, culture, education, and labor relations in individual plants. The number of people involved in this type of activity is an estimated 60,000 to 70,000. They are usually people who lead a normal life, holding regular jobs, but who also occasionally take part in various undertakings organized by Solidarity.
For example, there is the odd taxi driver who from time to time transports a batch of underground literature or leaflets; a couple who allow their home to be used for a few days by one of the fugitives (not a meaningless deed, considering that if caught harboring one of the Solidarity's leaders, they would have their home confiscated by the government); the clerk who allows the cellar of his house to be used as a printing shop; or the plant manager who brings several hundred Solidarity leaflets in his briefcase. Usually, the identities of these people are unknown to the members of the TKK or the other people on the run who are most likely to be arrested.
The third group is formed by those people who regularly pay Solidarity trade Union dues -
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