Pag# 2 Portland Oto— r v r . December 24, 1961
Street Beat
W ith the mass media’s attention
concentrated on events in Poland we
went into the streets with, " H o w do
you feel about what has occurred in
Poland?
Grace Walker, employee o f C hil
drens Services: " I t ’ s sad but I feel
that we Americans don’t really have
the right to throw stones. The Poles
Phyllis Mahony: "T h e Soviets are that have already defected, it would
be O .K . to stand by them. But as far
going to m ake slaves o f a ll the
as
going all the way over there to
Polish people. T h at’s just the way it
is. T h ey are going to k ill them i f help them , I d o n ’ t agree. W ho
helped us when they were sic-ing the
they resist."
dogs on Black people when M artin
Luther King was m arching. W hat
did the police do fo r us?"
S a n ta C la u s a (J o a H a rris ) v is its b u s in e s s m a n
Thom as C arter, M arv y Jam es, (o w n er o f N arvee's
H a b e rd a s h e ry ) a n d V a l L in d sa y. W e n d e ll C o x a n
gets a candy cane.
(Photo: R ichard J . B ro w n )
Santa Claus visits Union Avenue
Grassroot News, N . IF .— Santa
Claus came to town in the form o f
local Black businessman Joe Harris.
"E v e ry year for the past couple o f
years this is my present to businesses
in the area. I don’ t go into their
stores and pass out candy canes. I
stand outside their stores and attract
attention to them .” Harris says his
intention is to get community resi
dents to focus their time and money
on stores and shops in the area.
"S o m e people feel i f they can
save a dime with a white man they
would rather spend with him then
with us. Not only do 1 want Blacks
in this area to patronize our busi
nesses but whites as well. W e have
businesses in Albina and N .E . Port
land. Let’s support them this Christ
mas.”
Harris concedes that people have
their own preference for stores and
shops but it still doesn’ t alter the
fact that businesses in our com
m unity need com m unity support*.
" I ’ m not just a s h o w ," says the
Black man in the Santa Claus suit.
" I wish we had five or six Santa
Clauses stretched out in the commu
nity. M aybe, the people would pay
more atten tio n to what we have
around us."
Jesse Rogers, B arb er: " I d o n ’ t
care much about w hat’s happening
Irm a Gene Reed, H o m em a k er:
in P o land. They raise all this hell
“
The
young people won’t be around
about what’s going on in Poland but
they d o n ’ t over anything about too long with the way, not only Po
w h a t’ s going on in South A fric a . land, but the way the whole world is
going. I do believe that there will be
So forget Poland."
a w a r."
was more appalled by these intem
perate proposals— Gen. Jaruzelski
or Lech W alesa. In the end, how
ever, it was Jaruzelski who faced the
choice. He could let P oland's
internal revolution— which he seems
to support more than he opposes—
expand into an attempt to revolu
tionize the entire strategic balance
o f power in Europe. O r, he could
impose martial law before the Rus
sians were given the kind o f provo
cation Moscow could not ignore.
W hile the reasons for pessimism
are great, the greatest cause for op
timism is that the outlines o f a Pol
ish solution are clear— and have
been clear for a long time.
American and Russian diplomats
in W arsaw , Polish C om m unist
Party officials and officials o f Soli
darity alike all use the same phrase
to describe the solution. They speak
o f a “ national consensus” uniting
the unions, the Polish army, and the
Catholic Church in a common pro
gram for Poland's future.
The essential elements o f such a
consensus are also clear. Internally,
Poland must be free to adopt what
ever course o f in tern a l economic
and social reform is necessary to re
vive the economy and assure social
s ta b ility . T h a t the Soviet U n io n ,
however doctrinaire it may seem in
the West, is w illing to permit such
an internal liberalization is already
evident.
But the second, equally important
element in any " n a tio n a l consen
sus" is that externally, Poland must
rem ain strategically a part o f the
Warsaw Pact. The strategic balance
o f power in Europe must not be up
set by the Poles’ e ffo rt to reform
their domestic life.
In a sense, “ Finlandization” — so
often derided in the W est— is not
only the ideal, but the only possible
solutio n , though w ith one d if fe r
ence. Poland, like the other Eastern
European countries, cannot really
be Finlandized because they cannot
be strategically n eu tral— u n til the
day finally comes when the U.S. and
LEGENDARY JAZZ TRUMPETER
IN CONCER
WEDNESDAY JA N U A R Y 13
C ivic A u d ito riu m
the Soviet U nion resolve their d if
ferences.
W hat really is needed, therefore
is Polandization, that is. the kind o
national consensus, both in ternal
and external, that Jaruzelski, W a l
esa and the Catholic Church all fa
vor.
The key question now is whether
by imposing m artial law Jar<tzelski
has forced his country to take a step
forward toward achieving national
consensus, or whether m artial law
will only make Poland’s internal cri
sis worse, and the external com pli
cations o f that crisis even m ore
serious.
M ost Poles agree th a t G en.
Jaruzelski and Lech Walesa are not
just Polish patriots, but realistic Po
lish patriots. But will their compa
triots be as realistic in the next few
days and weeks— including the en
trenched Com m unist P a rty head
liners, who wish to use m artial law
to turn back the clock, and the Soli
darity radicals, who are tempted to
see in martial law a justification for
overt revolution?
W ill not just Jaruzelski and W al
esa, but 36 m illio n Poles, forsake
the momentary satisfactions o f a ro
mantic gesture for the realy terrify
ing task o f finding some basis for re
building their country according to
both its in te rn a l and external
realities? O r will they op» for caval
ry charges against tanks?
As in 1914 in S a ra jev o , and in
1939 in P o la n d , there is the
tendency to imagine the future de
pends on what the great powers will
do. In truth, the future now depends
on whether or not a volatile Eastern
European n atio n alism can both
channel itself to some constructive
purpose, and avoid dragging the
larger w orld in to its in tern al con
flicts.
© Padfic News Service
K ay K irkm an , U nem ployed: "1
feel that they are fighting fo r the
right thing. 1 can’t blame them for
wanting to be free. I th in k the
people o f Poland are rig h t. They
should be free."
Rose M arie Williams, Housewife:
" I don’t like it and I feel sorry for
the people over there. I wish Russia
w ould go home and stay hom e. I
d o n ’t th in k we should hide our
heads in a hole every time something
like that happens. I don’t want to go
to war but I don’t want people sup
pressed under communism."
Keeping Warsaw in the Pact
(Continued fro m page I column 6)
H o w a rd Cote, U nem ployed: "1
was a union business agent until 6
months ago so 1 have to support the
S olidarity m ovem ent. Freedom in
Poland is important to us and I see
the domino theory happening over
and over. We should be harder in
our response. There is some need
for aggression.”
by Lenite D u ka and R ichard B ro w n
Christm
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