The night 12/13 December 2008. The anniversary of the imposition of martial law in Poland 1981. One of the two guests in the TVP Info studio was Bogdan Lis, former member of PZPR, the communist party and one of the Solidarity leaders. The discussion was accompanied by live broadcast from the street demonstration in front of the Jaruzelski's apartment.
Today Bogdan Lis is a member of parliament representing the party Lewica and Demokraci (LiD) . LiD is a postcommunist party where former apparatchiks from PZPR (Szmajdziński, Kwaśniewski, Borowski) unite with a group of former Solidarity leaders, some of whom were also members of PZPR for some time. Happily together.
The first picture shows Bogdan Lis.
On the next picture you can see the flag of the Polish Communist Party (Komunistyczna Partia Polski). This organization existed between WW I and WW II and planned to stage communist revolution in Poland and hand over areas of Poland to the Soviet Union and Germany (that would also be ruled by communists after a revolution). KPP was run from Moscow and was outlawed in Poland. During the entire interview with Jaruzelski's supporter the KPP flag was prominently displayed in the background. The tv crew did nothing to prevent this. They were filming and the red flag was shown. Remember that both Nazi and communist ideology is banned in Poland today.
Imagine a swastika shown on a public tv in Germany. What would the reaction be? However, the guests in the studio did not seem uncomfortable with what they saw. The woman reporter did not do anything to remove the KPP flag from the picture. What does this situation tell you? Just think a little.
The last picture displays the flag of another pro-communist party.
The demonstration had a totalitarian feel. The night, the torches lit at midnight by an "anticommunist group" holding the banner Młodzież Wszechpolska, men in the pro-communist group standing back to the camera, not eager to show their faces. The 180 participants (the number was given in the news the next day) were split by the police line.
It looked surreal. If you think of a demonstration, would you organize it at night? No people on the streets. No one around to join spontaneously. You will never get a crowd.
The whole concept of staging a night demonstration in front of Jaruzelski's house make no sense. However it would make perfect sense if we allow to think that the entire thing was organized by Jaruzelski supporters who divided among themselves the roles of "anticommunists" and Jaruzelski defenders. It is a funny thought but surprisingly it explains logically the time and place of the event. The additional bonus of such a fake demonstration is the excuse to stop demonstrating when Jaruzelski dies.
The British poet John Masefield once wrote:
I have seen flowers come in stony places,Now you can easily complete the phrase from the title of this post.
And kind things done by men with ugly faces,
And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races.
So I trust, too.
