Page 424 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"Why?"

"There's going to be a strike at the Lenin Shipyard."

"There are strikes everywhere." Workers were demanding pay rises to compensate for a massive government increase in food prices. Tanya reported these as "work stoppages," for strikes happened only in capitalist countries.

"Believe me," said Danuta, "this one could be different."

The Polish government was dealing with each strike swiftly, granting pay rises and other concessions on a local basis, keen to shut down protests before they could spread like stains on a cloth. The nightmare of the ruling elite--and the dream of dissidents--was that the stains would join up until the cloth was entirely a new color.

"Different how?"

"They fired a crane operator who is a member of our committee--but they picked the wrong person to victimize. Anna Walentynowicz is a woman, a widow, and fifty-one years old."

"So she attracts a lot of sympathy from chivalrous Polish men."

"And she's a popular figure. They call her Pani Ania, Mrs. Annie."

"I might take a look." Dimka wanted to hear about any protest that promised to become serious, in case he might need to discourage a Kremlin crackdown.

As the press conference was breaking up, Tanya passed Cam Dewar and spoke to him quietly in Russian. "Go to the Cathedral of St. John on Friday at two and look at the Baryczkowski Crucifix."

"That's not a good place," the young man hissed.

"Take it or leave it," Tanya said.

"You have to tell me what this is about," Cam said firmly.

Tanya realized she had to risk talking to him for another minute. "A line of communication in case the Soviet Union should invade Western Europe," she said. "The possibility of forming a group of Polish officers who would switch sides."

The American's jaw dropped. "Oh . . . Oh . . . ," he stuttered. "Right, yes."

She smiled at him. "Satisfied?"

"What's his name?"

Tanya hesitated.

Cam said: "He knows mine."

Tanya decided she had to trust this man. She had already placed her own life in his hands. "Stanislaw Pawlak," she said. "Known as Staz."

"Tell Staz that for security reasons he should never speak to anyone here at the embassy except me."

"Okay." Tanya walked quickly out of the building.

She gave Staz the message that evening. Next day she kissed him good-bye and drove two hundred miles north to the Baltic Sea. She had an old but reliable Mercedes-Benz 280S with vertically aligned twin headlamps. In the late afternoon she checked into a hotel in the old town of Gdansk, directly across the river from the wharves and dry docks of the shipyard, which was on Ostrow Island.

On the following day it was one week exactly since the firing of Anna Walentynowicz.

Tanya got up early, put on canvas overalls, crossed the bridge to the island, reached the shipyard gate before sunrise, and strolled in with a group of young workers.

It was her lucky day.

The shipyard was plastered with newly pasted posters calling for Pani Ania to be given her job back. Small groups were gathering around the posters. A few people were handing out leaflets. Tanya took one and deciphered the Polish.

Anna Walentynowicz became an embarrassment because her example motivated others. She became an embarrassment because she stood up for others and was able to organize her coworkers. The authorities always try to isolate those who have leadership qualities. If we do not fight against this, then we will have no one to stand up for us when they raise work quotas, when health and safety regulations are broken, or when we are forced to work overtime.

Tanya was struck by that. This was not about more pay or shorter hours: it was about the right of Polish workers to organize for themselves, independently of the Communist hierarchy. She had a feeling this was a significant development. It started a small glow of hope in her belly.

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