The Landscape After the Battle

Abstract

“They've sure fixed us, brother” says Jacek. He looks at me sadly over the rim of his half-full tea cup and repeats: “they've sure fixed us good.” Jacek is twenty-five years old, he is an electrician at the Ursus tractor factory in War-saw. When martial law was imposed, he miraculously escaped internment and up to now he has taken part in all the actions organized by the Union. I met him on the May 3 barricades. Since, then, we have exchanged “blotters” (clandestine bulletins) and we have often argued furiously over strategy and tactics. After November 10 Jacek stopped arguing. He still takes the “blotters,” but no longer seems interested in the question concerning how to continue struggling.