Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter I
2. Contents VII
3. About the Authors XI
4. Note XIII
5. Preface XV
6. Chronology XVII
7. 1. The last session of the National Commission. Things are heating up. Attack by night. "Lech is also surrounded." Apparent strength and real weakness. Why Solidarity allowed itself to be taken by surprise 1
8. 2. Fighting in the factories. Counting our mistakes. Passive resistance: the origin of defeat. People write letters. Five people on guard at gate number two. The fall of a symbol. The techniques of pacification. The strikes are over 18
9. 3. The Pyrrhic victory of the generals. The spontaneous beginnings of conspiracy. Attempts to make contact: Gdańsk, Wrocław, Warsaw 36
10. 4. We have OKO. Difficulties in making contacts. The resources at our disposal. The quarterly balance 50
11. 5. Constructing the foundations: factory organizations. Conflicts in Lower Silesia and Mazowsze: "extremists" on the attack. The beginnings of regional structures: history, specifics, organization. The ICC: a centralized structure or a federation? 59
12. 6. Disputes over the program. The "long march" or the "short leap." Toward a general strike. The unexpected third variant: May 1 on the streets 78
13. 7. A mass movement or a cadres' organization? Strikes. Demonstrations: the authorities impose a poll tax. The "front of refusal." The independent circulation of information: press and radio. Embassies. Underground intelligence and counterintelligence: "things best left alone." Special campaigns. "People I'd like to smoke out." 91
14. 8. Models and traditions: the Home Army underground, "We're not going to take to the woods," the pre-August opposition, the nineteenth- and twentieth-century illegal labor movement. The inheritance of the Left: the authorities have stolen socialism. Nationalist thinking. The role of the Church. Attitudes toward the regime. Antipathy toward ideology. "Why should we take ideas from the West?" 123
15. 9. The people of the underground. Motivations. Activists' origins: former dissidents, Solidarity activists, new recruits. The younger generation in the underground. Nameless heroines. Landlords. Social life. "In bathing trunks everyone looks the same." How to escape the Security Service. Family tragedies. "I'm abnormal." Loneliness. Underground love. Personality disorders. "We of the first brigade . . ." 138
16. 10. August 1982: success or disaster? Delegalization. "They ought to admit their mistakes voluntarily." The strike in the shipyard or a missed opportunity. A day in November 165
17. 11. Why do we need a program? The implementation of the "underground society." Is there a future for "Solidarity Today"? The advice of experts. To whom are these words addressed? 181
18. 12. The ICC in a new role. The chairman. Factories and factions. The knitting of the Network. Upper Silesia after awakening. The maturing of underground agencies. "Let's be professional!" The papal pilgrimage. The 1983 amnesty and disappointed hopes. Who leaves the underground and with what. General strike. A Nobel Prize for Solidarity 196
19. 13. Self-examination. The balance of profit and loss. There are no victories without victims. Views of the future. When to leave and how to return. "This is our last chance." 222
20. Postscript 235
21. Afterword 251