16 December - Nine miners are killed and many wounded by riot police storming the striking „Wujek” coal mine in Katowice.
General Florian Siwicki (chief of the General Staff of the Polish Army) at a meeting of the party’s Political Bureau:
For now, we have reached our goal. […] The army’s cooperation with the police and the security service is very good. We broke through the first position - the enemy is paralysed but not defeated. Conclusions:
Maintain martial law, armed forced in starting positions, grip on the enemy still unrelaxed.
Authorities at all levels must strictly enforce martial law discipline and rigours.
In justified cases, strength should be demonstrated and rigours should not be relaxed during the Christmas period. But, simultaneously, the discomforts of martial law should be eased wherever possible.
Once a strike is broken or an enemy isolated, there should be no political void. We must fight for minds, we need massive commitment of party forces.
Polish tanks on the streets of Polish towns were an everyday sight during martial law. This was the way the authorities wanted to intimidate society (photo: J. Żołnierkiewicz).
Clandestine, unofficial “Solidarity” post stamp - a sign of resistance against the authorities. The United States supported Polish clandestine trade union movement after the imposition of martial law.