Tom Stoppard Plays 3

by Tom Stoppard

  (Everyone is sobered by this. The camera looks from face to face. WALESA is looking at the model of the memorial. KURON approaches him.)

  WALESA: Look at this, Jacek. It’s going to be forty metres high, outside the gate. We used to show up there every December. With stones in our suitcases. We’d make a little monument and the police would kick it over and take us away. They won’t kick this over in a hurry.

  KURON: I’ve always said that workers shouldn’t elect leaders … it makes it too easy for the Party to identify the enemy.

  WALESA: We’ll have safety in numbers. Thousands and thousands are joining. Party members, too. They understand. We’re an opposition. We’re reformers. The Party needs reforming more than anybody else. Don’t worry. We’ll have 10 million members.

  (KURON smiles at his.)

  I said we’d have a monument. Now I say we’ll have ten million members.

  38. INT. PARLIAMENT. DAY

  The cut is to the members of the Politburo, who appear to be sitting in the dock of a courtroom. There are twelve of them, including JARUZELSKI, KANIA, FINANSKY, PINKOWSKI (the Prime Minister) and OLSZOWSKI. GIEREK is absent. The ‘dock’ is actually the Politburo bench in parliament.

  SPEAKER ONE: What we have witnessed in Gdansk, Comrades, is an attack on the state organized by anarchists and anti-socialist groups –

  (This is greeted off-screen by loud protests.)

  SPEAKER TWO: No, that’s not true – these are genuine grievances – there is a failure in the Party, and it is at the top of the Party!

  (The applause for this covers the narration.)

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) This was parliament five days after the Gdansk signing. The usual ventriloquist act had fallen apart. The dummy had come to life.

  SPEAKER THREE: We have become a rubber stamp for a Party leadership which has lost its way. We are a sham society built on propaganda which has become a joke. We have sham planning, sham achievements in industry and science, sham debates, sham elections, sham socialism, sham justice, sham morality, and finally sham contentment because no one can any longer tell the sham from the real.

  (More applause over which – )

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) The other odd thing was that the First Secretary, Edward Gierek, was missing, and there was no news of him.

  39. INT. HOSPITAL VESTIBULE. EVENING

  KANIA, carrying a large bunch of flowers, crosses.

  40. INT. PRIVATE WARD. EVENING

  The room is so full of people that at first one doesn’t realize that GIEREK is in the hospital bed, apparently unconscious. The people in the room are the Politburo, who are animatedly discussing the situation in small groups … eating the grapes, drinking the barley water, examining the patient’s chart. OLSZOWSKI is wearing headphones, the hospital radio, and manipulating the wall-switch which changes the channel. The switch is heavily labelled: ‘Light music’, ‘Warsaw’, ‘Moscow’, ‘East Berlin’, ‘Prague’.

  KANIA enters.

  JARUZELSKI: (To KANIA) Gierek’s had a heart attack. The Central Committee is meeting tonight. We’ll have a new first secretary by the morning.

  KANIA: Does Stefan have hopes?

  OLSZOWSKI: Quiet. I can’t hear a thing.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) Stefan Olszowski had been in the Politburo before until a disagreement over Gierek’s economic policy shunted him into the Ambassador’s job in East Berlin. Now the Central Committee had brought him back. There was a hard line in the Party and Olszowski spoke for it.

  OLSZOWSKI: Moscow says there are no inherent defects in the socialist system, it’s in the weakness of the leadership.

  (Turns the dial from ‘Moscow’ to ‘East Berlin’.) And as for the Germans …

  (He reels back as the Germans nearly blow his ear out.)

  41. INT. CAFE. NIGHT

  The NARRATOR and the WITNESS are at a table playing chess. It seems to be the Witness’s move. He is frowning at the board.

  NARRATOR: (To camera) But the Central Committee did not advance Stefan Olszowski. It was not the moment to attack on the left.

  WITNESS: Why is it always chess?

  NARRATOR: Ugh, well, you know, it symbolizes …

  WITNESS: These ones with horse’s heads, are they the ones which can jump over things?

  NARRATOR: You’re ruining it.

  WITNESS: Sorry.

  NARRATOR: (To camera) The mood was for reform, renewal, nothing too liberal, but no conservative blacklash. A middle of-the-road apparatchik with a tough background in security but with nothing of the zealot about him would do. Kania had the job by 2 a.m.

  42. INT. KREMLIN. DAY

  BREZHNEV and a SECRETARY, in an office. BREZHNEV is standing on a chair, being measured by a TAILOR.

  BREZHNEV: (Dictating) Dear Kania – get things back to normal or we’ll be down on you like a ton of bricks. Read that back.

  SECRETARY: Dear Comrade Kania, the working people of the Soviet Union know you as a staunch champion of the people’s true interests, the ideals of Communism, the strengthening of the leading role of the Party, and the consolidation of socialism in the Polish People’s Republic. (It goes on like that but we fade him out …)

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) But Kania, in his first public statement, pledged himself to the spirit of Gdansk.

  43. INT. KANIA’S OFFICE. DAY

  KANIA is behind his desk.

  KANIA: (To camera) The Party will reform itself, workers will work, the citizens will have more freedom, the newspapers will report the facts, radio will broadcast Mass, the hacks will be sacked, corruption will be stamped out, and Poland will be in charge of her own destiny throughout. It’s all going to be all right.

  44. INT. CAFE. DAY

  The NARRATOR and the WITNESS are now playing cards.

  WITNESS: Twist.

  (The NARRATOR deals him a card.)

  NARRATOR: (To camera) But it was a bluff and Kania knew it.

  WITNESS: Bust.

  45. INT. KANIA’S OFFICE. DAY

  KANIA is behind his desk as before.

  KANIA: The Soviet Union supplies us with all our crude oil, potash and iron ore, and 80 per cent of our natural gas and our timber. The August strikes have cost us zillions of zlotys and they aren’t finished. All over the place workers have caught Gdansk disease. And all over the place the fat cats of the Party apparatus and the old union are digging in against what they call an anti-socialist sell-out. It’s not going to be a picnic.

  46. EXT. STEELWORKS. GDANSK. DAY

  Gate with flowers in foreground.

  Camera drops to take in steelworks as gates are shut.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) The wheel of reform was moving so slowly that to give it a shove the union announced a token one-hour strike for October 3rd. With a week to go, the Solidarity leadership came to Warsaw to apply for legal registration.

  (Hooters go off.)

  47. INT. COURTROOM. DAY

  WALESA is alone in the room. A door opens and KANIA enters.

  KANIA: Comrade Walesa.

  (They shake hands.)

  WALESA: Congratulations, Comrade First Secretary, on your elevation.

  KANIA: Likewise. Please sit down, Comrade. Comrade Walesa, when I was elected First Secretary I told the Central Committee that I intended to use the collective wisdom of the people. A strike is not the act of wisdom.

  WALESA: A stoppage, for one hour.

  KANIA: But a million people, even for one hour, is a provocative symbol to our allies.

  WALESA: It’s going to be 3 million, Comrade First Secretary.

  KANIA: I’m dying to help you but I have suspicious and angry people behind me.

  WALESA: That’s my position also.

  (KANIA thumps the table angrily.)

  KANIA: The proletariat cannot dictate to the Party what –

  (He collects himself. People are filing into the room. The two men begin whispering.)

  In the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party must have the leading role.
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  WALESA: We accept that.

  KANIA: But you haven’t said so in the legal statutes which have been deposited with the Warsaw Provincial Court.

  WALESA: We haven’t said so because we are not a political organization. The leading role of the Party is nothing to do with us.

  KANIA: The leading role of the Party is to do with everybody!

  WALESA: To acknowledge it in the statutes would be a political act.

  KANIA: To refuse to acknowledge it is a political act.

  (Now we see that the room is full of people.)

  WALESA: The independence of the free trade union Solidarity is not negotiable. We are waiting for the decision of the Court. Then we will know if this game is honest.

  (Close-up on a JUDGE.)

  JUDGE: The registration of the independent trade union Solidarity is allowed.

  (On the reverse shot WALESA smiles briefly at GWIAZDA, who, however, holds up his hand as if to say, ‘Not so fast.’)

  But, the statutes of the union are modified to include the acknowledgement of the leading role of the –

  WALESA: The Court has no power to alter the statutes!

  GWIAZDA: (Furiously to WALESA) Now will you believe me! We’re dealing with gangsters!

  48. EXT. BALCONY. DAY

  We see a line-up of the PARTY BOSSES, just heads and shoulders above the parapet. They are dressed like gangsters. They look out front, possibly reviewing a parade, and talk among themselves out of the sides of their mouths.

  KANIA: The Walesa mob is calling a general strike.

  OLSZOWSKI: Rub them out.

  KANIA: There’s three million of them!

  GANG MEMBER: Four million, boss.

  KANIA: Shut up!

  JARUZELSKI: (To KANIA) It was the wrong time to pull a stunt like that.

  49. EXT. STREET. DAY

  NARRATOR and WITNESS appear to be among the crowd looking up at the Politburo’s balcony.

  WITNESS: What’s all this gangster stuff?

  NARRATOR: It’s a metaphor.

  WITNESS: Wrong. You people –

  NARRATOR: All right.

  50. EXT. BALCONY. DAY. CONTINUATION

  Now the people on the balcony are no longer dressed as gangsters. They speak normally too.

  JARUZELSKI: It was the wrong time for a confrontation.

  KANIA: You haven’t had Comrade Brezhnev shouting down the telephone –

  JARUZELSKI: Comrade Brezhnev only demands stability. Throw the dogs a few bones. Leave the statutes of the union as they are, and put whatever you want into an appendix. Walesa will help us if we help him. And when the time comes …

  51. INT. SOLIDARITY MEETING ROOM. DAY

  WALESA, FAMILY and OTHERS are kneeling. A PRIEST is holding Mass.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) And so the deal was made. Solidarity was legal. And Mass was on the radio. The regime lost face but stood to gain a period of calm – so long as the moderate men on either side were in control.

  52. INT. WARSAW SOLIDARITY OFFICE. NIGHT

  A Solidarity poster is on the office window. Close-up of Solidarity poster. A group of POLICEMEN enter the office and immediately begin ransacking it. The only occupant is BUJAK. BUJAK stands up.

  NARRATOR: (Voice over) The calm lasted nine days.

  BUJAK: What the hell is going on?

  (The OFFICER IN CHARGE hands him the warrant. The other OFFICERS are emptying filing cabinet drawers on the the floor.)

  53. INT. KANIA’S BEDROOM. NIGHT

  Telephone rings. Light goes on. KANIA picks up receiver.

  KANIA: (Angrily) On whose orders?

  54. INT. WALESA’S FLAT. NIGHT

  The phone is ringing. WALESA, in night clothes, finally answers it.

  WALESA: (Into phone) Yes –?

  (In the near dark he listens and feels for the light switch. He puts the light on.)

  Jesus and Mary …

  55. INT. SOLIDARITY MEETING ROOM. GDANSK. DAY

  A meeting of the Praesidium with WALESA in the chair. There are about a dozen others, including a young woman (ALINA PIENKOWSKA), and BOGDAN LIS and ANDRZEJ GWIAZDA. BUJAK, talking to them, is the only one standing up.

  BUJAK: They broke into the Solidarity office in Warsaw and found what they say is a secret document. They have arrested our printer and also a clerk in the Prosecutor’s office. They claim he leaked the document to us. Warsaw Solidarity has called a strike of the entire region, if both men are not released.

  WALESA: Excuse me. A strike is not called by the regional office, only by the National Commission of the Union.

  BUJAK: Then you’d better call it. Work has already stopped at Ursus Tractors. What’s more, we are demanding as a condition of calling off the strike an investigation into the methods of the Prosecutor’s office and of the security police. We’re demanding cuts in the police budget and also the punishment of those who committed the police brutalities in ’70 and ’76.

  (WALESA looks despairing.)

  WALESA: For two arrested men? And what do we hit them with when the stakes get higher?

  56. INT. KANIA’S OFFICE. DAY

  KANIA has the PUBLIC PROSECUTOR standing across the desk.

  KANIA: Comrade Prosecutor – are we to have a confrontation with a million workers over a miserable document?

  PROSECUTOR: It is a classified document – a secret circular prepared by myself, on the organization of the anti-socialist groups. Furthermore, it is a stolen document. We have a good case for prosecution.

  KANIA: (Angrily) The document contains nothing of importance. I have said on behalf of the Party, in public, that we offer Solidarity coexistence. These arrests merely make me look like a liar.

  57. INT. SOLIDARITY MEETING ROOM. GDANSK. DAY

  WALESA and the Praesidium (same people as scene 55).

  WALESA: (Strongly) These demands against the security police – they can’t be made in the name of the union. We are a non-political organization. It was a pledge. Do you want to ruin everything?

  58. EXT. STEELWORKS. DAY

  It is snowing. A high shot shows us the works at a standstill. Groups of STEEL WORKERS stand around. A small group is waiting for WALESA, BUJAK and KURON, who are walking purposefully towards the waiting delegation of WORKERS.

  When the two small groups arrive face to face we go into a closer shot.

  BUJAK: Where can we talk?

  59. EXT. STEELWORKS. DAY

  BUJAK, KURON and WALESA are huddled under the steps with the small group of STEEL WORKERS, one of whom acts as a spokesman. Snow continues to fall.

  BUJAK: It is very simple. We demanded the release of the two men. The Government has delivered them. We have to deliver the end of the strike.

  STEEL WORKER: Our demands have not been satisfied.

  WALESA: Your demands did not have the sanction of Gdansk.

  STEEL WORKER: We are not in Gdansk. We are in Warsaw. Furthermore, our region is much bigger than the Gdansk region.

  KURON: My friend, there is another reality beyond the immediate issue.

  STEEL WORKER: Who is he?

  KURON: I am Jacek Kuron.

  STEEL WORKER: You’re not a worker.

  KURON: This is not an argument between you and the police. It is an argument between millions of Poles and the regime.

  STEEL WORKER: No, it is between us and the police. In ’76, when the Government raised prices, we went on strike and we won. They caved in. Afterwards the police made us run the gauntlet of truncheons. We were beaten unconscious, they smashed our bones. Who was ever punished for those crimes?

  KURON: (Helplessly) Lech?

  WALESA: What can I say?

  BUJAK: You don’t have to tell these men about the police. They have been in cells and in gaol. The Government has agreed to talk about the responsibility of the police.

  STEEL WORKER: In private they will say anything.

  BUJAK: The talks on police were announced on television tonight.

  STEEL WORKER: Talks are no
t what we asked for. They guarantee nothing.

  WALESA: (Rather dramatically) I am your guarantee!

  (Self-consciously he amends this.) We are your guarantee.

  60. INT. FIRST SECRETARY’S OFFICE (KANIA). MORNING

  KANIA is being shaved, by, as it turns out, the WITNESS.

  KANIA: There are people who think that the Party boss can run the operation like a Chicago gangster. They should try sitting in this chair. I’ve got a Party which is losing members in droves, and half of those who remain have joined a free trade union with five million members –

  WITNESS: (Discreetly correcting) Seven million.

  KANIA: (Taking the correction without comment) Seven million. With the right to strike for more money which I haven’t got because industrial production is down 12 per cent owing to the strikes, so I have to go cap in hand to the Soviets, who are giving us 690 million dollars in credits to keep Poland Communist. And to the United States, who are giving us 550 million dollars for the same reason. I’ve got a rank and file which wants to know when I’m going to reform the middle apparatus, and I’ve got a middle apparatus which wants to know when I’m going to stop the rot in the rank and file, and a leadership which is waiting to see which way the cat will jump. I’ve got a Catholic Church which doesn’t want me to provoke the Russians, and a Communist Party two-thirds of whom believe in God. And to top it all off I’ve got a police force which can’t break the habit, and a Public Prosecutor with the political nous of a bull in a china shop. As First Secretary of the Polish United Workers’ Party, Al Capone wouldn’t have lasted out the week.