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Volume XCIII, Number 8
University of Southern California
Thursday, January 20, 1983
Solidarity activist sees grim future in Communist Poland
By Michael Molinski
Assistant Citv Editor
Stanislaw Baranczak. an exiled Polish activist and member of the banned Solidarity trade union, ruled out Wednesday any possibility of compromise between the Communist regime in Poland and Solidarity in a speech on campus.
“A compromise is possible only if you can rely on your partner,” Baranczak told the audience in Seaver Science Auditorium. “The Polish government proved, both before and after Solidarity, that their signature, their agreements, are simply not kept.”
Baranczak, now a professor of Polish literature at Harvard University, spoke on the topic “Democratic Opposition and the Solidarity Movement in Poland.” He told of his involvement in Polish politics and the media and criticized the Polish government and its Soviet counterpart for their intervention into the affairs of Solidarity.
He attributed the dissolution and eventual banning of Solidarity partly to the openness of the trade union’s policies.
“Nothing was secret in Solidarity,” he said. “This is one reason why it was infiltrated so easily.”
Baranczak was a professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Poland until 1977, when he was fired by the government because of his political activity. He was reinstated to that position in 1980 after the formation of Solidarity, a reinstatement that he said was largely due to pressure from trade union officials.
He is the co-founder of “KOR,” the Worker's Defense Committee, which is Poland’s
leading democratic opposition group and has also co-edited several underground publications in support of the worker's movement.
In his speech Baranczak said he is resentful of the Western press’s depiction of Solidarity activists as dissidents.
“The word dissident means to sit apart from.” he said. “Dissidents are minorities. They are abnormal."
He emphasized that he is not a dissident because “virtually all society (in Poland) is unified against the government. The only people that fulfill the real definition of dissidents are the Communist rulers.”
One of the publications he co-edited was an underground newspaper called Robotnik (The Worker). Workers and intellectuals worked together to publish this newspaper, Baranczak said. It contained factual reports about “what’s going on in factories" and about government persecutions of labor leaders. In addition, he said the publication encouraged workers to organize and contained information on how to stage a strike.
Though supportive of the Roman Catholic Church as a religious institution. Baranczak conceded that there is growing tension within the clergy, with some church leaders being highly critical of Polish Primate Jozef Glemp.
“He’s the wrong person for the position.” he said. “His only wish is to avoid trouble. He has no political ambitions.
“Once, he addressed the actors who had a very successful boycott of the media, and asked them to stop the boycott. The next day, the government resolved the union of actors.
“It is my opinion, or perhaps more of a wish, that the pope
Scholarship services found to be misleading
By Steve DeSalvo
Assistant City Editor
University financial aid counselors will soon provide information to students cautioning them to carefully scrutinize all claims made by scholarship search services, said Mike Halloran. director of the office of admissions and financial aid.
The decision was a response to a committee report from the California Student Aid Commission which concluded that most scholarship search services — businesses which claim to find private sources of financial aid for college students — fail to provide what they promise and may be misleading.
“Students should be very leery when spending money to get this kind of information," Halloran added.
An ad hoc committee released the report Monday after spending 11/2 years investigating more than 45 scholarship search firms.
“The committee decided that students who used scholarship search services weren't getting what they paid for," said Arthur Marmaduke. director of the California Student Aid Commission.
Rita Hymes, a college advisement counselor at Granada Hills High School and a member of the committee, said many firms promise to provide a list of scholarship sources tailored to each student’s qualifications and background for a fee. usually between S19 and S45.
The committee found, however, that most of these firms do not conduct their own research. Instead, they simply obtain their list
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wouldn’t approve of the primate’s actions,” Baranczak said. “Possibly he could promote him to some Vatican office to get him out of Polish affairs.”
Baranczak described Solidarity as “a conclusion drawn from all previous defeats. August 1980 (the date on which Solidarity was officially formed) was a massive return of the whole society to normality.”
Baranczak repeatedly stated that American’s failed to grasp the importance of Solidarity to the Polish worker and criticized the view that the trade union “went too far.”
“The Western observers fail to understand that there was no halfway,” he said. “The creation of Solidarity was at that same time impossible and necessary'. Everyone in Poland was aware that there was a risk involved but they were also aware that they couldn’t live their lives underwater. At that time, Poland was a country ruled by incompetent and corrupt officials.”
Baranczak has been living in the United States since March 1981, when the Polish labor movement was in full swing.
SPEAKING OUT — Stanislaw Baranczak, exiled Polish activist and member of Solidarity, spoke before an audience in Seaver Science auditorium Wednesday about “Democratic Opposition and the Solidarity Movement in Poland.”
TAUGHT 30 YEARS
Shakespeare professor dies
By Susan Shaw
Staff Writer
Aerol Arnold, a noted Shakespearean scholar and Renaissance critic at the university, died Wednesday of cancer at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 71.
Arnold, who retired in 1982, was nominated this year for the Distinguished Emeritus Award.
In 1977, Arnold was honored with the title of university professor—a title recognizing his achievements in all fields of academics.
Well known for his lectures and writings on Shakespeare. Arnold’s works are often quoted by scholars, and his essay on “Richard II" for the Ahmanson Theatre was recently reprinted for the Kennedy Center, reaching an audience of more than 150,000.
Arnold, who taught at the university for more than thirty years, was Hesrribed by David Malone. dean of the college of letters, arts and sciences, as having one of Ihe most “fascinating minds on campus.” a man devoted to "helping people discover the joys of reading literature.”
Arnold, who was a trained psychologist and was a student of noted psychologist Alfred Adler. wrote and spoke extensively on the psychological elements in Shakespeare’s plays.
He later became interested in the relationship of the theories of anthropology to literature.
Described as an “innovator,” Arnold had a special gift for enlivening his many lectures and seminars with anecdotes and insights, friends said.
Believing that literature could be made understandable for the non-academic person. Arnold spoke frequently to the Friends of the Library and other university support groups.
As a result of his many lectures and writings.
his influence extended far outside the classroom. He believed, friends said, in Walt Whitman’s statement, “To have great poets, there must be great audiences, too.”
Because of his wealth of knowledge and his genuine interest in teaching, Arnold benefited the entire English department as well as countless students, colleagues said.
Arnold was named McElderry Lecturer in
1977,	Mortar Board’s Outstanding Professor in 1980, and was an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1982. Also, he was honored with an endowment of the Aerol Arnold Chair in English. The university w'ill announce the chair's appointment later this year.
Arnold was also involved in organizing creative writing programs at the university. But foremost, he was interested in the personal and intellectual development of his students.
As a former student recalled. “He gave of himself so much to students in conferences and even in casual meetings. He encouraged me in my writing and urged me to pursue a wide range of interests. My life has been made richer for having known a great and gifted teacher and a warm and compassionate human being. I have tried to share the richness with my students.”
His widow, Anna Bing Arnold, the namesake of the university’s Bing Theatre, is a generous philanthropist as well as being a university trustee.
Arnold received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and taught at several universities before coming to this university in 1946 as an associate professor.
During World War II Arnold served as a military research analyst and editor with the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey in England. Germany and Washington.
Stiff photo by Dan Canales