Warsaw police get tough at sit-in

December 2, 1981

Hundreds of riot police reinforced police who were besieging a firefighters academy Tuesday where defiant cadets have staged a week-long sit-in. The new get-tough tactics by the government may signal a shift toward martial law.

The cadets are demanding that their academy come under civilian instead of government rule. At this writing urgent negotiations had failed to break the deadlock.

Across Poland, more than 200,000 students, farmers, and oil workers remained on strike in defiance of the government's threat of emergency action. ''Anarchy is spreading,'' the Communist Party newspaper Trybuna Ludu warned Nov. 30, hours after the party announced it would seek special powers to ban strikes. Meanwhile , the government's chief union negotiator said he saw little hope for reconciliation.