APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070027-9
Gierek's New Deal (S)
Gierek's accession to power was not greeted with much popular acclaim. It was generally agreed that he had done a good job at Katowice, but the restless Polish nation - wiser and more skeptical than in 1956 - was unwilling to accept any leader at face value. Moreover, the party machine he now commanded was held in deep contempt. Thus Gierek had to prove himself anew. He began by reversing the Gomulka regime's condemnation of the December disorders, declaring them to have been - by and large - the expression of legitimate working-class grievances. Attributing the conditions which gave rise to these grievances to the erroneous practices of his predecessor, he promised to introduce a more democratic style of leadership, to improve the party's contact and cooperation with all elements of the population, to insure a freer flow of information, to raise living standards, to correct existing distortions in economic policy, and to provide the average Pole with greater opportunity for direct participation in the political and economic decisionmaking processes.
Suiting action to words, Gierek moved swiftly to allay the immediate grievances of Poland's angry workers. He granted a substantial increase in wages and allowances to low income families. He first shelved and then discarded Gomulka's controversial incentive pay plan. He rolled back the December price increases and froze food prices through 1972 (since extended through 1974). With the help of a $100 million loan from the USSR, he was able to substantially increase the supply of meat available to consumers. He traveled from factory to factory, talking directly with the workers in order to hear their complaints, to tell them of what was being done to improve their lot, and to explain why he couldn't do more. Although he resisted demands for the introduction of Yugoslav-style workers' self-management, he gave the workers substantially increased representation in high party and trade union organs. In addition, he undertook to draft a new and more equitable labor code, but this project has turned out to be a bit more sticky than he anticipated.
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200070027-9
