1970-1978

Gomułka's propaganda could not mask the economic crisis into which Poland was drifting. Although the system of fixed, artificially low food prices kept urban discontent under control, it caused stagnation in agriculture and made more expensive food imports necessary. This situation was unsustainable, and in December 1970, the regime suddenly announced massive increases in the prices of basic foodstuffs. The raised prices were unpopular among many urban workers. Gomułka believed that the agreement with West Germany on fixing the Polish western border had made him more popular, but in fact most Poles seemed to feel that since the Germans were no longer a threat to Poland, they no longer needed to tolerate the Communist regime as a guarantee of Soviet support for the defense of the Oder-Neisse line.

Demonstrations against the price rises broke out in the northern coastal cities of Gdańsk, Gdynia, Elbląg and Szczecin. Gomułka's right-hand man, Zenon Kliszko ordered the army to fire on protesting workers. In Gdynia the soldiers had orders to prevent workers from returning to work, and they fired into a crowd of workers emerging from their trains; many workers were killed. The protest movement spread to other cities, leading to more strikes and causing angry workers to occupy many factories. The Party leadership met in Warsaw and decided that a full-scale working-class revolt was inevitable unless drastic steps were taken. With the consent of Brezhnev in Moscow, Gomułka was forced to resign. Edward Gierek was drafted as the new First Secretary of the PZPR. Prices were lowered, wage increases were announced, and sweeping economic and political changes were promised. Gierek went to Gdańsk and met the workers personally, apologizing for the mistakes of the past, and saying that as a worker himself, he would now govern Poland for the people.

Gierek, like Gomułka in 1956, came to power on a raft of promises that now everything would be different: wages would rise, prices would remain stable, there would be freedom of speech, and those responsible for the violence at Gdynia and elsewhere would be punished. Gierek created a new economic program, based on large-scale borrowing from the to buy technology that would upgrade Poland's production. This massive borrowing, estimated to have totaled 10 billion USD, was used to re-equip and modernize Polish industry, and to import consumer goods in order to give the workers more incentive to work. For the next four years, Poland enjoyed rapidly rising living standards and an apparently stable economy. Real wages rose 40% between 1971 and 1975, and for the first time most Poles could afford to buy cars, televisions and other consumer goods. The peasants were subsidized to grow more food. Poles were able to travel to West with little difficulty. There was also some cultural and political relaxation. As long as the "leading role of the Party" and the Soviet "alliance" were not criticized, there was a limited freedom of speech.

"Consumer Communism" raised Polish living standards and expectations, but the program faltered suddenly in the early 1970s because of worldwide recession and increased oil prices, which resulted in a sharp increase in the price of imported consumer goods, coupled with a decline in demand for Polish exports. Poland's foreign debt rose from US$100 million in 1971 to US$6 billion in 1975, and continued to rise rapidly. This made it more and more difficult for Poland to continue borrowing from the West. Once again, consumer goods began to disappear from Polish shops. The new factories built by Gierek's regime also proved to be largely ineffective and mismanaged. As the government became increasingly unable to borrow money from abroad, it had no alternative but to raise prices, particularly for basic foodstuffs. The government had been so afraid of a repeat of the 1970 worker rebellion that it had kept prices frozen at the 1970 levels rather than allowing them to rise gradually. Then, in June 1976, under pressure from Western creditors, the government again introduced price increases: butter by 33%, meat by 70%, and sugar by 100%. The result was an immediate wave of strikes, with violent demonstrations at Plock and Radom. Gierek backed down at once, dismissing Prime Minister and repealing the price rises.

The 1976 disturbances and the subsequent arrests and dismissals of worker militants brought the workers and the intellectual opposition to the regime to more cooperation. A group of intellectuals led by Jacek Kuron and Adam Michnik founded the Committee for the Defence of the Worker (KOR). The aim of the KOR was to assist the worker victims of the 1976 repression, but it inevitably became a political resistance group. This brought many more Polish intellectuals into active opposition of the Polish government. For the rest of the 1970s, resistance to the regime grew, in the form of free trade unions student groups, clandestine newspapers and publishers, imported books and newspapers, and even a independent university. The regime made no serious attempt to suppress the opposition. Gierek was interested only in buying off dissatisfied workers and keeping the Soviets convinced that Poland was a loyal ally..

Facts

Literature