|Poland’s course
- set full speed
. to great goals

ee

Bi

“y= By GEORGE LAMBERT

ARSAW—Having attended
5th Congress of the Polish

lrty in‘November 1968, it was
It lear to me right from the start
\ the present congress on Dec.
}) that this time things were
Wally different: a relaxed atmo-
Where, greater party unity, a
heher percentage of working-
lass delegates, more emphasis

shown by the attendance of

“Dmmunist and Workers’ Par-
Bes (nearly twice as many as in
68), and the spirit of optim-
m and confidence contained in
e keynote speech of the first
retary, Edward Gierek, and
fared by the delegates and the
blic.
is healthier situation at the
meress was the result of near-
a year of hard and consistent
ork by the new leadership to
ect the serious errors that
d to the tragic events of De-
ber 1970 (the strikes in the
pyards and the use of troops
ainst the strikers instead of
‘gotiating with them). The
'¢w leadership held endless
_eetings with the shipyard
_ orkers and settled their griev-
ices. It did the same thing
then there were work stop-
‘iges at the textile mills in
odz in February 1970, and
*ew lessons from the dissatis-
«;ction among the _ workers.
anages of the lowest-paid work-
S were raised, the price in-
eases introduced by the form-
leadership were annulled,
vices of food were frozen for
tev years, social facilities in
tories were improved, hous-
construction was speeded
in short, the new leadership
pt its promises.

Needless to say, this was
“eatly appreciated by the work-
..S, the more so since they were
.4 sing consulted by the party on
rocblems facing the country.
hey were drawn into the pre-
yngress discussion, and when
yy were asked to undertake
_oduction pledges in honor of
‘le congress they did so gladly,
- ‘oducing additional quantities
0M goods for which there is a big
€"\mand. This spirit naturally
©-Nited the ranks of the party
add enhanced its prestige.

ni Evaluate Events

oiIn addition to analyzing the
ingrors and the distortions of
iptninist principles that led up
nd the tragic events of Decem-
itor +1970, Edward Gierek also
ade a well-balanced evalua-
ngon. of the forces and people
ndat fought for and helped to
meeate and build the new Poland.
ti-E gave credit to the Commun-
ont Party of Poland, which was
en forgotten in the past, em-
asized the important role of
Polish army formed in the
,»viet Union in, liberating the
untry from the Nazi yoke (for

‘me years the part played by

yaye
va)
Op\

proletarian internationalism,

aternal delegations from 70°

the partisans, which was by no
means small, was mainly fea-
tured), and dealt at length with
the activity of the Polish Work-
ers’ Party which was organized
in December 1941 and which led
the struggle against the nazis
during wartime and in the early
post-war years gave leadership
to the country in socialist con-
struction. Edward Gierek men-
tioned the “major contribution
made by Wladyslaw Gomulka
as secretary of the Polish Work-
ers’ Party (1943-1948), and the
important. contribution to the
building of People’s Poland
made by Boleslaw Bierut as a
party leader, as chairman of the

underground National Home.

Council, ‘and as the first presi-
dent of jthe reborn republic.”

Posters advertising the con-

gress featured a slogan which
read: “So that the Country May
Prosper and the People Live Bet-
ter.” This idea ran through the
whole of the keynote speech.
The first secretary repeated the
statement he made at the 8th
plenary meeting of the Central
Committee in February 1971:
“The most important and most
urgent task now facing us is to
ensure the development of pro-
duction and the growth of pro-
ductivity, and, on this basis, to
improve the living standard and
social welfare of the working
people.” Continuing in this vein,
Gierek declared: “The exper-
ience of the current year proves
that a proper socio-economic
policy and its active support by

the working people make it
possible to achieve both sub-
stantial progress in the develop-
ment of production and an im-
provement in the standard of
living. In both cases the results
attained in 1971 were higher
than in the preceding years.”

Income to Rise.

And now some figures on the
present Five-Year Plan (1971
through 1975). Compared with
previous five-year period the
national income is to go up
by 38-39%, industrial output by
48-50%, and agricultural pro-
duction by 18-21%; the output
of consumer goods is to rise by
42% and that of capital goods
by 52%.

“The scope of the economic
effort awaiting us and the mag-
nitude of the economic potential
that we will create,” he said,
“are most vividly, though only
in general terms, characterized
by the planned 1975 output of
certain industrial items. Poland
will produce 167 million tons of
hard coal, including 25 million
tons of coking coal, 96 billion
kilowatt-hours of electricity,
14.7. million tons of steel,
234,000 tons of zinc, nearly
180,000 tons of copper and al-
most 18 million tons of ce-
ment. . . . Our shipyards will

build various types of vessels in
1971-1975 totalling 3.5 million
tons.

“The production of knitwear
will double in the course of this
five-year period, the output of
reach

synthetic fibres will

he
rn tas _

pene eee é § ;
Polish miners have recorded new production victories.

Edward Gierek with dock workers.

126,500 tons; over 50% more
furniture will be produced;
nearly one million television
sets will be manufactured year-
ly; there will be a fourfold rise
in the output of tape-recorders,
reaching a level of 750,000 units
per year; during the period of
the present Five-Year Plan we
will produce almost 600,000 pas-
senger cars, or nearly three
times as much as during the last
five-year period.”

Housing Needs

Edward Gierek devoted a lot
of attention to housing. ‘“Im-
provement of the housing situa-
tion,” he said, “is required in
order to take care of the needs
of the population and to remove
obstacles to the country’s eco-
nomic growth created by the
housing shortage in highly dev-
eloped industrial areas....The
needs are tremendous. At pres-
ent about one million families,
many of whom live in very dif-
ficult conditions, are waiting for
apartments....A total of about
1,075,000 dwellings will be built
out of state, cooperative and
private funds in 1971-1975, or
25% more than during the per-
iod of the previous Five-Year
Plan. But this will not meet all
the needs . . . In view of the
great social importance of the
housing problem, we _ suggest
that one of the first plenary
meetings of the new Central

25

Committee should be devoted to
the discussion and adoption of
an integrated program for the
solution of the housing situation
by 1985.”

Average wages (real earnings)
will go up by 17-18% during the
present five-year period, which
is nearly equal to the increase
recorded during the past 10
years. But that is not all that
the workers will get. Considera-
tion is being given to shorter
working hours and earlier retire-
ment for pensions. Full employ-
ment will provide millions of
new jobs to young people and
women, thus raising the family
income.

Wide Discussion

Each aspect of developments —
in Poland deserves a_ special
article, so I’ll go back to the
congress and deal with some of
its highlights. Out of a total of
1815 delegates, excluding fra-
ternal delegations, 1349 took the
floor or submitted their views in
writing) at the congress or at
meetings of the various com-
missions. Fraternal delegations
toured the country and addres-
sed meetings in some of the
largest mines, mills and factor-
ies.

The Canadian delegate, Alf
Dewhurst, spoke at the Swier-
czewski factory (precision tools
and measuring devices) in War-
saw and at a large pulp and
paper mill in Ostroleka, about
90 miles northeast of Warsaw.
He was happy about his meet-
ings with the workers, manage- .
ment, trade union officials and
party leaders in these plants.

The congress was a demon-
stration of close unity between
the Polish party and the parties
of the socialist countries, espec-
ially with the CPSU, and the
strong, unbreakable ties be-
tween Poland and all these
countries.

Not Re-elected

- Three former members of the
Political Bureau—Jozef ‘Cyran-
kiewicz, prime minister for
many years until the change of
leadership in December 1970,
and for a year now Chairman of
the Council of State (president);
Stefan Jedrychowski, a long
time member of the Political
Bureau in charge of economic af-
fairs and recently Minister of
Foreign Affairs; and Mieczyslaw
Moczar, one-time Minister of In-
terior who earlier this year was
appointed as head of the State
Control Chamber, a position that
does not rate membership.in the
Political Bureau — were not re-
elected.

This action, which will surely
meet popular approval, should
strengthen the unity of the
party. The changes in top lead-
ership are bound to result -in

»changes in the .State Council - -

‘and government. s,s

- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1972—PAGE 9.