By JAMES LEECH

WARSAW — On July 22, the
“Olish People’s Republic - will
Celebrate 35 years of the building
Of socialism. The achievements
ae staggering, the residue of

| Problems considerable.

Social and economic victories
Since the proclamation, July 22,
*, of the Manifesto of the
olish Committee for National
iberation are in some Cases quite
Obvious and touchable. In others.
y are deep-seated satisfactions
Which grow out of a blend of
Polish history, tradition, and
Socialist policies.
No Pole has died in a war in the

past 35 years, a record unknown
in the previous two centuries.
Such a welcome new element in
Polish life. It arises directly from
policies of the government and
the leading political party, in the
National Unity Front of three par-
ties, the Polish United Workers’
Party and from participation in
the socialist community and the
Warsaw Treaty.

It is understandable that Po-
land, which lost 6,000,000 dead in
World War II, is a consistent
proponent of peace in its own
policies and in its proposals be-
fore the United Nations. The
‘biological reconstruction” of a
people scheduled for extinction

TRYBUNA LUDU'S
ANNUAL FESTIVAL

WARSAW — As a part of its public work the Polish newspaper
Trybuna Ludu, organ of the Polish United Workers’ Party, spon-
Sors an annual festival of sports, cultural competitions, workers’

| discussions in factories, festive foods and entertainments.

Trybuna Ludu is also the donor of annual awards for people and
Organizations cited for outstanding work in any one of multitude of

| Pursuits,

The paper’s editor-in-chief, Josef Barecki handed out the
| 8Wards for popularization of Marxism-Leninism, political activity
t among students, cultural and ideological work among ships
| Sfews, the spreading of working-class history and knowledge of
| Work among rural youth movements, scouting in remote areas,
| Modernization and cultural activity in the countryside. Men and

men, young and old, artists, writers, crewmen, farmers and
j Pensioners were among those honored. A textile factory folk song
and dance ensemble, a group of miners who improved drilling
| rds and a poster designer also received this year’s awards.

An international group of journalists was present for the presen-

tation, and for this year’s festival of Trybuna Ludu, which marked

anniversary under that title last December. Photos taken

during Festival.

35 years
of
socialism

by the fascist occupation forces,
is one of the fundamental vic-
tories of socialist Poland, Jerzy
Lukaszewicz, Workers’ Party
Political Bureau member, told a
group of foreign journalists as re-
cently as June 23. In a country
whose history is full of occupa-
tions and partitions, the suppres-
sion of the Polish language and
Polish customs, the socialist sys-
tem now guarantees the working:
class, peasantry, intellectuals, ar-
tists and all who want to create a
fulfilling future, the right to ex-
pression as Poles.

Host of Young Specialists

With a population of 35 million,
of whom 52% are 30 years of age
or under, Poland has the youngest
population in Europe. The baby
boom of the mid-1950s (800,000
births a year) gave the govern-
ment many a problem in the edu-
cational, child care, maternity
and other realms, but it also pro-
viding a host of young specialists
and experts in various fields,
ready to involve themselves in the
long-haul tasks to be completed.

To a first-time visitor, Poland
appears as an unfinished sym-
phony.

You know from facts, figures
and eye-witness realities that
enormous work has gone into
present-day Poland, that the
counterpoint is a rich cultural
heritage, that determination has
outmatched ‘‘certain’* doom, that
where only years ago the problem
was to provide a glass of milk for
each child, for many the problem
now is to get parts for their cars.

You find that industrial produc-
tion in Poland between 1971 and
1975 rose more than 10% — five
times that of Japan, and 10 times
that of the Federal Republic of
Germany; that national income in
those years jumped 9.8% in Po-
land, but only 1.9% in Britain and
the USA. Of course the scale is
different, but the trend is deci-
sive.

You learn that Polish ship-
building is booming; that 80% of
such production is exported, and
some 1,700 Polish vessels under
30 different flags are plying the
world’s oceans. Specialization
has taken hold and, in complete
sugar refining factories, sulphuric
acid plants (Poland is second in
world in sulphur production), min-

‘ing and roadmaking machinery,

the country is a rising star.

Auto Industry — Up from Zero

Coal deserves an extra word.
Countries like the USA which
once thought coal was becoming
obsolete, are now scrambling to
boost production. In Poland
where it has always been impor-
tant, and they extract 7.4% of the
world’s hard coal, production
jumped between 1960 and 1978 by
54%. It’s a tribute to mechaniza-
tion that in those years the indus-.
try’s workforce rose only 6%.

Poland’s important role in the

' Council for Mutual Economic
}- Assistance (CMEA) comprising

socialist countries is a story in it-
self, and a further measure of
socialist Poland’s productive

| strides.

A last word on industry must
include reference to the humming
FSO auto plant (Fabryka
Samochedow  Osobowych),

TRIBUNE PHOTO — JAMES LEECH

where the Polski Fiat, Fiat 126p,
Polonez and Polmo cars are pro-
duced (and many exported to Bri-
tain, France, etc.) The target for
the current year is 120,000 cars,
but workers have pledged to turn
out an extra 2,000. Poland’s auto
industry, starting from zero after
the war, is also a story that de-
serves to be told on its own.

With all this and the volumes
more that could be told, from
whence arises the impression of
Poland as a great, unfinished
symphony? Like other socialist
countries Poland plans its
development, but perhaps more
than any other socialist country,
Poland’s growth needs are burst-
ing the bounds of the plan.

Warsaw airport, considered
ample five years ago, is in danger
of being trampled into the turf by
the success of tourism — much of
it to and from Canada and the
United States. But the solution
demands longer range, and time-
consuming planning, along with
investment which is sought after
in many other areas of growth.

Private Farms

Housing is booming but it is es-
timated that the demand will ease
only between 1985-90. In 1974 a
slogan was put forward expres-
sing the need to double housing
accommodation by the 1985-90
period. We have to build another

Poland, it proclaimed. It was .

dropped, a leading official said jo-
vially, when satirists asked
whether the first Poland was no
good, and so a second had to be
built. Jokes aside, some 290,0¢0
new dwelling units were finished
in 1977, and more than a million-
and-a-half are planned for the
1976-80 period. The ways in
which housing may be financed,
built and the accommodation paid
for are many and varied: Rents
and related payments range from
2.6 to 5% of monthly income in
government-built housing, to 12%
in other forms.

Another unfinished aspect of
the Polish symphony of achieve-
ment is its agriculture. A socialist

The busy centre of Warsaw, capital of Poland.

country in which between 78%
and 80% of farmland is
privately-owned is barred from
modern ‘agricultural techniques
on a large portion of its arable
land. It is a serious drawback, and
no one in a responsible position
will say otherwise. There are, on
the other hand, more than 1,500
production cooperatives and
5,700 state farms. And private
farmers are bound by contracts
for their produce.

In the process some seven mil-
lion people in the countryside re-
ceive Poland’s free health care, a
not negligible demonstration of
the benefits of the collective. At
the same time, participation in the
country’s general retirement
scheme means farmers’ land be-
comes available to larger, more
economic units, although some of
these are private. Large numbers
of youth from families of private
land holders.have gone into indus-
try and science, lessening further
the ties to private plots. In fact, so
many youth are leaving family
farms that some authorities ex-
press a note of approval of the
Pope’s advice to young people to
stay on the land. But no one con-
cemed for Poland’s agricultural
production says they should do so
by way of private holdings.

The Past and Modern Poland

Poland has exerted enormous
energy to restore its treasured cul-
tural heritage; Warsaw was re-
built from the rubble as the world
knows; the scientists, artists, and
craftsmen of the past stand side
by side with the workers and all
creative groups in modern
Poland.

If the vision of Warsaw with its
rainbow of cars darting this way
and that conflicts with a dour pic-
ture scraped together by the
capitalist press, that is a sign that
it is time the victims of the West's
mass media distortions had an
opportunity to listen to the soar-
ing notes of real progress in Po-
land, instead of to the dirges of her
ill-wishers.

Average annual rate of increase in national income and in in-
dustrial production between 1971 and 1975.

National Industrial
income production
(in %) (in %)

World 41 4.4
Poland 9.8 10.4
Fed. Repub. :
Germany nerd 1.0
France 3.5 2.3
Britain 1.9 0.2
italy 2.1 1.6
Japan 5.4 1.9
Spain 5.6 7.4
USA 1.9 a7.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 13, 1979—Page 5

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