By GEORGE LAMBERT WARSAW — In a colorfully decorated hall at Warsaw’s Pa- lace of Culture and Science 1,800 delegates representing 2,350,000 members of the Polish United Workers’ Party attended the Party’s 7th Congress. Also present were fraternal delegates from over- 50 Communist and Workers’ parties, including Bruce Magnuson, member of the Central Executive. Committee, ‘Communist Party of Canada, as well aS delegations from some Socialist parties (France, Italy, Belgium, etc.) and from a num- ber of national liberation move- rents. The delegation of the Cmmunist Party of the Soviet Union was led by its General Secretary, Leonid Brezhnev, who was given a standing ovation when he entered the hall. _A_ TRIUMPHANT CONGRESS _ This was a triumphant Con- ‘ress as was shown by the Cent- tal Committee Report delivered ‘by the Party Secretary Edward ilerek. Never before has a Con- ‘gress heard about such tremen- Ous achievements in a five-year Period as was the case this time. * Consulting the working class 4 nd the whole nation in a very ifficult situation nearly five €ars ago,” said Gierek, “our arty Outlined a socio-economic ‘policy which had two main ‘goals: an increase in the welfare f the nation and the growth of Poland’s strength . . . At present we are drawing up the balance heet of the most fruitful five- year period in the 30-year his- tory cf People’s Poland. _ “We have worked well and we ave achieved much. The fore- most task set at the 6th Con- ress was a rise in the living tandard of working people, and Wages and incomes. Today we can say: the people are living better, they are better off than five years ago. Real wages were ncreasing by an average of 7% ™uch as in the two previous rst of all a marked rise in real year, that is four times as. ew on. five-year periods. The average net nominal wage which in 1970 was 2,235 zlotys, amounts to 3,500 zlotys at present. The wage increase embraced all peo- ple employed in the socialized economy—more than 11 million persons. “The rise in the incomes of farmers resulting from an_ in- crease in output and higher prices paid to them by the state for their products was similar to the wage rise in the socialized economy. The overall increase in the incomes of working people and their families was made up also of: a great increase in em- ployment, a rise in old-age dis- ability pensions and in social benefits. We have every right to say that as regards the most im- portant field of the material living conditions of working people — that of the rise in real wages and incomes — the deci- sions of the 6th Congress have not only been carried out. but exceeded. = NO PRICE INCREASES “The increase in wages and incomes was accompanied by a dynamic development of the pro- duction and supply of goods to the home market that were double the target set four years ago. Overcoming no small diffi- culties, the cost of living advan- tageous to working people was firmly protected. The prices of the basic foodstuffs have re- mained unchanged throughout the five-year period. “This resulted in an unprece- dented increase in food con- sumption and in the purchases of industrial goods and services. The development of. industrial and agricultural production en- sured a much bigger supply and considerably enriched the mar- ket. At the same time, however, a high increase in wages and in- comes and the resulting con- sumption growth were the reason why — despite considerable in- crease in output — market deli- veries of certain articles, parti- cularly meat, still encounter \4 * 1,850,000 new jobs have been provided. Given retirements, the umber of newly-employed totals 3 million. Poland's occupationally active population now numbers 17 million . . . f difficulties. We see these difficul- ties. We regard overcoming them as one of the most impor- tant goals of our policy.” A HOUSING BOOM Speaking about another vital issue — housing — the First Secretary declared: “At the 6th Congress we set the task of speeding up housing construc- tion and considerably improving the housing situation. This is one of the main social problems of our country ... We have worked out and we are imple- menting a comprehensive pro- gram for the solution of the housing question. As a result of many-sided undertakings and a - tremendous effort we have built in the last five years of 1,125,000 new apartments — all larger and better equipped. This is 183,000 more than. in the previous five- year period and 50,000 more than envisaged by the 6th Con- gress program. Moreover, over - 30-billion zlotys were spent to repair approximately 100,000 old tenement houses. Most of them were also modernized.. We have undertaken a great effort to create conditions for a marked expansion «of housing. construc- tion in the coming years: cement output has been doubled, some 100 modern housing factories and plants producing prefabric- ated units have been built and construction. enterprises have been expanded and modernized. “At the 6th Congress,” Gierek -continued, ‘‘we set the task of achieving major progress in social policy. We gave top prior- ity treatment to the question of expanding the social rights of working people, irnproving con- ditions of work, recreation, and the protection of health. SOCIAL SECURITY IMPROVED “In carrying out. these deci- sions we achieved a particularly big progress in creating better conditions for the development of the family and in improving the situation of people in the low income brackets. We have updated labor legislation, elimin- ating differences in social rights between blue- and white-collar workers. Paid maternity leaves have been extended. Rights to paid leave for the care of sick children have been augmented. We have set up a state alimony fund for mothers and abandoned families. Family allowances in general, and specially for crip- pled children, have been _in- creased. “Many new hospitals, out-pa- tient clinics and rural - health centers have been built. Free medical care has been extended to the 6.5 million-strong agricul- tural population. “A National Health Protection Fund has been set up to which all people makes their voluntary contributions. “Working conditions, safety, hygiene and aesthetics have markedly improved in thousands of enterprises. A better climate has been created for these meas- ures. The setting up of factory social and housing funds — and “The achievements ‘of recent years embrace all spheres of our social and political life. A reform to make secondary education com- pulsory for all is in the initial stages of implementation . . . their expansion to cover the en- tire economy — is of consider- able importance. Employees and . their families today have better rest and recreation opportunities. The number of children and youth attending various holiday camps has doubled. “We have guaranteed a gra- dual rise of old-age and disabili- ty pensions. We have improved the living conditions of veterans of liberated struggles and former prisoners of nazi concentration camps. “In 1974 we introduced 6 and. this year 12 additional work- free days ... IMPRESSIVE GAINS “This shows that we have achieved marked progress in social policy as well. We have implemented and overfulfilled the tasks of the 6th Congress. We have every right to say: our pecple benefit today more wide- ly and more universally from the sccial achievements of so- cialism. “At the 6th Congress we set the task ofa substantial acceler- ation of Poland’s socio-economic development, of enhancing her strength and expanding her po- tential. We recognized this as the basic condition for the fulfil- ment of our social goals. “We close today the five years of selfless and fruitful work of the nation with a 62% increase in the national income, a 73% increase in the industrial output and, according to the latest esti- mates, a 22% increase in agri- cultural production. Foreign trade ‘turnover has been more than doubled, and labor produc- tivity has markedly increased. “As regards the national eco- nomy we have achieved a dyna- mic rate of development by far higher than in the previous five- year periods, we have consider- ably exceeded the tasks charted by the 6th Congress. “We have invested a total of 1,900-billion zlotys in the expan- sion and modernization of Po- land’s economic potential. This is 450-billion zlotys more than we planned at the 6th Congress and 900-billicn zlotys more or nearly twice as much as in the previous five-year period. Never before have our investments been so large. “The investment program in the last five years was also diis- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 16, 1976—Page 7 tinguished by its many-sided character. We have- been: invest- ing in all branches of the econ- omy, in the raw materials and fuel industry, in the power in- dustry, in industrial and agricul- tural production, in transport, in the expansion of the material potential of social services, sci- tnce and culture. This was ac- companied by a marked increase in the effectiveness of capital in- vestments and a shortening of their realization. JOB CREATION “1,850,000 new jobs have been provided by the national econo- my. Given the jobs vacated by people going into retirement, the number of newly employed per- sons amounts to 3 million. Pol- and has today 17 million occupa- tionally active people, that is a half of the entire population. This is the highest index in our history and one of the highest in the present-day world. “The achievements .of recent years embrace all spheres of the social ‘and political lile of our nation and our country. A re- form aimed at making second- ary educaticn obligatory to all is in the initial stages of imple- mentation. Expenditure on the develcpment of science has been increased to 2.5% of. the natio- nal income, while the Second Ccngress of Polish Science has worked out ambitious plans. “Socialist .commitment in scientific and cultural creative activity keeps growing. The po- licy cf the party and the state is conductive to the development of the arts, tc the dissemination of our rich national culture. “We have developed institu- tions of socialist democracy, we have enriched them by the me- thod of social consultations and direct contacts with -working people. We have carried out a reform of the structure of state administration, we have formed rural communities and new pro- vinces. We have brought peo- ple’s authorities nearer to the basic units of social life and pro- ductive activity. We are perfect- ing systematically the methods of planning and management. We. have every reason to say that there is no sphere in which development, progress and crea- tive advance have not been re- corded. during .the past few years.”