POLAND 1.

Five years

of unprecedented

progress...

The years of 1971-1976 have
brought an unprecedented prog-
ress. of socialist construction in
the whole post-war era of Poland.
Its foundation is the new strategy
of social and economic develop-
ment, first adopted by the Party in
1971 and later given its general
objectives in the program of the
6th Congress of the Polish United
Workers Party (PUWP). In a
short time it was possible through
this strategy to overcome the so-
cial tensions that had led to the

tragic incidents of December’

1970, and to take up the most im-
portant social and economic prob-
lems with a view to achieving
their successful solutions.
The five-year period of 1971-
~ 1975 was enormously successful
in carrying out this strategy.
Dynamic economic development
was the base of huge progress in
the conditions of living of working
people, their families and the
whole nation. This was seen by
increased industrial output
growth of 72%; in farming by ab-
out 20% and that of foreign trade
by three times. As a result, -Po-
land’s produced national income
went up 62% (its average annual
rate of growth being 10%) while
her distributed national income
rose 72%.

Expansion and Modernization

With its indices attaining the
world’s highest, this dynamic
growth in economy was the con-
sequence of a serious labor pro-
ductivity increase and a broad
program of expansion and mod-
ernization of Poland’s economic

potential, creating an increase of

employment by more than two
million people. Over that period,
industrial labor productivity grew
by an annual 8.4% while that of
the building industry alone at-
tained 10%.

The progress in enlarging Po-
land’s material and technical
basis of socialism is shown by a
60% growth of fixed assets in in-
dustry and a 28% increase in farm-
ing. Today, the country’s new as-
sets, which are those put to use in
the first six years of this decade,
account for over a half of those in
the entire economy and for 60% in
the industry alone.

On the strength of such a
dynamic economic growth, the
society’s material conditions of
living showed an improvement
unprecedented in its rate and di-
mension. The yardstick is the
growth, on the average by more
than 40%, of real wages and other
incomes of the working people in
towns and villages. Laid down by
the Party forimplementation over
the past five-year period, the na-
tional program of pay regulations
was successfully completed in
1975. The program embraced ab-
out 12 million employees, i.e. all
those employed in the national
economy although initially it had
haan envicaced far 4 A million

This is the first of a two-part
article on the economic situa-
tion in Poland and the facts
behind the public disorders
of June 25, 1976.

persons. Apart from this, a
scheme of allowances due for
years of service was introduced to
embrace 9 million employees and
the lowest wages were increased
by a substantial 50%.

Within this program, particular
attention was devoted to the im-
provement of wages and working

‘conditions for such groups as

teachers and medical personnel.

Trade Union Role

All pay regulations were .ef-
fected in close consultation with
all trade unions operating in par-
ticular branches and fields, as well
as with Poland’s federation of
trade unions which is the Central
Council of Trade Unions.

Lowest old-age and retirement
pensions were raised in 1971 and
1974 and extra allowances were
paid to old-age and retired per-
sons requiring permanent care
and assistance. To this must be
added a greater flexibility opened
to superannuated persons with
particular reference to the pos-
sibilities of earlier retirement of
women and disabled people. The
country’s expenditure for old-age
and retirement pensions went up

from 33,900 million zlotys. to

63,000 million zlotys, showing a
twofold growth in the years
1970-1975.

Low Income Families

Enormous in range, the Party’s
social welfare program was de-
signed to achieve a fundamental
improvement in the living condi-
tions and welfare of families of the
working people. With particular
preference given to low-income
families and families with many
children, family allowances were
raised twice over that time and
among the newly introduced
benefits mention is due to addi-
tional allowances paid to families
with crippled and incurably sick
children.

The state established a scheme
of material guarantees for
alimony payments from the na-
tional alimony fund set up speci-
fically for this purpose. There was
a notable expansion of maternity
benefits including the extension of
matemity leaves from 12 to 16, 18
and 26 weeks.

Farmers’ Benefits

Of great importance is the ex-
tension of social insurance bene-
fits to individual farmers and their
families as an act creating for
them a free-of-charge availability
of medical, hospital and
sanatorium treatment. At the

same time. the scheme of social

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 4, 1977—Page 6

insurance was extended in full
measure to include farming
cooperative members and their
families in the same way as farm
workers in ‘state farms and
employees in other socialized
branches of the economy.

As a result, the number of per-
sons eligible for social insurance
benefits went up from 24.7 to 30
million — a fact making social in-
surance a universal scheme in Po-
land. The state expenditure on
social insurance benefits went up
from 48,000 to almost 100,000

‘million zlotys, signifying a

twofold growth.
In a parallel effort, there were

larger appropriations to improve ~

working and rest conditions of
employees and their families. De-
signed to improve work safety
and hygiene, the expenditure
went up from 19,000 in 1971 to
29,000 million zlotys in 1975. A
substantial drop in work acci-
dents has been noted since 1972.
Sponsored by the trade union
movement, the expansion of holi-
day facilities secured full holidays
to 3.4 million persons and 2.7 mill-
ion children and youth during va-
cations and camps. There was a
larger availability of places in
sanatoriums and preventive
treatment facilities. The National
Health Protection Fund was

created to accumulate funds. to,

expand hospital treatment
facilities, health centres in vil-
lages and infirmaries in towns.

Housing and Labor Code

A new fund was created to pro-
vide finance for new social wel-
fare projects and for employees to
assist them to cover costs of their
new flats. Worker  self-
government conferences and
trade unions manage these funds.
The parliamentary passage of a
Labor Code will codify and de-
velop the country’s labor legisla-
tion. It is a socialist and deeply
democratic code of rights and
duties of the working people,
drafted after long consultations
with the working people and their
trade unions. ©

For the current five-year term,
the 7th Congress Program aims to
increase wages and other incomes
of the working people and their
families by 16 to 18%, continue to
expand the range of social insur-
ance schemes, enlarge the scope
of medical assistance and develop
housing. This program is consis-
tently carried into effect.

More Jobs Than Workers

As a result of the great invest-
ment program, the dynamically-
expanded economy absorbed the

. country’s gross labor force of

three and a half million in the
years between 1971 and 1975. The
net growth of employment was
two million. The current five-year
term’s net employment is esti-

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mated at 1.3 million persons. The
employment situation is best illus-
trated by the fact that early in 1976

there were 16,400 persons seek-

ing employment against 128,000

jobs available. Women’s share of

the labor force has risen from
39.4% to 42.3% More than a half
of the workers have an education
above the elementary level, i.e.
with secondary or vocational
education. In 1980, they will ac-
count for 60% of the workforce.

Housing Problem

Housing remains Poland’s
Number One problem for two
major reasons: First, People’ s:Po-
land took over extremely scarce
housing resources because of

immense war damage which left .

behind more than 80% losses in
many cities with Warsaw in the
first place, and generally the low
housing standards of the former
economically backward country.

Secondly, the population of Po-

land has grown from less than 27

million in 1946 to nearly 35 million -

today — by more than eight mill-
ion — an equivalent of the whole
population of a number of
medium-sized countries’ in
Europe.

In 1971 the Party set the task to
increase housing and to improve
its standards in the sense of larger

size and better equipped flats.:

Immense funds were invested in
the industry of building materials
and in building itself.

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These efforts resulted in the
construction of 1,125,000 new
flats between 1971 and 1975. The
housing program envisages the
construction of 1,525,000 new
flats in the current five-year term
and with the recent amendment
adding a further 60,000 the total
will be 1,585,000.

By 1990 the country’s housing
resources will grow twofold. It is _
expected that by 1985 the housing
problem will be solved in princi-
ple meaning that every present
family and every new family willl

have its own fiat.

Food Program

There is the. comprehensive
food program spanning the cur-
rent decade. It is designed to sup-
ply high-quality food to all work-
ing people, their families and the
whole nation. The past five year
period saw impressive progress
with food consumption increasing ©
substantially. The consumption
of meat and meat products in-
creased from 53 to 70.3 kilog-
rams; fats from 20.8 to 23.1 kilog-
rams; milk and dairy products, up
to 265 litres; fruits and fruit pre-
serves, from 36 to 44 kilograms;
and sugar, from 39.2 to 41.3 kilog-
rams. With this, there was a
growth of market deliveries of in-
dustrial consumer goods. - Au-
tomobile deliveries were up 2.5
times, household appliances, 2.14
times; refrigerators, 2.2 times and ©
television sets, 80%.