Coal helps to fuel

Poland’s

By Sol Flapan

. WARSAW
ine: is not an “outmoded” source

of energy, argues Warsaw's Try-
buna Ludu (People’s Tribune). This is
not the wisdom of hindsight.on the part
of the daily of the Polish United
Workers’ Party. It reflects the fruit of
a far-sighted policy pursued over the
years by People’s Poland under PUWP
leadership.

During the past 20 years the world
turned its back on coal, observes Try-
buna Ludu about the energy crisis grip-
ping the capitalist countries. Forecasts
of the approaching ‘“‘twilight’’ of coal
had also reached Poland, recalls the
party journal. ‘‘Regardless of the fluc-
tuations in the demands and prices
(for coal) on world markets, we sank
new mines and we modernized pits al-
ready in operation. Systematically, year
by year, we expanded our mining poten-
tial.”

In. 1973, the amount of bituminous
coal extracted in Poland was expected to
reach 156.5 million tons. That’s nearly
six million.tons more than in 1972, al-
most 600,000 tons more than originally
planned for in 1973s National Eco-
nomic Plan. This year calls for the ex-
traction of 162 million tons.

According to Trybuna:Ludu there are
two fundamental reasons why coal will
remain for a long time an important
source of energy in Poland and the
world. Firstly—the near geometric
growth in the universal need for energy.
Trybuna Ludu reckons that mankind will
need between 400 and 450 billion tons
of fuel between now and the year
2000. This is compared with the 250
billion tons of fuel used up during the
seven decades of this century. As. for
Poland, geological studies have _indi-

cated that the country is rich in coal.

- Besides, states the paper, a shift in

priorities ‘‘would run the risk of mak-
ing our country dependent on deliveries
of foreign fuels.’ Indeed, the current
energy crisis has also affected Poland,
which has ordered cutbacks in car use
and speeds.

Meanwhile, the cost of coal-fired
energy here is among the lowest in the
world. The share of fuel and energy in

-the cost of gross production is about

five percent. Since coal is the source
of 96'% of this country’s electric power

Upper Silesia, the most heavily industrialized district in Poland.

WORLD MAGAZINE
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1974—PAGE 4

economy

it is evident that outlays on coal ex-
traction are relatively small.

» Secondly. coal is Poland's strongest
“hard_currency.”’ By exporting coal Po-
land has been able to buy first rate in-

dustrial installations. It also made pos--

sible the increase in consumer goods
imports. Last year. coal constituted
11% of the country’s entire export.

The coal basin of Upper Silesia
(southern Poland) was expanded and
updated. and a whole new mining cen-
ter was built—the 600-square mile
Rybnicki. Coal District—ROW for short
in Polish. Deposits there are esti-
mated at six billion long tons. In the

- near future ROW will be operating 25

mines yielding two-thirds of Poland's
total coking coal output.

Meanwhile, the updating of older
mines is an uninterrupted process here.

The coal program is accompanied by
a steady rise in socialist labor produc-
tivity, minus the speedup and layoffs in-
herent in capitalism’s “productivity.”
Improved health and safety facilities
are also an integral part of the mine
expansion program. In fact. the index
of serious accidents here was further
decreased this year to 0.7 per one mil-
lion tons of extracted coal. Polish
mines are thus among the world’s
safest.

All this has paid off in other ways,
too. Like. winning A-1 status in the
areas of mining engineering, designing
and technical know-how.’‘Here are some
examples: —

The Coal Mining Design and Re-
search Office in Katowice has supplied
pit planning documentation to, and is
supervising mining, geological and re-
lated services in Albania, Spain, Tur-
key, Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union

'in Europe; India, Indonesia and the
Democratic Republic of Vietnam in
Asia; Egypt in Africa; and Bolivia and
Peru in South America. Polish experts
were also in Chile assisting the mining
industry there until the fascist coup.
One of Poland’s major customers is
the German Democratic . Republic
which is a regular buyer of complete
plants. :

Poland’s concentration area within
‘the specialization and division of labor
program of the socialist countries’
Council for Mutual Economic. Assist-
ance (CMEA) is mining combines and
transportation and drainage systems.

Coal combine at Wanda Lech mine, Nowe Bytom in Silesia:
a =a :