Word: gierek
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What Moscow does next clearly depends on Gierek's own success in dealing with the situation. U.S. officials believe that he has been given a mandate to negotiate an economic settlement with the workers and that he still enjoys the Kremlin's confidence. The crucial question: How much will the Soviets let Gierek negotiate away? The Soviets apparently approve Gierek's goal of trying to defuse the workers' political demands with offers of cash, and may well kick in some financial aid to bail Gierek...
...more difficult to calculate Moscow's tolerance of reform. Without fundamentally violating Communist orthodoxy, some experts believe, Gierek might be able to promise a degree of worker participation in decision-making on the factory level. Kremlinologist Simes feels that certain concessions could safely be made in the area of labor organization?free trade unions at the shop level, for example, but no factory-or industry-wide unions. No matter the forms, stresses Eastern Europe Scholar Mastny, "Gierek must be able to reassert the political monopoly of the Communist Party...
...reassuring sign was the manifest desire on both sides to avoid a violent confrontation. Gierek well knows the danger of using force. In 1970, his predecessor used force against the rioting Gdansk workers. Dozens died in the clashes, and Gomulka was finally forced out. Confronted with similar food-price riots in 1976, Gierek wisely backed down on prices rather than resort to massive force. So far, there is no indication that he intends to reverse that policy...
...ouster as Communist Party Chief, following a disastrous series of riots over food prices, his successor came to power on a wave of popular good will, a man of the people who would change things. As gregarious and outgoing as Gomulka was dour and withdrawn, Edward Gierek began meeting directly with workers to hear their complaints. Time and again he asked: "Will you help me?" Delighted with his down-to-earth style, the workers shouted back: "We will...
Gomulka flirted briefly with liberalization after he was named party boss in 1956, but then clamped a repressive lid on the country. Initially Gierek delivered on many of his own early promises, allowing Poles freer access to Western cultural influences and more opportunity to travel abroad. "For the first few years, the quality of life improved markedly in Poland," recalls one Western diplomat who served in Warsaw. "He enjoyed a measure of support that transcended anything during the Gomulka years." But by the mid-1970s, things began finance sour under Gierek too, as the country went heavily into debt...