Word: gierek
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...Saints. Seeking to clean up the party's image, Gierek in recent weeks has carried out a purge of security agencies. Some 40 officials, several of them allies of Moczar, have been either sacked or arrested on corruption charges. Said Radio Warsaw: "We have exploded another myth-that the Ministry of the Interior is a collection of saints...
...Gierek has also sought to instill a wider sense of participation in his people. The Communist Party remains supreme. Nonetheless, Gierek has started to revive the long dormant National Unity Front, in which some of Poland's remaining nonparty groups-notably the United Peasants' Party and Catholic organizations-have been given at least a nominal voice in framing government policy...
Still, many Poles are dissatisfied with the pace of Gierek's progress. While he has replaced many of the old bureaucrats in the upper echelon, one official noted, "Gierek will have more trouble with the corporals than the captains." The middle-and low-level party bureaucrats, who most often deal with the public, remain in office, as unhelpful and obdurate as ever. Polish newspapers daily receive letters from readers who complain that at the lower level, everything is as it was before...
...wake of the 1956 Poznan "bread and freedom" riots, which brought Gomulka to power, he instituted an enlightened reform program, only to see it founder largely because of Poland's turgid, overcentralized economic system. Disappointment led to public resentment, which in turn provoked government repression. If Gierek is to avoid the same cycle, he must improve Poland's managerial system and inspire workers and farmers to greater performance...
Even Bungling. So far he has not been able to manage that. While factory payrolls are rising, productivity is actually declining. A leading Warsaw weekly, Polityka, lauds Gierek for having done "an immense amount of work," but notes that "too much passiveness, laziness and impotence have comfortably survived around us." The official press agency has spoken of "ineffective organization, indolence of management, insufficient productivity and sometimes even bungling" in the economy. If that keeps up, Gierek is likely to face the same sort of public hostility and disbelief that compelled Gomulka to resort to force as the only means...