Word: gierek
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...Zygmunt Hemmerling traces last summer's strikes back to the Stalinist model of forced industrialization that was imposed on Poland after World War II. Compounding the error, the government in 1971 moved to modernize Polish industry with heavy infusions of Western technology and capital. Former Party Boss Edward Gierek dreamed of a throbbing new industrial sector that would spew out exports for Western markets and earn hard currency to repay Poland's debt and raise its standard of living. The plan backfired in the mid-1970s when Poland, hampered by mismanagement, rising energy prices and a Western recession...
Kania, who ran the state security forces for nine years before replacing Gierek as First Secretary of the Communist Party on Sept. 6, has surprised Western analysts with his moderation and political acumen. In public, he is soft-spoken and low-keyed, despite his burly, bulldog looks. Kania has made the unions work hard for every concession, but for the most part he has avoided slashing rhetoric and underhanded tactics. His regime blundered during a dispute over Solidarity's charter, trying to sneak in a clause affirming the party's "leading role." But it beat a hasty retreat...
...Communist Party was undergoing its own housecleaning. In a continuing purge, Radio and Television Chief Jozef Barecki was sacked just four weeks after replacing his disgraced predecessor, Maciej Szczepanski, still under investigation for embezzlement. Barecki's apparent sin: years of loyal service to discredited ex-Party Boss Edward Gierek. Further changes were expected. Warsaw's new leader, Stanislaw Kania, continued to shape his own administration. Said Interpress Director Miroslaw Wojciechowski: "The situation is new. It demands new faces, new attitudes. It is a question of democracy within the party...
...problems began, paradoxically, with a decision that was at first applauded. To avoid the unrest that had top pled his predecessor, Wladyslaw Gomulka, in 1970, recently ousted Party Chief Edward Gierek embarked on a crash program to modernize Polish industry. The first results were impressive. From 1971 to 1975 industrial output soared 70%, and real wages rose at an annual average...
...then Gierek's plan ran into a combination of bad luck and hurdles endemic in the Communist system. Recession in the West curbed appetites for Polish exports. Bad harvests forced Warsaw to buy increasing amounts of food abroad. Meanwhile, the government lost control of the development program and had to seek further loans, pushing its hard-currency indebtedness to a staggering $20 billion...