Word: gierek
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...Warsaw, meanwhile, newly installed Party Boss Stanislaw Kania moved to restore public confidence and cope with the country's awesome economic problems (see box). Scrapping the economic plan of deposed Party Boss Edward Gierek, the new regime announced that it would slash its 1980 budget by $400 million, mainly from the investment sector, in order to help fund the pay raises that the workers have been promised. Fulfilling another pledge it had made to the strikers, the government this week prepared to resume regular radio broadcasts of the Roman Catholic Sunday Mass, for the first time since the Communists...
...within the party ranks. The official press hinted at impending purges that would be aimed at "clearing from the party ranks those individuals who have given in to the temptations of an easier life and corruption." The notorious example that was held up was that of Maciej Szczepanski, the Gierek confidant who formerly ran the state broadcasting network and now stands accused of embezzlement. Also purged were two other top party officials: Zdzislaw Grudzien, party chief in Katowice and a Politburo member, and Jerzy Zasada, party leader in Poznan. There were indications that more heads would roll at both...
Despite Kania's talk of moderation and reform, doubt remained about his intentions. His freedom of action was limited in any case by the dilemma he had inherited from Gierek: repudiation of the agreements would spark renewed labor upheavals, yet the establishment of truly independent unions would irk Moscow. For the present, he seemed to be feeling his way, seeking a balance between the workers' expectations and the Kremlin's imperatives...
...Soviet invasion and get the workers back to their jobs. Now the clawing back of what was given on paper begins." West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, moreover, had special reason for gloom: both men got on well with Gierek and saw his relative openness to the West as an important factor in maintaining European détente...
That he is the Kremlin's creature seemed certain by his selection over the wily Stefan Olszowski, 49, an economic reformer and Gierek's longtime rival. Speaking on his own, Kania urged political compromise in Gdansk, but denounced some of the strike leaders as "antisocialists" who were heading in a direction "that no longer has to do with the interests of the workers." Now he will have to satisfy Moscow without igniting his restive nation. Says a West German expert: "He faces a monstrous task...