Word: lodz
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Party's Watchdogs. Last week, as delegates of the 1,130-member Polish Writers' Union gathered in Lodz, Poland's second largest city, they were clearly not inclined to endanger those gains. Another congress in 1968 had vigorously protested the cultural repression of Gierek's predecessor, Wladyslaw Gomulka, and brought down the wrath of the regime. Jewish writers were particular targets; Antoni Slonim-ski, a patriarch of contemporary Polish literature, was denounced by Gomulka as "not a proper Pole...
This time, instead of overt defiance, the liberals concentrated on tactical victories and "a moderate, measured show of strength," as Slonimski put it. The large Warsaw chapter of the union voted down most of the government slate of potential delegates, and sent a more independent and distinguished group to Lodz. At the convention, a total of seven liberals-including Zbigniew Herbert, Poland's leading lyric poet-were elected to the 24-man executive committee that had previously been composed entirely of conservatives. Jerzy Putrament, who for 20 years has been the party's politruk, or watchdog, within...
Gierek's tactics in settling the December riots helped create the Lodz situation. To placate workers in Poland's big Baltic shipyards, Gierek did what no Communist leader in history had ever dared to do: instead of crushing the protesters, he gave in to their demands. Bargaining personally with the strikers, Gierek agreed to rescind a complicated new bonus system that workers feared would reduce their take-home pay. He also raised the minimum wage and pensions. But Gierek held fast on one crucial point: he refused to cancel an average 17% increase in food prices...
Soviet Help. Gierek's maneuver seemed to defuse the dangerous situation. But then the Lodz workers struck, demanding a 16% wage increase and better working conditions. Gierek sent Premier Piotr Jaroszewicz and three other Politburo members to reason with the workers. After several sessions, including one that lasted until 4 a.m., the officials returned to Warsaw with no settlement in sight...
Gierek faced a difficult decision. To break the strike would alienate workers and strengthen the position of his chief rival, General Mieczyslaw Moczar, the tough law-and-order security chief who crushed a 1947 Lodz strike in which two workers died and 80 were wounded. The Soviet Union came to Gierek's rescue by offering an estimated $500 million in credits and grain shipments. Buoyed by Soviet help, Gierek was able to cancel the price increases. The Lodz workers went back to work and the rest of the country remained quiet...