Word: warsaw
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...Warsaw University Historian 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...
...Politburo and lower-level cadres testifies to the clout of Solidarity. From a ragtag bunch of shipyard workers and dissidents, it has grown into a labor leviathan, with an estimated 10 million members (out of 17.3 million employed) in 54 chapters around the country. When a strike loomed in Warsaw, no less than Deputy Prime Minister Jagielski offered to dispatch a government helicopter to Gdansk to pick up Lech Walesa. Solidarity has even acquired a modicum of official respectability. To raise funds, it has sponsored a benefit performance at the National Opera House and auctions at the National Gallery...
...afterglow of its August victory, the union negotiated by ultimatum: either give us what we want or we will strike. But the rank and file became more cautious late last month after the Warsaw local threatened a general strike over a series of political demands, some of which were aimed at the state security apparatus, the bedrock of Communist authority. Said Walesa then: "Let us not forget that tanks and rockets could also be the reply." On Dec. 5, Solidarity declared a six-week moratorium on strikes. It also toned down its rhetoric. When the government suspended screenings of Workers...
...than usual last week as people tried to buy scarce delicacies for the year-end holidays. In every city, town and hamlet, citizens stood in line in hopes of getting a carp for the traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner. When available, the fish cost $1.22 a pound. In downtown Warsaw, as a Dickensian gloom settled over the capital one evening, more than 70 people queued up before a seedy, barren-looking candy store in hopes of buying chocolates for their children. The shortages are worse than usual these days, because of hoarding inspired by Solidarity's strike threats last...
...machinist at the Ursus tractor factory, twelve miles outside Warsaw. Although both have joined Solidarity, they could not be regarded as dissidents or malcontents. Says Krzysztof: "One shouldn't complain too much. I enjoy my work." Maria points out that a decade ago they were far worse off, living in a single attic room that they had obtained only by agreeing to care for their elderly landlady. Since then, Maria has gone to work to supplement the family income, which now totals 15,000 zloty a month ($500). The factory helped them get a three-room apartment on Ursus...