POLAND: A Plan for Man’s Needs

The Poles, who are noted for their bitter political humor, are asking an ironic riddle these days. What is the difference between Gierek and Gomulka? The answer: there is none—but Gierek does not know it.

That is all too harsh a judgment of Edward Gierek, 58, the pragmatic technocrat who took over as party leader after Wladyslaw Gomulka, 66, was forced to resign because of last December’s Baltic coast riots. In fact, Gierek has done many things that Gomulka in recent years would not have dared. Last week he made important moves in his overall strategy to ease economic and religious tensions in Poland, and to shunt aside hard-line leaders who also happen to be his rivals for power. Specifically, Gierek: — Introduced a new Five-Year Plan to the party’s Central Committee that attempts to placate the shortage-plagued Poles by shifting emphasis from heavy industry to consumer goods. It also places great stress on increased farm output and a higher rate of housing construction (the present waiting time for apartments is six years). “The main theme,” said Premier Piotr Jaroszewicz, “is man and his needs.” >Ended a 25-year dispute between the party and the Catholic Church—to which 95% of Poland’s 32.5 million people have at least nominal allegiance —by granting the Polish church full title to 4,700 chapels and churches and 2,200 parish buildings in the territories taken from Germany after World War II. The move pleased Poland’s powerful Stephan Cardinal Wyszynski, who until now has been cool to the new leader’s overtures.

— Further downgraded his major rival, former Secret Police Chief Mieczyslaw Moczar, 57, leader of the ultranationalist, anti-Semitic “Partisan” wing of the Polish Communist Party. Moczar, who lost his post as boss of the police and army, in the Central Committee’s Secretariat, has been relegated to auditor of government spending, usually a stepping stone to political oblivion.

No 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.

To a large degree, Poland’s problems have remained the same. In the 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 for remaining in power. For the moment, however, Poles seem willing to give Gierek a chance, though the odds for success are unfortunately poor.