.• '. ~'\\~\"Y\ 8th PLENUM OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE POLISH UNITED WORKERS'PARTY The 8th Plenary Meeting of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers•Party was held in Warsaw on February 6 and 7; 1971. The Plenum first discussed the evaluation of the December 1970 events and the present tasks of the Party. A total of 40 speakers addressed the two-day meeting. After the conclusion of the discussion, a speech was made by the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Edward Gierek. The 8th Plenum has adopted the following resolution: The Central Committee: - fully approves the evaluation of the December events and the tasks of the Party napped out in the declaration of the .. Political Bureau and the speech by the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Comrade Edward Gierek, - recommends to the Government more energetically to continue, with the cooperation of economic activists and experts, and in wide consultation with social activists in all branches of the national economy, the work of defining more closely the tasks for the current year and for the whole five-year period, - considers it purposeful to convene at an earlier date the 6th Congress of the Party, which would determine the prospects of the country's development and work out programme direc­ tions of further building of socialism in conditions of socia­ list democracy and in keeping with the interests and aspira­ tions of the working class and the nation. Next the meeting discussed the second item on the agenda: organizational matters. The meeting has adopted the following resolutions: The Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party has evaluated the reasons and the course of the December events and the role of former First Secretary of the PUWP Central Committee, Wladyslaw Gomulka, in the accumulation of the causes of these events and their course. Recognizing Wladyslaw Gomulka•s previous merits and services to the Party and the country~ the Central Committee also considers that serious mistakes in the management of the Party in recent years, which resulted in the weakening of its links with the society, the emergence of irregularities in economic development, and finally in an open political crisis and inappropriate methods applied during the crisis, make 2 Wladyslaw Gomulka•s further participation in the activity of the Central Committee impossible. However.s having in view Wladyslaw Gomulka•s absence, because of ill health, from the 7th Plenum of the Central Committee, as well as from the present Plenum, the Central Committee resolves to suspend Wladyslaw Gomulka as member of the Central Committee. 1] The Central Committee, considering that Zenon Kliszko - during his activity as member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of the Central Committee did great harm to the Party because of the errors he committed in the cadres policy, on the ideological front, and also in other fields of activity, - during the December events on the coast displayed a lack of realistic thinking, and acting in an irresponsible manner caused an aggravation of the conflict with the working class of the Gdansk conurbation$ has decided to remove Zenon Kliszko from the Central Committee. 2] The Central Committee, considering that Boleslaw Jaszczuk, during his activity as member of the Political Bureau and Secretary of the Central Committee in charge of the economic policy - in an inadmissible and apodictical manner interfered directly with the activity of the Government and the economic administration, - contributed to forcing through a number of erroneous economic decisions which underlay the events of December 1970, has decided to remove Boleslaw Jaszczuk from the Central Committee. X X X The Central Committee accepted the res·ignation of Antoni Walaszek from the post of member of the Central Commi ttee of the Polish United Workers•Party. The plenary meeting elected the following alternate members of the PUWP Central Committee as members of the Central Committee: - Ryszard Jendrzej, crane operator in the pioner agricultural machinery factory at Strzelce Opolskie, - Stanislaw Kuzinski, head of the Central Committee Light Industry$ Trade and Construction Departament, - J6zef Urbanowicz, General, Chief of the Ce ntral Political Board of the Polish Army, Vice-Minister of National Defence, 3 - Franciszek Wisniewski, electrical assembly worker, foreman in the 11 Polnocna 11 shipyard in Gdansk. X X X First Secretary of the Central Committee Edward Gierek read the following letter from Stanislaw Kociolek: 11 As one of the members of the Political Bureau present in the Gdansk coastal area during the December events, I did not succeed in fulfilling my part of the political responsibility in preventing the extremely complicated and grave course taken by these events. In this connection, aware of this responsibility, as I have stated directly after these events, I am now asking the Central Committee to accept my resignation from the duties of member of the Political Bureau and of Secretary of the Central Committee.'" The Central Committee accepted the resignation of Stanislaw Kociolek. The Central Committee also accepted the resignation of Ignacy Loga Sowinski from his duties of member of the Political Bureau of the PUWP Central Committee. PERMANENT MISSION OF POLAND TO THE UNITED NATIONS 9 East 66th Street NEW YORK, N.Y.l0021 8 February 1971 SPEECH BY E. GIEREK, FIRST SECF~TARY of the Central------------------------------------· committee of the Polish United Workers'Party at the Central Committee's 8th Plenary Meeting. On February 7th, First Secretary of the Central Com­ mittee of the Polish United Workers 1 Party Edward Gierek made a speech at the 8th plenary meeting of the PUWP Central Committee. The 8th plenary meeting of the Central Committee, Edward Gierek said at the outset, opens an important period in the life of the party, in the development of the country. Ahead of us are many problems of great significance. They need to be solved and the circumstances in which we are tackling them are difficult. The main reserve the Party and the Motherland have at their disposal are people. On December 20th, at the 7th plenary meeting of the Central Committee, we made important political changes. We put an end to the tragic events on the coast, which were a great shock for the Party, for the whole society. We averted a dange­ rous course of events. We eased the social tension, which then existed and was rapidly growing not only on the coast, but else­ where in the country, and which threatened with incalculable consequences. And so we can state today that then, in December, the 7th plenary meeting coped with the requirements of the moment. Perhaps late, but not too late, our Party proved courageous enough to face the reality and strong enough to show the country a way out of the crisis. The decisions of the 7th plenum have been received with general relief and support. This support given above all by the working class was at that time and still is of decisive importance. Reviewing the main causes of the December crisis, E. Gierek said that the food price rise announced on December 12th was the direct cause of the December events. This food price rise was carried out without the indispensable offsetting being granted to the lowest-wage earning families which were most painfully affected by this price rise. The outbreak took place in coastal towns. The workers' protest that was in the next stage to develop into tragic events originated at the Gdansk shipyard, the biggest plant of Poland's shipbuilding industry. First of all it swept all shipyards. .. 2 The protest of the Gdansk shipbuilders as in other coastal towns was initially of an orderly character. Never­ theless the frank talk with workers was not started, an ade­ quate effort was not made to ease the tension. Ax a result, the development spilled into the streets. In the streets, they quickly got out of hand. This had not been wanted by the parti­ cipants in the workers' demonstrations, but they were not in a position to control the situation. For such is the nature o~ spontanesous demonstrations that most often they turn into dangerous clashes. This was the case in Gdansk and Szczecin where asoc1~~ elements carrying destruction and looting turned out into the streets atop the demonstration's wave. The tragedy in the coastal area was due above all to the fact that no effective political measures to liquidate the tension were taken. In the evaluations-of the situation and the ensuing practical steps, action was confined exclusively to the use of force. Force may put a check to violence and anarchy, plunder and looting. In this conviction the forces of the citizens' militia and the detailed units of the Polish ar.my fulfilled the tasks set them with a proper sense of duty. But the destructive phenomena were only a side effect of the course of developments, underlying them was a conflict of a social character. The use of force and only force became in practice the only answer to the workers' demonstrations. This in turn not only failed to bring any solution to the crisis, but quite the contrary; led to its aggravation, deepening and extension. This threatened with outright disaster. One has to state in this connection in all seriousness and responsibility that the people's power cannot renounce the use of all indispensable measures to defend law and order, to defend the lives of citizens and social property, in the fight against asocial and anarchistic elements, against hostile elements. Nonetheless, it was not these elements which were the main stream in the December crisis. The attempts to resolve the conflict with the working class through the use of force, deeply incompatible with the principles of socialism, had to lead to bloodshed, creating an abyss between the people's power and the nation and opening up a possibility of action for truly reactionary and anti­ socialist forces.