POLAND: A New Party Boss Takes Charge

• Share

(2 of 5)

Against this backdrop of simmering unrest, Poland's new party boss, Stanislaw Kania, moved to restore public confidence in the government and the party and shore up the disastrous economic situation that had sparked two months of upheavals. Kania, 53, had been chosen at an emergency Central Committee meeting on Sept. 5 to replace the ailing Edward Gierek. A medical bulletin last week described Gierek's condition as "improving," following a reported heart attack. After his first week in power, Kania remained a largely unknown figure to most of Poland's 35.4 million citizens. But if Kania lacked the broad popularity that Gierek had enjoyed upon taking office nearly ten years ago, he had some decided advantages over his predecessor. While Gierek had built his political base in Silesia, Kania, whose party responsibilities formerly included internal security, had spent most of his career as a Warsaw apparatchik—a man who knew the party administration from the inside and was trusted by his colleagues.

More important, Kania was able to build on something Gierek had lost: Moscow's confidence. In a cordial letter of congratulations, Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev praised Kania as a "staunch Communist" firmly committed to "the inviolable friendship with the Soviet Union" and to the "leading role of the Communist Party." Behind the praise lay the clear expectation that Gierek's successor would preserve the party's supremacy in Poland.

Kania outlined his policy in an address to the Central Committee shortly after his appointment. He promised to honor the strike agreements, but pointedly warned "antisocialist elements" not to exploit the situation for their own ends. He traced the labor upheavals to legitimate grievances over the party's "serious economic mistakes." He pledged to restore public trust through bold economic reforms and even suggested that the party might adopt a form of collective leadership in order to improve its efficiency. But he was careful to stress Poland's unshakable loyalty to the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet alliance.

The new leader also pursued conciliatory themes during a two-day visit to Gdansk and Katowice. Televised excerpts of his speeches gave the nation its first close-up view of the dark-haired, heavy-set politician. Speaking in a deep, quiet voice, Kania declared in Katowice that the only kind of "force" that could stem the workers' discontent was "the strength of confidence, the power of the party's bond with the masses." On the crucial question of labor organizations, Kania said he preferred the principle of "unity"—meaning the monopoly of the party-controlled unions—but would respect the new independent labor organizations. One public hint of his reputed toughness was a call to "fight resolutely against those [advocating] positions inconsistent with socialism," an apparent allusion to dissident intellectuals as well as potentially troublesome workers.