Chronology of | events
Socialist Republic1980Trade unions and workers' strugglesTrade unions and workers' struggles
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1970 12 Dec Council of Ministers announce food price Crises of 30 per cent. 14 Dec 3,000 workers at Lenin Shipyard (Gdansk)
hold mass meeting, followed by a strike and demonstrations. 15 Dec strikes in Gdynia, Elblag, Szczecin. 16 Dec strikes in Katowice (Upper Silesia), and Poznan. ; 17 Dec massacre of workers in Gdynia; tanks; all of Baltic region on strike, as well as in Wroclaw, Krakow. 18 Dec strikes in large factories in Warsaw. 20 Dec Central Committee replaces Gomulka with Gierek. .23 Dec Gierek announces economic concessions. Dec — strikes continue for political changes 24 Jan Gierek’s 9-hour discussion with workers in Szczecin on trade union and press independence. 11 Feb women in textile factories strike in Lodz followed by mass strike in Lodz. 18 Feb Gierck, after secing the Soviets, announces 2-year price freeze at '66 levels.
The workers’ committees which emerged out of the strike committees continued to function for months, some for a year.
1976 SES ET 24 Jume Government announce food price increases. 28 June Radom — demonstration, violence, fighting with police, 17 dead, 2000 arrested.
Ursus — workers rip up Warsaw-Paris railway tracks, demonstration, 600 arrested, 1000 suspended for |-3 months.
Piock — demonstration, 100 arrested, 150 refinery workers sacked. 25 June in the evening the Government cancels the price rises. Vol VW Ne ot enti" TE OCOL August v4 1980 USA $1 UK 30; toration of capitalism.
The history of the Polish workers movement is one of the most militant in Europe. From the beginning of this century they have been in the forefront of all the waves of class struggle which swept the world, But they showed one crit-— ical weakness —- a persistent treac-— hery by their own political leaders, On each occasion they rejected those leaders only to be betrayed by their new "saviours!!,. But now they have learned from experience. When Gomulka was kicked out in 1970 they did not place much confidence in Gierek, who came forward as the voice of 'democracy!! and "enlightenment!', Now they have gotten rid of him too. The Polish bureaucracy have no one left with any standing to replace him, The workers no longer want ,
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