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Although the price increases were rescinded in the wake of mass strikes, the arrest of several thousand rioting workers proved to be yet another government blunder. The subsequent trials of about 100 rioters served to unite workers, intellectuals, students and the still powerful Roman Catholic Church against the regime. In a recent sermon, Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński, 75, the revered Primate of Poland, lamented from the pulpit that "it is painful when workers must struggle for their rights from a workers' government."
Some of Poland's best-known intellectuals have become active on behalf of the jailed demonstrators, who are serving up to ten years in prison. A defense committee, including such dissidents as Novelist Jerzy Andrzejewski and Economist Edward Lipiński, has collected $20,000 for the families of the jailed workers. Former Education Minister Wladyslaw Bienkowski addressed an open letter to the government, protesting police brutality against the workers. "It proves," he declared, "that some people have ceased to pursue the goals of serving the people and have become a gangrene transmitting the rot to other parts of public life." In an interview broadcast on West German TV, Andrzejewski declared that Communism has been "imposed on subjugated nations that are completely dominated by the influence of the Russian empire."
Oil Crisis. As dissent flourishes, Poland's economic crisis deepens. Although Gierek's government brought about an unprecedented boom in the early 1970s, the economy has recently been feeling the stress of inflation in Western Europe. The Soviet Union, responding to the oil crisis of 1973, increased the price of vital crude oil for the Poles 150%, to $8 per bbl. To make matters worse, Poland was hit by severe droughts in 1974 and 1975, forcing it to buy $2 billion worth of grain from the U.S.
Though obviously alarmed by the spread of Polish dissidence, Moscow is not openly pressing the Gierek government to crack down. The Soviets unquestionably wish to avoid using their two tank divisions stationed in Poland to quell protests. Poles, in turn, are reluctant to provoke the Kremlin rulers. "We are always afraid of one thing. We don't want a Czechoslovakia on our soil," said one prominent dissident. "It would be a real war," added one witness to the Warsaw uprising in 1944. Then Nazi troops destroyed the capital, while the Red Army nearby made no move to help. "I've seen Warsaw leveled once in my lifetime," he recalled, "and that's enough."