(3 of 6)
With increasing envy and bitterness, Polish citizens have noted the different situations in neighboring lands. Hungary, for example, has been making steady progress with a "New Economic Mechanism" that introduced capitalistic profit-and-loss into socialist planning. Gdansk, the former German city of Danzig, is only a short ferryboat ride from Swedish Malmo across the Baltic, and is regularly invaded by fun-loving Swedes seeking beaches, booze and beaming blondes who are a soft touch for hard currency. West Germans are so obviously affluent that Poles ask one another sarcastically which of the two nations lost World War II. Never rapier-sharp at best, Polish humor has been improving on a diet of meatless Mondays, ersatz coffee and phantom slabs of butter. "I don't worry when my wife is missing for several hours," goes one story. "She has neither been in an accident nor meeting her boy friend nor spending money wildly. She is only standing in line for coffee and vegetables."
Ultimate Cross. Gomulka's government has been moving—but slowly and ineffectively—to improve the economy. After lengthy discussions, the Central Committee approved a new Five-Year Plan for 1971-76 and a progressive approach that economists refer to as "the New Economic Strategy." It made sense in theory but, as Alexis de Tocqueville noted, the most dangerous time for a government is hot when conditions are bad but when the regime is trying to make them better. Demonstrating both arrogance and a lack of touch with popular feelings, the government neglected to explain adequately what it was doing; as rumors spread about price increases and wage freezes, people pulled money from under mattresses and went on buying sprees. When the government finally did attempt to spell out the complicated new system, explanatory meetings frequently dissolved in confusion.
Last week came the ultimate cross. Warsaw announced a series of "price adjustments" designed to bring wages —which have been rising at 2% during 1970—and available goods into some kind of equilibrium. The cost of medicines and most industrial goods declined. The price tags on television sets went down 13%, on washing machines 17%, and on vacuum cleaners 15%. At the same time, however, food prices were drastically increased. Beef went up 19%, assuming that one could find it, flour 16% and salted herring 19%. The cost of ersatz coffee nearly doubled. The government also announced that wages would be frozen.
The increases were necessary if even a modest economic revision were to work. But Warsaw's timing could not have been worse. Posted eleven days before Christmas in a staunchly Roman Catholic nation where the birth of Jesus is celebrated with gluttonous enthusiasm, the price rises were a direct provocation. Even the poorest family, for instance, sits down to a nine-course "Vigil Dinner" on Christmas Eve. So great was irritation over the government's moves that only a spark was needed to transform it into rebellion. The Lenin Shipyards provided that spark.