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Understating the matter considerably, an editorial in the party's Warsaw newspaper, Trybuna Ludu, declared that the week's events were ''an important lesson for the whole party." As Gomulka's shattered government was assessing that lesson, so were other Communist regimes. Rumania's Nicolae Ceauşescu pointedly assured his Central Committee that Bucharest had ample meat, butter, fish and grain for the entire winter. Bulgaria's party weekly Pogled stressed that the government had no intention of raising prices. East Germany, where official radio announced the existence of the disturbances before Warsaw did, moved troops into its Baltic towns to prevent any spread of the riots.
Scapegoat Needed. One fact that clearly disturbed all the East bloc leaders was that the rioters, for the most part, came from one of the richest and most advanced sectors of Poland, an area that indeed had been long and deliberately pampered by Warsaw. Though well paid by Polish standards, the workers were obviously unhappy. Just what to do about this situation was a major government problem. Students could be repressed, but that was not a viable tactic to use on the workers, on whom the government relies. Recognizing his dilemma, Gomulka offered a bit of a carrot to go with the stick. Warsaw ordered stores restocked in time for Christmas. Vice Premier Stanislaw Kociolek. 37, the quick-witted, energetic skyrocket of the Polish party, was dispatched to the Baltic to assess the situation. In Gdansk last week he went on radio to promise the workers an opportunity to air their grievances. To keep disorders from spreading, the program was jammed in other Polish cities.
Whether or not the government can prevent further protests, Poland's immediate future is bound to be grim. Gomulka's cherished reforms will almost certainly have to be postponed, which will lead to further consumer hardships and greater economic stagnation. The military budget, which was to have been lowered as a result of the Warsaw Treaty, will probably not be slashed, since the army demonstrated its value—and power—in stemming the riots. The "normalization" of foreign relations that had been expected following successful negotiations with Willy Brandt may have to be suspended.
Quite clearly, the week of disorder demands a scapegoat. The riots could lead to a struggle for power within the Central Committee between Gomulka and his Stalinist and ultranationalist opponents, who never did accept the new economic strategy. Gomulka's enemies have ample ammunition to use against him. The riots indicated how much the party apparatus was out of touch with the people—and, as the man responsible for party policy, Gomulka can hardly avoid his share of the blame for that situation. Within Poland, there has been a growing sentiment that the First Secretary may have been in office too long, and is not quite attuned to realities any more. Each day, the story goes in Warsaw, Gomulka sends his secretary out for cigarettes with too little money, not realizing that the price of tobacco has doubled. An aide quietly gives the secretary additional change.