Five million Poles to receive aid

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32494, 2 January 1971, Page 15

Five million Poles to receive aid

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WARSAW, January 1. The Polish Government has announced that it will grant retrospective financial aid totalling 7400 million zlotys (about $274m) to more than five million people hardest hit by the sharp food price increases that gave rise to violent disturbances recently.

The aid consists of wage rises for people earning up to 2000 zlotys (about $63) a month and increased family, disability, and old-age pensions.

A Government communique says that the increases will go to large families with low incomes, and will be retrospective from December I—l2 days before food and fuel prices were raised between 10 and 30 per cent. The increases ignited smouldering industrial un-

rest, which developed into street clashes in Baltic Coast cities and brought on a political crisis resolved only by changes in the Polish Communist Party leadership. The Government has also called for extra efforts from workers, management and economic ministries to surpass the planned production targets for 1971. It recommends that Ministers should draft programmes

'.for increased output for export and the home market through the greater economical use of material and financial resources, and particularly through more: effective use of plant and raw materials. The Government has also demanded improved quality, the general improvement of economic effectiveness, and reduced prime production costs. The decision to raise wages, family allowances and pensions for the worsthit families was taken at a joint session of the Council of Ministers and the Trade Unions Central Council. Gierek’s appeal The party’s new First Secretary (Mr Edward Gierek), appealed to the nation in a New Year’s Eve radio and television broadcast to work better in order to live better, said:— "We have taken the first decisions towards meeting the most burning social needs, but we still have much more to do. “Above all, we must accelerate the dynamic of the development of our economy, and raise the efficiency of its organisation. “This, and only this, will enable us to multiply the resources of the country, the only source from which can be derived the means to further improve the material situation of the working class. “Better, more efficient, more productive work by every enterprise and institution, every farm, every school, every scientific workplace, every citizen—that is what the country expects.”