Polish workers win more

Press, 1 May 1981, Page 7

Polish workers win more

NZPA-Reuter Warsaw Poland’s Communist leaders voted yesterday to sack a former Prime Minister from the ruling Politburo and decided to hold an emergency party congress in July. The dismissal of the former Prime Minister. Jozef Pinkowski. who presided over the Solidarity free trade union’s stormy first six months, was one of several compromise manoeuvres in the sixth shake-up in the party since last (northern) summer's labour revolt. Two workers were appointed to the Politburo, exKding the size of the ruling y from 10 to 11, in what the State radio described as the “first step to bring representatives of the working class to the highest organs.” The meeting of the party’s policy making Central Committee, which was dominated by disgruntled members’ demands for more representatives of the rank and file, ended with the decision to sack a former Foreign Minister as an alternate member of the Politburo and to drop two members of the Central Committee.

The meeting decided to make no other immediate changes in the leadership because of the short time between yesterday’s meeting and the special party congress, to be held in Warsaw from July 14 to 18, Warsaw Radio reported. The Central Committee also decided to appoint a 15member commission to speed up investigations into the conduct of party leaders and to encourage discussion within the party of possible changes in the party statutes, the radio said.

The Prime Minister (General Wojciech Jaruzelski) told the plenum that agreements between the Government and Solidarity would be carried out but that the Government would “protect the raison d’etre of the socialist State,” the radio added. All reforms must be based on the principals of true Marxist-Leninsim. The Prime Minister also apparently sought to allay criticisms by rank-and-file members when he spoke of the need to remove petty irritations, red tape, and nonchalance by officials, and said a special system should be introduced for the investigation of complaints. Earlier, party leaders had come under fire from members who complained that the process of reform and democratisation in Poland was being delayed and was failing to live up to their expectations.