Polish political leader, first secretary of the Polish United Workers' (Communist) Party (PUWP) from 1970 to 1980.
Background
Gierek was born into a miner's family on Jan. 6, 1913. He lived in France between 1923 and 1934 and in Belgium between 1937 and 1948. During the German occupation he took part in the resistance movement, and after the war he was a Communist organizer among Polish workers in Belgium. In 1948 he returned to Poland and joined the PUWP.
Education
Cracow Academy of Mining and Metallurgy.
Career
In 1948 he returned to Poland and joined the PUWP. In 1954 he graduated as an engineer from the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy in Kraków.Krakow. He was elected to the PUWP Central Committee in 1954 and to its Politburo in 1956. The next year he was made first secretary of the party organization in the province of Katowice.As party chief in Katowice, Gierek acquired the reputation of an efficient administrator. He was popular with the technocrats in the party and society, all the more so as his power base was in Silesia, the industrial center of Poland. His hour came in December 1970, when a government decision to sharply increase the price of food and fuel led to mass demonstrations, clashes between workers and police, and a threat of general revolt. The politburo forced Wladyslaw Gomulka, the PUWP's first secretary, to resign, and on December 20 Gierek assumed the leadership of the party.
Once in office Gierek made a series of changes in the party and the economy. He purged the Gomulka supporters in the PUWP leadership and rebuilt the entire party organization, to promote members with better educational and managerial qualifications. In 1971 he launched a program on economic recovery, which brought positive results for a time. Gierek also tightened Marxist discipline in the party and reaffirmed the PUWP's dominance over state and society with a set of amendments to the Polish constitution. But in June 1976 another drastic food price increase led to massive protests like those of 1970. The government rescinded the increases and Gierek remained in power, but with diminished authority.
Gierek's program of economic growth relied heavily on Western loans. In the summer of 1980, as payments on this debt mounted, the government again tried to economize by cutting food subsidies and raising food prices. The new increases, however, stirred unprecedented protest; workers all over Poland went on strike and now demanded, among other things, independent trade unions. In late August the government gave in. On September 5, Gierek resigned as party secretary, and he was expelled from the party in July 1981.
Membership
Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR) 1948-1981. Secretary Voivodship Committee Katowice 1949-1954, First Secretary 1957-1970. Central Committee 1954-1980, Head Department, of Heavy Industry, Central Committee 1954-1956, member Politburo Central Committee 1956-1980, Secretary Central Committee 1956-1964, First Secretary Central Committee 1970-1980.
Presidium All-Polish Committee of National Unity Front 1971-1980. Council of State March 1976-1980.