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The Economic Effects of Labour Competition in the Years 1947-1955

100%

Wilk H.

Roczniki Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych

2007

vol. 67

101-129

In 1947-1955 labour competition was primarily a form of mobilising workers aimed at increasing productivity. Throughout the whole period, official reports recorded a rising number of competitors, although this growth did not denote a positive economic outcome. There were several reasons for this state of affairs. First, the majority of the reports were maintained in the spirit of a 'magic of large numbers'. One of their characteristic features was 'official optimism', which meant that the reports' reliability was extremely low. Another factor impacting competition effectiveness was the attitude of assorted levels of industrial administration and the workers themselves. In the conditions of central planning and a deficiency economy, the level of industrial production was the object of a specific game played by the planners, particular rungs of the industrial administration, and the workers. Consequently, competition was regarded as a 'necessary evil'. The discussed period also entailed a discernible evolution of the very phenomenon of labour competition. The first years after its introduction were marked by a contest for production records and the transgression of norms at all costs. Frequent practices included manipulation striving at repeatedly exceeding the production norms and setting new records. The actual effects of such campaigns were extremely low. Succeeding years witnessed a change in the stress on the competition movement. New forms, proposed after 1950, placed greater emphasis on the organisation of labour, the improvement of quality or cost-cutting. Until the end of the discussed period, however, it proved impossible to devise such a form, which could be considered also economically effective.

HE REALITY OF SOCIALIST COMPETITION IN NOWA HUTA (1949-1956)

100%

Wilk H.

Dzieje Najnowsze

2007

issue 2

97-116

Socialist competition was envisaged as a foremost way of mobilising the workers. Apart from exceeding production norms, it was supposed to generate a new working class aristocracy - the so-called shock workers. Construction sites in Nowa Huta during the 1949-1956 period witnessed an evolution of socialist competition which assumed increasingly new forms. First, it consisted primarily of intensifying manual labour (the shock workers phase) and then it concentrated on improving the quality of the production, the elimination of faults, and the introduction of better discipline (rivalry for the title of the best professional, the application of work methods used by Soviet and Polish Stakhanovites, and long-term competition based on collective contracts). The best moment for creating new heroes proved to have been the first two phases. The considerable surpassing of production norms was universally admired, and the records were additionally popularised by the mass media of the time. The most celebrated shock worker during that stage in building Nowa Huta was Piotr Ozanski, who became a model for the character of Mateusz Birkut, the protagonist of Andrzej Wajda's film 'Man of Marble'. Elevated to the rank of a national hero thanks to his record-breaking work as a bricklayer, he subsequently ceased to be indispensable for the decision-makers and was cast down from his pedestal. The prime organiser of socialist competition were the trade unions, although the actual burden was frequently carried by the local representatives of the Polish United Workers' Party. The Nowa Huta administrative authorities often preferred to opt for an indifferent stand - in view of urgent economic plans and deadlines, socialist competition tended to lose its ideological dimension and became an instrument which to a certain extent made it possible to consider the realisation of the overall plan.

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1 Dzieje Najnowsze

1 Roczniki Dziejów Społecznych i Gospodarczych

2 Wilk H.

2 2007

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The Economic Effects of Labour Competition in the Years 1947-1955

HE REALITY OF SOCIALIST COMPETITION IN NOWA HUTA (1949-1956)