Edward Gierek's Economic Revival Movement (, ROG) is a Polish left-wing party with a communist programme, referring to the ideology and legacy of Edward Gierek, the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party in the 1970s and 1980s. It was founded on 17 December 2004 and registered in March 2005 by Paweł Bożyk, who was one of Gierek's economic advisors. The largest regional structures of the party are located in Zagłębie and Warsaw. ROG advocates Poland's active participation in the European Union while having friendly relations with the East, and the cessation of activities within NATO. It called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
The party wants to uphold and continue the legacy of Edward Gierek, considering his variation of reformist communism to be the perfect economic system, avoiding the perceived pitfalls of earlier Communist Poland which was seen as overly bureaucratized, as well as the post-1991 capitalist system, which resulted in wealth inequality and is considered to have plunged the most vulnerable parts of society into poverty and economic instability. The party fiercely combats the view that Gierek heavily indebted Polish state, and stressed the need to restore the Gierek-era expansive welfare state. The party also wants to restore communist monuments and national symbols.
History
Edward Gierek was the leader of Poland from 1970 to 1980, and is the most popular communist-era leader of Poland; according to a 2018 poll, 45% of Poles positively assessed Gierek's rule, while only 22% judged it negatively. This meant that Gierek's popularity is comparable to that of Wincenty Witos, the interwar Polish statesman. Gierek is also more popular than Leszek Balcerowicz, who was responsible for transitioning Polish economy from a communist system to liberal capitalism.
Gierek's rule is considered to be the most liberal and reformist period in the history of Communist Poland, and most Poles remember it as the period of economic stability as well as relative liberalization. Under his rule, Poland took heavy loans and started extensive investment programs in housing and infrastructure - Gierek built Central Railway Line, connecting major cities such as Warsaw and Kraków together through high-speed rails. Central Railway Line remains the fastest and most modern railtrack in Poland. For years, the only high-speed route in Poland was the Trasa Katowicka, commonly referred to as "Gierkówka" in his honor. Gierek also started developing Polish energy independence, opening Naftoport in Gdańsk in 1975, which became a natural alternative to Soviet oil supplies; together with the porty, Gierek also established the oil refinery and a pipeline from Gdańsk to Płock. At the same time, the construction of the Bełchatów mine and the power plant of the same name was undertaken, with Poland's largest lignite-fired power plant built near Łódź, which generates around 20 per cent of Poland's electricity. Other major investment projects of Gierek included the Broad Gauge Metallurgical Line, the Tychy and Bielsko-Biała Small Scale Car Factories (today key to the Fiat concern) and the giant Katowice Steelworks.
However, what political commentators deemed most memorable in regards to "Gierkist Communism" were heavy housing investment, which solved housing shortages in Communist Poland and caused a demographic boom. Nearly 20% of Poles were still living in flats and houses built under Gierek as of 2023, and the number of housing units built during 10 years of Gierek's rule surpassed that built in post-communist Poland between 1991 and 2008. Under Gierek, real wages rose by as much as 50%, the collectivisation of the countryside was stopped, and the regime started new welfare programs for Polish farmers. While the Communist Party maintained its strong grip on power under Gierek, political repression was toned down, and Gierek initiated a policy of limited reconciliation with the Catholic Church. Gierek is remembered well even amongst some right-wing politicians - in 2010, Jarosław Kaczyński described Gierek as a "communist but nevertheless a patriot".