Poland

of the textile industry. Stalinist industrialization brought an acid-making plant, TZPN Polchem, to the western outskirts. As in much of urban Poland, workers were housed in large apartment blocks. In Torun's case an entire new suburb, Rubinkowo, was built. Today it is still home to half the city's 200 000 population. With the failure of Poland's 1 970s 'dash for growth' (which ended as the foreign debt burden of the country became unbearable), there was a brief flowering of democracy in Poland. The Solidarity Trade Union organization was able to wring certain concessions from the Government, including the right of citizens to form organizations. One such organization was the Ecology Club which was established in Krakow in 1980. Following the growth of the Green Movement in Western Europe, the Club sought to make public some of the environmental problems and abuses in Poland. While direct criticism of the Soviet Union was dangerous, some of the blame for the state of Poland's rivers and air quality was placed on 'our friends in the East'. The authorities soon clamped down. Martial law was declared in December 1981, and all opposition groups, including the Ecology Club, had their activities curtailed. However, the Ecology Club did have one success. The antiquated Skawina aluminium plant, near Krakow, produced about half of Poland's aluminium, and also over 2000 tonnes of toxic fluorides annually. The Ecology Club, through a local

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