Under pressure from turbulent protests, the Polish communist regime withdrew the price hike on foodstuffs that it had planned for June 25, 1976, resulting in a long period of destabilization for the system. Freezing prices for another year deepened the market imbalance since production could not keep pace with the population's income, and there were limits to Poland's ability to earmark loans for the import of consumer goods. Chaos began creeping into the centrally planned industrial sector. The government cut back on investments arbitrarily, and it proved increasingly difficult to maintain cooperation between producers. The energy balance was fragile and inflationary pressures emerged, while the lines outside shops grew longer and the black market spread. The catastrophic winter of 1978–79 that paralyzed the country for a couple of months played a role, too— over half of Poles said that the magnitude of the calamity was due to “organizational paralysis.” In other words, the government was responsible. By early 1980, only 29 percent of those surveyed believed that the condition of the economy was “good,” in comparison to almost 60 percent four years earlier. These negative feelings were exacerbated by disappointment, since the first years of the Gierek era had generally been assessed very favorably, primarily because the standard of living had been improving rapidly. Gierek himself was perceived as the opposite of Gomułka: he was tall, broad-shouldered, elegantly dressed, and traveled the country. He was direct in his contact with people, whom he did not shun. Gierek was no stranger to life abroad (before 1946 he had lived for more than a decade in France and Belgium), and he liked to have official, top-level meetings with Western politicians. These traits now began to irritate people, making Gierek seem artificial and pompous.

By granting concessions under the pressure of public opinion, the ruling clique showed itself to be weak, and this kind of “loss of face” is more difficult for those in power to handle in a dictatorial state than in a democracy. Moreover, the course of events in June 1976 confirmed workers’ belief that strikes could prove an effective instrument in the fight to resolve their most pressing issues. The opposition was organizing itself, and its members were pointing out the errors, waste, and abuses in Gierek's ruling circle, about which rumors were flying.