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Romania Eleventh Party Congress
The Eleventh Party Congress in November 1974 adopted
the party
program (a massive document establishing the framework for
party
activity for the following quarter century), the
directives for the
Sixth Five-Year Plan (1976-80), and the guidelines for the
economy
from 1974 through 1990. The congress failed, however, to
complete
all the items on its agenda, leaving such unfinished
business as
party statute revisions to the Central Committee for
finalization.
The report of the Central Committee surveyed the
party's
achievements, examined "the problems of international
political
life" and cooperation with other countries, and defined
the
national goal as the building of a "multilaterally
developed
socialist society." The foreign policy objectives set
forth in the
report included the establishment of a "new world order,"
disarmament, and a "new type of unity" in the
international
communist movement.
The draft directives of the 1976-80 plan projected
continued
rapid development of "the technical and material basis of
the
national economy, and of the whole of society." The
directives
earmarked some one-third of the gross national product for
investment, the highest rate in the communist world, and
predicted
an annual rate of industrial growth of between 9 and 10
percent for
the period up to 1990.
The congress considered a proposal to appoint Ceausescu
PCR
general secretary for life. Ceausescu rejected the
proposal in a
brief speech, possibly because of the objections of
Western
communist delegates in attendance and the potential damage
the
appointment would cause to his international image.
The congress elected a new Central Committee, which was
expanded to 205 members and 156 alternate members, and
removed 43
members elected at the Tenth Congress, including former
Prime
Minister Maurer. Numerous party and government officials
were
assigned new positions. The Central Committee elected a
twentyeight -member Polexco, which selected the membership of the
Permanent Bureau (created in March to replace the
Presidium). Far
from the broadly based committee initially projected, the
Permanent
Bureau comprised only Ceausescu and a handful of persons
who owed
their rise entirely to him. Thus Ceausescu's personal rule
was
further strengthened and institutionalized.
Data as of July 1989
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