SOVIET PRESS SLAMS EXPANSION OF RADIO FREE EUROPE MOSCOW — The expansion of Radio Free Europe with the alloca- tion of $14.2-million to build 11 new transmission towers has drawn criticism in the Soviet press. It said that ample proof exists that ‘*Liberty-Free Europe” has for many years been financed by the CIA for the sole purpose conducting subversion against the socialist states. ‘The efforts of the U.S. administration to intensify psychological warfare over the airwaves is a challenge to Europeans on the eve of the Belgrade meeting.”’ said the Soviet article. : THE PLIGHT OF MILLIONS OF CHILDREN CITED BUENOS AIRES — The UNICEF director for Latin America, Carlos Martinez Sotomayor declared that out of one billion children, two-thirds suffer from hunger, malnutrition, lack of shelter and educa- tion. Sotomayor spoke of UNICEF activities and about International Children’s Year in 1979 which he described as ‘‘not a celebration, nor ananniversary, but an effort to promote activities to benefit children.”’ HALF OF JEWISH EMIGRANTS BYPASS ISRAEL JERUSALEM — The Jewish Agency here admitted last week that most Soviet Jewish emigrants do not go to Israel but are going to English-speaking countries. the JA said in its report the first country chosen is the U.S. followed by Canada, Australia and South Africa. DEFENDANTS BARRED FROM THEIR OWN HEARING WILMINGTON, N.C. — The judge who will rule on defense mo- tions for a new trial for the Wilmington Ten has refused to allow the defendants in the courtroom. The ten civil rights activists were sen- tenced to a total of 282 years in a frame-up trial in 1972. Charlene Mitchell, executive secretary of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said last week, “‘it is unpre- cedented for a judge to refuse a defendant’s right to be present during legal proceedings related to his case.’” The NAARPR is organizing support demonstrations in Wilmington made up of people from all over North Carolina. : MEXICAN PRESIDENT CRITICIZES THE U.S. TIJUANA, Mexico — President Jose Lopez Portillo attacked U.S. policy toward Mexican workers in the U.S. saying they are not crimi- nals, though are often made to appear so in the United States. He said the matter of illegal entry into the U.S. by Mexican workers will not be solved as long as it is treated simply as a police problem. Mexico has 1,500,000 jobless and seven million underemployed. Only 51% of the country’s working-age population have steady jobs. NAMIBIA WEEK IN GDR CHURCHES BERLIN (ADN) — The Evangelical Church in the German Demo- cratic Republic marked a week of solidarity with the Namibia people with services and other events throughout the country. For many years the GDR’s churches have been participating in the program of the World Council of Churches for combatting racism. Recently the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) re- ceived 200,000 marks from fund-raising campaigns conducted by GDR churches. COSMONAUT AT UN LAUDS GAINS BY SOVIETY WOMEN UNITED NATIONS — A strike comparison between the status of women in socialist and capitalist countries was made last week by Valentina Tershkova, Soviet cosmonaut, when she addressed. the Committee for the UN Decade of Women here. ‘‘Ninety-five percent of all Soviet women either work or study; women make up one-half of the wage earners and 70% of the USSR’s doctors and teachers,”’ she A lonely Rev. lan Paisley, Northern Ireland reactionary, is shown here at the beginning of the general strike called by his organization to force the British army to invade Catholic ghettos and re-open the reactionary dominated Northern parliament. One bus driver was killed when he refused to join the strike. Paisley has been arrested on disturbing the peace charges. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 20, 1977—Page 8 The living standards of the Soviet people are steadily improv- ing. Deposits in savings banks now amount to several tens of thousands of millions of roubles. In. 1976 the average monthly wages of factory and office work- ers exceeded 151 roubles as com- pared to 146 roubles in 1975. If we add to average wages the pay- ments and services provided by the public consumption fund we will see that average incomes rose from 198 roubles to 206-roubles. A Rouble a Day Now let us imagine you have left home with only one rouble in your pocket. If you have to use public transport to get to work you will find that the charge is moderate — from three to five kopecks (100 kopecks = 1 rouble) regardless of the distance. At the newsstand you may buy a couple of central papers, say Pravda or the trade union paper Trud, for three and two kopecks respec- tively. If you like to smoke you may buy a packet of rather good cigarettes for fourteen kopecks. After that you can go to work. One o'clock is lunchtime. At the canteen a good three or four- course meal will cost you 50-60 . kopecks. It will include, for in- stance, a plate of Russian borsch, beef steak and:a fruit salad. And you will have some money left to have a glass of pale ale (for 20 kopecks) at a bar on your way home. What Will a Rouble Buy? Normally, if you want to buy something you ask the price and then see whether you have enough money. Now let us do the reverse and see what a rouble will buy. Let us start with foodstuffs. A kilo (1 kilo = 2.2 lbs.) of tasty rye bread costs 16 kopecks, a kilo of - potatoes — 10 kopecks, a litre (1 litre = 1.08 quarts) of milk — 30 kopecks, a 200 gram tin of smoked sprats — 80 kopecks, and a kilo of beets — two roubles. This list could bé extended. But the main thing is that food prices have remained unchanged over a period of many years. Though the country had been badly hit by three years of droughts during the preceding (ninth) five year period, the prices have not changed. The losses incurred by the crop fai- lures, including the cost of im- ports of grain and some other foodstuffs from other countries, were covered from the state budget and not from the pocket of the consumer. It is worth noting that the prices of certain goods and services have remained stable practically from those days. As regards rent, in 1928 a Soviet citizen paid 13.2 kopecks per square metre of liv- ing space. This means that a three room flat with living space of 50 square metres costs 6 roubles and 60 kopecks a month. No rent is paid for non-living space — kitch- en, entrance hall, corridors and bathroom. - Nearly fifty years have passed ~ since then. The quality of the housing has improved beyond comparison, but the rent has re- mained unchanged since 1928. Over a long period of time the charges for central heating, elec- tricity (four kopecks per kilowatt hour), gas (sixteen kopecks per inhabitant per month regardless of the quantity consumed) and for public transport have been stable “ c ee -MOAOHHBIE TO BAP bl i : imports paid by the state. - too. It is true that what the Soviet state collects in charges does not cover the cost — the difference, amounting to several hundred million roubles a year is reco- COMMUNISTS BACK BILL C-33 FIGHT TORONTO William Kashtan, general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada was the first of the country’s political leaders to respond to the Toronto and District Railway Workers © Council position calling fer with- - drawal of Bill C-33, amendments to the National Transportatio - Act. Kashtan noted, ‘‘... the railway unions across Canada, backed by the Canadian Labor Congress and its affiliates ought to undertake an intensive public campaign for withdrawal of the bill’. He pledged his party’s full support for the campaign and for a fully inte- grated, publicly-owned and demo- cratically controlled transporta- tion system by land sea and air. MORRIS DEMANDS GOVT. ACTION OTTAWA — At the close of a two-day executive council meet- ing of the Canadian Labor Con- gress last week president Joe Morris called on the federal gov- ernment to ‘‘act now — not next month or next year’’, on the coun- try’s tragic unemployment crisis. Government failure to deal with the record 8.3% unemploy- _ ment rate will have deep social and economic costs Morris said, as ‘‘a whole generation of young A modern Soviet supermarket. Although wages and salaries have steadily increased in the Soviet Union food prices have not risen since — the early 50’s. Shortages caused by drought, etc. are supplemented by vered from the state budget. But — the consumer gains. The con- — sumer who is the main focus of attention of the economic policy _ pursued by the Soviet state. 7 al Canadians reacts to the discovery ‘that they are considered of no us¢— to society.”’ ACTRA POISED TO STRIKE TORONTO — The 5,000 -member Association of Canadia® Television and .Radio “Artists (ACTRA), will strike the CB June 1 unless the corporatio? gives the union discretionalY power over CBC’s ability to hil. foreign performers; pays up $ million in back pay owing to thé members for over a year; all gives Canadians preference for al work. ACTRA outlined its demand in a letter to management May ?”"— following a 877-630 membershif vote May 4 rejecting a propos® agreement between the union a” the CBC. ACTRA has given thé union until May 23 to respond: = | ‘ In memory of a comrade and friend Bill Wood — who passed suddenly April, 1977 s2mcgier East Club, CPG —_ '