The consumer in the USSR:

Advance instead of inflation

Romania
y UCHAREST—Prime Minister

By JOHN WEIR

_ MOSCOW — If Soviet news is
often expressed in production

figures, it is because the welfare
Of the people and the power of

the state are derived from the

. Output of goods and the growth
Of the economy. Soviet econo

Mist Nikolai Buzlyakov points
“Out in an article written for No-
 -Vosti Press Agency that lower-
_ ing of retail prices in the country
during the past four years re-

Sulted in an annual gain of 800-

Mhillion rubles for consumers.:

Prices for washing machines,
Motorcycles, motor scooters,
Mopeds,

dropped. Prices of television sets
Were reduced twice. This is on
the background of the stability
Of. rents, transport fares and

-Tates-for services, while wages
‘€nd various: benefits from the
Social consumption fund have

increased by 19% over the past
four years.

Incomes are scheduled to rise
by another 5% during the cur-
Tent year. In human terms, this

Means that. since 1971 an aver-

age family of four has increased
its annual purchases of goods by
575 rubles. Last year the amount
Of money deposited in savings
banks increased by 10,200,000,-
000 rubles. Last year the retail
trade turnover in the country
Mcreased by 10,900,000,000 rub-
les. There were substantial in-
Creases in sales of foodstuffs,
Clothing, footwear and durables.

While more farm products in
8eneral were
ighest.increases occurred in the

foods rich in protein. In other

Words, Soviet people eat not
Only more but better. Vladimir
arybin, vice-chairman of the

Committee on Labor and Wages,
Teported that during the current
Five-Year Plan 47 million people

Hungary

BUDAPEST—While the Hun-
8arian chemical industry  in-
Creases its annual output by 11
to 13%, the increase for its

Pharmaceutical section is 18 to -

0%. The Kobanya Pharmaceu-
Cal Factory (photo) places
&bout 10 new products on the
Market each year, and 80% of

Output is for export. The
Vasodilator Stugeron; Prodektin,
Used for arterio-sclerosis; and
tlinium, the new hope in the
: €atment of heart diseases, have
cently been registered in the

factory. Dr. Gyorgy Gabor, dir-

ctor of the National Institute ~
r Cardiology, said of Clinium, .

it experiences so far recom-
wend it “in the rehabilitation of
Ur heart infarct patients .. . It

Offers hope. for preventing a

focond or third infarct.” Another
tory Chinoin, is producing a

New product, Elobromol, “which

Plays a significant part in the .
Jyatment of cancer,” writer —

‘dit Racz reports.

‘€nea Manescu and the visiting
Prime minister of the German
i Mocratic Republic, Horst Sin-
Venn agreed on further de-
.“‘Opment of their cooperation
ni conomic, scientific and tech-
tig matters, and on specializa-
ae in production. As members
no the Council for Mutual Eco-

Mic Assistance, the two states

€ssed in their communique

electric shavers and.
SOme articles of clothing have

consumed, the.

The average Soviet family of four purchased 575 rubles more in

goods last year compared to 1971. They also saved more in bank
accounts. Retail trade in the country jumped by almost 10-billion
rubles with foodstuffs, clothing, appliances leading the way.

At the same time wages increased and prices on many consumer
items dropped. Rents, transit costs and service rates remained stable.

— teachers, doctors, building
and railway workers—have had
their wages increased. Incomes
of collective farmers will rise by
5% this year. Allocations for
social security and insurance in
1975, he said, amount to 32,000,-
000,000 rubles. A large part of
this sum is earmarked for bene-
fits and pensions which are
being raised for 30 million peo-
ple. >

On the eve of the new year the ©

Soviet government announced
considerable increases in pen-
sions for individuals (who by the
way travel free on municipal
transport, get cheaper fares for
other travel). One billion eight
hundred million rubles are alloc-
ated annually for family allow-
ances.

These are some of the direct
bread-and-butter benefits deriv-
ed by the Soviet people.

Various forms of socialist
emulation are being developed in

Socialist

i hi a ead

The Kébdénya Pharmaceutical
Factory appears on the market
with 8 to 10 new products every

yecir.

the desire to increase coopera-
tion “between the socialist coun-
tries on the basis of the prin-
ciples of Marxism-Leninism and
socialist internationalism . . .”

Also, as Warsaw Treaty mem-
bers, they agreed to strengthen
“efforts toward conclusion as
soon as possible of the Confer-
ence on Security and Coopera-
tion in Europe at the highest

level.’ :

a:

Democratic Republic’

of Vietnam :
HANOI—In order to meet the

food needs of the people, and

provide goods for export, large-

scale farming is being launched

in the DRV. At a conference to

the drive for more and better
production. Moscow members of
the Young Communist League
have initiated a “For myself and
for them” campaign this year as
the 30th anniversary of the vic-
tory over fascism is being celeb-
rated. This slogan means that a
young worker undertakes to ful-
fill his own production quota and
also another for someone who
fell in the war.

Regions and industries are
pledging to fulfill their plan
ahead of schedule and produce
considerably more goods above
their target. The Ukraine, for
example, has decided to deliver
in .excess of this year’s plan
more than 6 million tons of coal,
over 200,000 tons of oil, 190,000
tons of cast iron, 210,000 tons of
steel and many other products.
Figures are often considered dull
reading, but these figures tell of
things that have been and are
being done. :

discuss the plan, Le Duan, first
secretary of the Vietnam Work-
ers’ Party, told delegates:
“Many _ fraternal
have taken their agriculture. to
large-scale socialist production
on the basis of developed-indus-
try. Here, in our country, indus-
try is still a small one, hence
our inadequate. material « and
technical basis. But we cannot
sit and wait for industry to de-
velop. We must rely on the
revolutionary potentialities. of
the Vietnamese working class
and peasantry, closely combine
industry with agriculture so as
to develop agriculture step by
step; as the basis for the devel-
opment of industry. :

“Now that the land reform has _

been completed and the over-
whelming majority of the peas-
antry has embarked on the path
of collectivization, the funda-
mental, most urgent. problem
remains to take agriculture and
the peasantry gradually to a
big-scale socialist production.”

Czechoslovakia o:

PRAGUE—In ‘Czechoslovakia
automobile use has been increas-
ing rapidly over the last few

years, Today there is one car to

just over 11 inhabitants. The in-
crease is most noticeable in the
Czechoslovak capital, Prague,
where 232,000 vehicles were re-
gistered in the first half of 1974.
With one car to 6.8 inhabitants,
Prague is approaching the ratio
of Vienna (1:6) and Paris (1:5).

countries —

The United States has step-

ped-up its military support of
the reactionary sultanate of
Oman with the delivery. of .mis-
siles and instructors: from. the
U.S. armed forces to the Omani
armed forces.

For nearly a decade an armed.

liberation struggle has been

waged in the sultanate of Oman,

the large: territory of 120,000
square miles and over 600,000
people that runs from the penin-
sula’s horn, that walls in the
Arabian Gulf, around to the bor-
der of the People’s Democratic
Republic of Yemen. Known until

‘.recently as the People’s Front

for the Liberation of Oman and
the Arab Gulf (PFLOAG), it has
the support of the anti-imperial-
ist governments and forces in
the Arab ‘regions and of the so-
cialist countries.
Guerrilla War in Dhofar

PFLOAG has had the aim of
liberating the whole array of
sheikhdoms and sultanates rim-
ming the Arabian Gulf that Bri-
tain drew together a few years
ago into the United Arab Emir-
ates, but its main effort has been

against the regime of the Sultan .

of Oman. It has liberated a large
part of the Omani province of
Dhofar, which borders on the
People’s Democratic Republic of
Yemen. Most. of the fighting in
the guerilla war is in Dhofar.

The greatest fear of the U.S.
and imperialists is that a liber-
ation victory would wrest the oil
wealth from the hands of the
reactionary sheiks and sultans
and place it in the control of po-
pular movements that would use
it for the region’s people and
their development. If oil is seen
as ‘a fearsome weapon in the
hands of sheikh allies of impe-
rialism, its potential in the hands
of the people is an awful thing
for imperialism to contemplate.

The ruler of Oman, Sultan
Qabus bin Said, visited Wash-
ington last month. Soon after-
ward it became known that the
United States had asked permis-
sion to land military aircraft oc-
casionally on the Omani offshore
island of Masira, where Britain’s
Royal Air Force has a staging
post. SG
British Protectorate

Oman has been a British im-
perialist protectorate for 175
years. Without British interven-
tion in the current struggle,
PFLOAG could have won its vic-
tory long ago.

In the past year or so, U.S. im-
perialism has also taken a hand
in propping up the Sultan. The
Central Treaty Organization

“(CENTO), a U.S.-British domin-

ated military bloc in the Middle
East, has prodded its fellow-
member, Iran, to send a suppres-
sive army to Dhofar, and U:S.
aircraft carriers and destroyers
are making regular visits to the
waters around Oman. _
Britain’s defense review, an-
nounced in December, called for
withdrawal from the bulk of
military. commitments “east. of
Suez” but made two notable ex-
ceptions: Oman, and the nearby
Indian Ocean air base, Diego
Gracia, being strengthened in
conjunction with the USA. Said
the British Labour Party secret-
ary, Roy Mason: “We do not
think it would be right in pre-
sent circumstances to make any
changes in the arrangements we

‘have with the Sultan of Oman.”

_In December 1973, The Brit-
ish-U.S. partner in CENTO, the
Shah of Iran, sent 2,000 of his
troops plus squadrons of U.S.-
provided jet fighters and combat
helicopters to Dhofar. This move

: ‘ Fields

received much protest from Arab
countries. and _ internationally,

and on October 10 it was anno-
unced that they were being

‘withdrawn. The announcement

was a fake. On December 12, a
military communique from the
sultan’s regime revealed that
nine Iranian troops were killed
in a liberation force’s ambush
while “defending Islam against
the godless Communists.”

In: July 1974, PFLOAG and the
People’s Democratic Republic of
South Yemen (PDRSY), that has
closely supported it, announced
changes in policy. PFLOAG, re-
named the People’s Front for the
Liberation of Oman (PFLO),
alone would continue guerrilla
warfare against the Oman Sultan.
In the other parts of the Arab
Gulf the struggle would be con-

- ducted by peaceful means.

The PDRSY, for its part, de-
clared a policy of developing
friendly relations with United
Arab Emirates, Bahrein, and
Qatar in the Arab Gulf, which it
had previously refused to recog-
nize, calling them imperialist
puppet states.

Two factors, 1) the increasing
trend toward nationalization of
foreign oil companies and tow-
ard independence in the Arab
Gulf, and 2) the intervention by
Iran (a non-Arab state) in Oman,
raised the possibilities of Arab
unity.

If they can result in pressure

_ being brought to bear on the

sultan of Oman it could be deci-
sive in enabling PFLO to achieve
its declared aims: the with-
drawal of all foreign troops, the
release of 800 political prison-
ers, and the replacement of the
sultan’s rule by a democratic
political system.

BRAM FISCHER, South Af-
rican communist leader, cri-
tically ill in a prison hospital,
is the center of an intensive |
international campaign to af-
fect his release. So far all ef-
forts have been spurned by
the apartheid government.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1975—Page 9