WORLD

Andropov report to CPSU Central Committee

All economic efforts aimed
at improving living standards

In a speech prepared for the session of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Dec. 26, CPSU General Secretary Yuri Andropov stres-
sed that ‘‘all our economic efforts are aimed, in the final
analysis, at ensuring a continued rise in the living stan-

News Digest

what is needed is real improvements in construction to
dards of the Soviet people.”’ utilize the tremendous sum of funds invested in this
Andropov outlined steady progress being made in liv- sector and to demand unconditional fulfillment of set
ing standards, in large scale construction of housing, tasks;
cultural and service facilities, in education and health e Despite improvements of late, transport requires
better deployment, specialization and integration;
e Today’s scale and pace of development ‘‘demands
changes in attitude to questions of protection of the
environment and the rational use of natural resources
which will “determine conditions in which succeeding

program with increasing livestock production and rising
food consumption. Growth rates in the economy and
improvement in quality are being seen, he said, but this is

, care.
He spoke of progress achieved in the country’s food
|

delegates, ‘‘is not to loose the tempo .
ficiency of production ..
necks.’’ He urged detailed attention in each sector, in
each work collective to means and methods required to
economize on resources, materials, feedstock and ener-
gy; to raise labor productivity and increase consumer
goods production.

only the beginning’’.

‘“‘The most important thing now,”’ Andropov told the
. to raise ef-
. to focus attention on bottle-

‘‘This must be the aim of our entire economic ac-

tivity,’’ Andropov stressed and gave examples of both
poor and excellent experiences of the use of labor and
resources:

e In many cases the huge chemical and petro-

chemical capacity of the country has not been used to the
full due to lack of co-ordination and to disproportions;

e The organization of the entire package of scientific

and technological work is far from being efficient and
demands a decisive turn to raise technical standards and
improve product quality;

e The heads of building organizations ‘‘often enter

upon lengthy explanations of their work failures’’ when

generations will live . .. anarrow departmental approach
here is intolerable.”’

Andropov gave examples of disparity between quality
and assortment of goods and consumer demands, point-
ing to cases where radios, television sets, cameras,
watches and refrigerators remain unpurchased due to
poor quality. “‘It is intolerable that with a shortage of
many products, high-quality raw materials are wasted on
unmarketable goods,”’ he said.

He called for improved quality and selection alongside .

increased production of consumer goods and said it
should be made the personal responsibility of executives
of every rank. “The time has apparently come not just to
talk about shortages ... but about particular officials
standing behind these shortages. 2

“Concrete forms of management and planning must
correspond to the real conditions of each stage in the
country’s social development,’’ Andropov stressed.
‘‘That is why the improvement of the management sys-
tem is an integral part of the overall perfecting of our
social system. He called for:

Improving the living Sendarce of the, neon was the |
corner stone of a tough speech delivered by Soviet leader -
Yuri Andropov to the party’s central committee. ‘

e Perfection of the organizational structure of
management. at all levels and in all economic sectors”
including a clear definition of the functions, rights and -
responsibilities of management bodies and enterprises; —

e Improvement of the planning system in the national —
economy proceeding from higher socio-economic effec-
tiveness of production;

‘‘Our successes will depend to a decisive extent on the 4
mobilization of our people, on their creative attitude and —
on the further development of socialist emulation,”’ Ang
dropov concluded. ;

‘Millions of Communists and non-party people bea
lieve the Party and are prepared to support measures for —
further improvement of the economy and other spheres —
of social life,’’ he told the Central Committee.

“‘This places immense personal responsibility on each —
of us, without pt as and we should justify the con- |
fidence of the people ..

International Focus

Tom Morris

A traitor
pardons killers.

On June 19, 1980, thousands
of Grenadians filled Queen’s
Park on the outskirts of St.
George’s for a rally to honor
two heroes,’ martyrs in the
struggle against the former
Gairy dictatorship.

As speakers addressed the
crowd a massive explosion
went off under the platform
where Prime Minister Maurice

-Bishop and five of the six
Cabinet Ministers were seated.
Thick concrete deflected the
blast outward killing three
young girls and injuring 94
others.

Investigators found the
bombing to be an assassination
attempt against Bishop and the
Provisional Revolutionary
Government (PRG) carried out
by a small group of counter-
revolutionaries. A court later
found four men guilty of the
outrage and sentenced them
to hang.

Last week, in a crowning in-
sult to the Grenadian people,
the island’s U.S.-installed
puppet, Governor-General Sir

* Paul Scoon pardoned the four

killers.

Today there’s no pretence
left. Scoon, who prostituted
himself to the U.S. army by
signing the order for invasion
and genocide against his own
people, now frees traitors and

: Victims of the 1980 bomb biast

in St. George’s: three dead, 94
wounded. Last week in his
latest traitorous act Scoon par-.
doned the killers.

killers. The wheel has come
full circle — traitors rewarding
traitors.

The U.S. occupation army
has found their Quisling, just as
the Nazi occupiers did in Nor-
way in World War Two.
Scoon’s name will long be re-
membered in the region with
scorn and revulsion.

He’s a fitting representative
for Ronald Reagan.

Life in the
promised land

We keep reading in the
Western media about all those
Soviet citizens who are beating
down the doors for visas to
travel to Israel only to be
thwarted by hard-hearted
authorities from entering the
promised land.

And then we hear com-

plaints from some Jewish cir-

8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 11, 1984

cles in the West that when
these Soviet ingrates get to Is-
rael it’s only a stop-over to
New York, Toronto or some-
where else.

U.S. Secretary of State
George Shultz recently said ‘‘a
strong Israel is not only a
guarantor of security for the
Jewish people but also a
powerful force for freedom and
a strategic partner of America
and the West.’’ Shultz might
have added that Israel today is
Reagan’s Middle East police-
man and in itself is an expan-
sionist, military regime.

And what price do the
people pay?

Despite huge sums from the
U.S. to fuel its military
machine, the economic strain
is crushing. Israel’s food prices
have doubled in three months.

Inflation for 1984 is expected
to hit 280 per cent — added to
1983’s 200 per cent. Its cur-
rency rate will drop to 335
shekels to the U.S. dollar
compared to 110 last month.

The country now has a
$28.7-billion foreign debt and a
$6.6-billion balance-of-pay-
ments deficit. And _ the
government says it will reduce
the people’s living standards
by another 10 per cent.

There’s a ‘‘strong Israel’’ for
you. It’s difficult to imagine
anyone (Soviets included)
kicking down the doors to go
there.

Caught with
their pants down

The strange case of Ameri-
can hi-tech data equipment
bound for South Africa and
found aboard ships in Ham-
burg, FRG and Helsingborg,
Sweden, keeps popping up in
the press.

The first embarrassing news
that such military materiel
‘capable of guiding missile
systems’’ appeared in the
press in November when sev-
eral cases were discovered in
Helsingborg. Then, on Dec.
19, U.S. Defence Secretary
Weinberger held a Washington
press conference and dis-
played pieces of advanced
U.S. high-tech equipment
which he claimed were found
in Hamburg.

Both, said Weinberger, were
intercepted minutes before
they were to have been smug-
gled to the USSR. Then Wein-
berger, who called this ‘“‘a
threat to world security’’, said
the materiel was destined for
South Africa — apparently not
‘a threat to world security”’.

The Swedes and Americans
clearly got caught with their
collective pants down.
Swedish law forbids trans-
shipment of such materiel to
South Africa.

The U.S. isn’t quite that
moral, it’s law does. But sup-
plying the racist regime with

guidance missile high-tech
isn’t all that easy to explain to
the rest of the world, especially —
to South Africa’s neighbors
who are the targets.

So, when confronted with a
shipment snafoo, what better
scam than to blame the whole
thing on a Soviet smuggling
ring? What, after all, can the
Russians say?

Weinberger’s __ theatrics
aside, the large question stands
out clearly: the Reagan
administration is arming the
South African regime with the
latest missile guidance
technology in its last ditch
stand against the national
liberation movement inside
South Africa and in the region.

There are smugglers in the
story all right — and they
aren’t the Russians.

APARTHEID