The following material by APN ~
political commentator Gennady» .
Pisarevsky looks at both the
economies of the capitalist and

Socialist states as we enter the
980s.

xe oe

CAPITALISM

year. And this in a country which
accounts for 20% of the world’s
industrial potential.

In Czechoslovakia, industrial
production increased by 3.8%. In
the GDR, the national income
rose by more than 5% in the first

ity, Soviet supplies continue to
meet most of the Comecon Euro-
pean countries’ needs in energy
and fuel. To increase energy
production, the Soviet Union
must move farther to east
Siberia, to forbidding regions with
a harsh climate. This leads to a

{ The economic situation in most 0 six months of the year, as com- “, :

_ Doh-socialist countries is bleak. f OF pared with the same period last S€ in the cost os gerry a
Economic news from that part of 4 £ year, and industrial production pals sede se sah, ea te agar
the world sound more like health went up by 5.9%. Although oil, gas and coal

bulletins on a dying person. No
sooner had the capitalist
economy recovered from the
1974-1975 crisis than it again
found itself in a protracted
depression.

The “discomfort index,’’
which combines the rate of in-
flation and the rate of unemploy-

These figures indicate that the
member countries of the Council
for Mutual Economic Assistance
(Comecon) remain the most
dynamic economic region of the
world. It should be noted that in
the 1970s the national income and

_ industrial production in the Com-

econ countries grew almost twice
as fast as those in the indus-

prices in Comecon countries are
geared to world prices, they are
not exorbitant. The price of oil,
for example, is fixed on the basis
of the average world price during
the five years preceding the year
of supplies. Last year, for in-
stance, Comecon countries
bought Soviet oil at 60% of the
world price. As a result, Soviet

& ‘
ment, has been rising at a frighten- : on Sethe F supplies of oil and petrole ro-
: trialized capitalist nations. The SUPPHes Of ol and petroleum p
ing pace throughout the year. The i n ro ul (- Council's aenibere accounted for ducts to Comecon countries from
energy crisis has come to a head. 1976 to 1980 will enable the latter

Formed in the United States,
the clouds of economic crisis
have reached Western Europe
and Japan. The leading western
power itself is in an economic
mess: in three months its gross
national product fell by 60,000
million dollars. The automobile
industry, a driving force of the
U.S. economy, is in need of
thorough repairs: fuel-saving,
sturdy and compact Japanese and
West European cars are edging
out posh but uneconomical
American automobiles.

A slight reduction in the growth
of prices cost the Americans a
loss of millions of jobs. There
were 8.2 million jobless in the
United States in July. Soviet
leaders proved right when they
warned that President Carter’s

embargo on grain sales to the-

USSR would boomerang — the
Soviet Union managed to keep up
its livestock population, whereas,

waters

with almost two million people
out of work. Even West Germany
and Japan, the two economically
strongest countries in the West,
are in pre-crisis fever.

In the latter half of 1980 West
Germany’s GNP is expected to
fall by 1.25% in terms of the an-
nual level. Inflation is to rise from
4.7% last year to 7% this year and
the number of jobless will reach
one million.

In short, the economies of the
advanced capitalist countries en-
teréd the 1980s with a greater
number of problems which they
find increasingly hard to solve.

True, there are problems in the
economies of the socialist coun-
tries as well. These are different
problems, however. There is no
unemployment; prices are state
regulated and the economy
as a whole is. growing at a nor-
mally steady rate. e

Real incomes of the population
constantly grow too and large-
scale, social development pro-
grams are being consistently put
into practice.

In the first half of 1980, for
example, industrial production in
the Soviet Union increased by
4.5% over the same period last

about a half of the world’s indus-
trial output.
The two main economic prob-

lems of current interest in Com-.

econ European countries today
are-efficiency of production and
quality of work. In the 1980s the
Soviet. Union and other de-
veloped socialist countries need
not increase sheer output as fast
as they did a short while ago. Now
they will concentrate on sectors
where the industrialized capitalist
countries are still in the lead.
These are, above all, higher
productivity of labor through bet-
ter use of achievements in science
and engineering, and _ the
improvement of quality of goods.
For objective reasons, Com-
econ countries also face some
energy problems. Energy is no
longer cheap and every country
has to come to grips with this real-

to save a total of more than 5,000
million roubles (one rouble is
roughly equal to $1.60 ULS. at the
official rate of exchange).

New war plant

WASHINGTON: — The Un-
ited States Congress has agreed to
consider a draft law which would
allocate an additional three mil-
lion dollars for the construction of

‘yet another plant to manufacture

chemical weapons. 3

The planned site for the new
plant is Arkansas.

Of the tens of thousands of tons
of chemical weapons that are al-
ready in the U.S. arsenal, a large
number are deployed in West
Germany on the borders of social-
ist countries.

\ ets to the Western press, iL Bley
Can f; 000 ° Re . ae ¥ rg
| ASI neil risT WE RAISE yatuntiy SO WE HAVE A Suipiye of AS TO THC EConotuc
ott sete OUR PRICES, AND : ! WE CUT PRODVCTION, 7 CONE TIS ACL
Labor productivity has begun HOLD You WAS ou Buy GETA TAY CUT 70 KEEP CAUSED RY .
to fall in the United States and real « LESS OUR PROFITS VE wade: SUN SPoT¢

incomes of the population have

AND LAY ‘fou OFF

. a,

___ sharply dropped. In the first half ° . fOr o&

_ of 1980 they fell by almost 7%. ’ ee

Other Western countries, ® Y U baexey,

| especially Britain, fare no better -1 —* ai UAS 11-97.

An excuse to dis

{ STUDY “LINKS’ MINIMUM WAGE TO UNEMPLOYMENT |=

The genéral secretary of the YoungCommu- [- _~

pand wage

See
ei

law says YCL

Rather than eliminating minimum wage legisla-

Se =

tion, as the survey recommended, governments
must immediately raise these wage levels, which
currently range from a low of $2.75 in Nova
Scotia to a high of $3.65 in Quebec, the YCL said.
“‘Even the highest of minimum wages still leaves
the worker far, far behind the escalating cost of
living and well below the poverty line. A first step
must be the closing of the minimum wage loop-
hole which allows employers in many parts of
Canada to pay those under the age of 17 an even
lower rate.”’

Gidora said that the YCL was proposing a gen-
eral minimum wage across the country, “‘which
must be stringently enforced with jail sentences
to employers who ignore it’’ of at least $4.50 per
hour which must be indexed to the inflation rate.

‘‘Despite what employers and some sections of
the government bureaucracy would like us to be-
lieve, this will have no detrimental effect on
employment, as indicated by five previous
government studies, and will offer at leasta mod- |4
icum of protection for those in low paying, un-
skilled jobs. Of course, the real answer to raising
living standards of the hundreds of thousands of
young people on the minimum wage lies in their
taking action themselves to organize into strong
trade unions, and negotiating wage settlements to |
accord them a decent standard of living.’

Gidora added that the YCL would be petition-
ing other youth organizations in the country ex-
pressing its concerns over what it sees as an at-
tempt to dismantle the minimum wage.

nist League of Canada warned Aug. 30 that the
publication of a study linking the existence of a
minimum wage to high unemployment among
young Canadians may be ‘“‘just the excuse the
governments of this country are looking for to do
away with minimum wage legislation.

“Any effort to undermine minimum wage legis-
lation would be a comic tragedy to the hundreds
of thousands of young people in this country who
rely upon this legislation as their only protection

M unscrupulous employers,’’ Mike Gidora

Cc ‘

The survey, published jointly by the Economic
Council of Canada and the Institute for Research
into Public Policy, two Ottawa-based prived

_ Organizations, alleges that the minimum wage de-
creases the number of jobs available to young
People on the tenuous grounds that most com-
panies paying the minimum wage are small cor-
porations unable to pay higher wages costs. ‘‘Itis
clear from these fallacious conclusions that the
researchers have not examined the wage rates
paid by such giant multi-nationals as McDonalds
restaurants, which almost exclusively adheres to
the minimum wage, or the. rates paid casual
employees by outfits such as Simpsons and other
retailers, which again are very close to minimum
wage rates. Any effort to eliminate the minimum

. Wage legislation would be welcomed with open
arms by these industries, and would not be re-
peved in lower prices, but simply in higher pro-

ts.”

“eae Canada Manpower Centre <7 .
ey ae a he Centre de Main-d oeuvre du Canada

ee A Re A OCG

The minimum wage is not the source of higher youth unemployment
. said the Young Communist League charging that the wage laws are
frequently the only form of protection available to young people.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 5, 1980—Page 9