GOR i new social legislation Extended By FILS DELISLE Tribune Berlin Correspondent _ BERLIN — The entire work- ing force in the German Demo- Cratic Republic has been granted appreciably longer’ annual _holi- days under a new law announced: onthe eve of the 29th anniversary able tpensure significant advances in_. of the socialist German state. The move is without parallel in the history of all capitalist coun- ties. It was initiated by the Socialist Unity Party, the gov- €mment and the FDGB, the GDR’s central trade union or- ganization. Under the new law 6,600,000 Working people will have their annual holidays lengthened by a Minimum of three days: Almost One million others will have their - - annual holidays extended by from four to six days. The minimum holiday will be 21 working days. In practice, however, all holidays will be appreciably longer. _ Holidays here are not counted in units of ‘weeks but in working days. Since the working week is Monday to Friday inclusive, and Since Saturday will no longer, as formerly, be counted, the time working people will now have for holidaying will be increased au- tomatically, apart from the addi- tional days of paid leave granted im the new law. A check of any calendar month will show that a holiday of 21 Working days will usually have four weekends: at the outset, in between, and at the end. A 21-day holiday here thus works out to a } -Month of paid leave. The almost one million people whose holi- _ days will now be lengthened by ¥ four, five and six days will enjoy a vacation running more than one ‘Month. ‘The longest holiday extensions under the new law go to those Working swing shifts, those doing More demanding work, those who Suffer from physical disabilities, Mothers with children and young People. Sociologists and economists See in the new law a very clear Indication of the fundamentally. Opposite effects of technological _ Progress in socialist and capitalist Society. In all Western capitalist Countries rationalization and im- Proved techniques in industry ‘prosperity, holidays fo have in recent years led to mas- sive lay-offs of ‘redundant’ workers. In the socialist society of the GDR, which has no un- employment whatsoever, techni- cal advances increase gene make the labor pro- cess easier, and bring the entire population social benefits such as more leisure time and longer an- nual holidays. . Erich Honecker, State Council Chairman and General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party, em- phasized that fact in anaddress on the occasion of the 29th anniver- sary. The GDR’s Western capitalist neighbors, he said, would be very glad to have the GDR’s “‘enormous economic and social growth rates’. Illustrating these growth rates, he gave the following impressive figures: ‘‘Labor productivity has _ grown. The material and cultural living standards of the people have again risen. The average an- nual increase in the country’s av- erage national income is 4.4%. Production of industrial goods jumped 5.4%, capital investments by 6.8%, income of workers and employees 4.7% and the turnover of retail trade by 4.5%. In the capitalist countries, on the other hand, Honecker pointed out, ‘‘the basic ills of capitalism’’ were reflected in ‘‘inflation, price increases, unemployment, lack of opportunities to learn a trade, drug addiction, death through drugs, social insecurity, ‘be- rufsverbote’ (banning of com- munists and other progressives from any kind of government employment), spying on people : c eae Pfs. about granting an entry visa to a and the rise once’ again of fas- cism”’. ee The social and economic ad: vances in the socialist society of the GDR are also reflected in a large-scale program to provide every citizen with suitable hous- ing. Since 1971 more than 3,000,000 people have received housing. The program will con- tinue until 1990, when the housing shortage caused by German capitalism before the war, and by the war itself, will be solved. From 1970 to 1977, average wages rose monthly from 762 marks to 956 marks, with prices remaining stable during the same period. | : By FILS DELISLE. . BERLIN — The GDR has paid. Tibute to its citizens of Jewish Origin for their contribution to the hi e for a world based on UManism, the equality of all Peoples and human progress. Ina Message to the president of 5 GDR’s Jewish communities, €lmet Aris, on the occasion of Se Jewish New Year, State Cre! “thi tary Hans Siegewasser said: Roy has been a good and Ccessful year for our Jewish _“*How-citizens ‘also.”” Igewasser, whose depart- ment deals with church questions cau feligious communities in the Ntry, added: “‘We have been fo maintain world peace and Implementing of the policy of .2¢ Ninth Congress of the Social- _ St Unity Party, especially in the “German ‘fies to the GDR salutes Jewish Citizens on New Year fields of social and economic poli- cy. We have thereby contributed to the happiness of the people in our socialist. homeland. This message of greetings to the GDR’s Jews is a reflection of the normal lives enjoyed in the tan or nonbeliever. It testt- Meet e fact that gis anti- itism, chauvinism an out- nets Hitler-worship have taken on scandalous proportions 1n ue capitalist German state, the FRG, here the so-called Jewish question no longer exists. Here, in the Prussian heartland of the h that set out to extermi- long- established European nations, it} : aah d Prussian, nationalis : Sees ractices that socialist state by Jew, . Serbs, Gypsies and |) r workers: ~ Such economic advances, -and the economic security which is now taken for granted here, have led to what the Western media have enviously called ‘‘the GDR baby boom’’. Abortions are legal and free here, but birthrates have gone up, not down. This favora- ble situation in the GDR is so marked, in contrast to the un- favorable birth rates. in West Ber- lin and the FRG, that West Berlin has quietly set up acommission to _ study what can be copied from the © GDR to bring that capitalist en- clave of two million. people the GDR’s birth rates. ene The problem for West Berlin’s - answer is: socialism. = _END BRITISH IMPERIALISM Demonstrators gathered at the San Francisco docks to protest the hue . presence of 11 British warships that are visiting during the joint U.S.- pro-capitalist leaders is that the’ British naval exercises in the Pacific. The pickets called for Britain to get out of Ireland. WASHINGTON (APN) — At one time, leaders of foreign Communist parties, invited to read lectures in the United States, were repeatedly refused entry visas. For the same reason Soviet trade unions were for many years unable to accept the invitations of their American counterparts. ~ Certain varieties of unorthodox thinking appal the U.S. State Department to such an extent that it does not hesitate to reiterate America’s reputation of a water- tight society. Hard-nosed racism, however, is not among them. The American authorities do not think twice person who has merely .created hell on earth for six million Blacks; thrown thousands of people into “‘strategic’’ concent- ration camps and for 12 years led the illegitimate regime of a hand- ful of white colonizers in Rhodesia. ~ So, welcome to the United States, Ian Smith! Your arrival in the mecca of the Western champ- ions of ‘“‘human rights’ will at least open the eyes of those who still take the ‘human rights cam- paign’’ at its face value. . A two-hour talk between Smith and Secretary of State Vance has apparently produced no results. But whether Washington will be able to pull another ‘‘Camp David’, this time behind the backs of the Zimbabwe people, or not, Smith has obviously _ achieved a good deal. Says he: “‘If I succeed, I hope we will be rec- ognized and reinstated as a member of the free world’’. His arrival in the United States with VIP status and his high-level discussions in Washington are viewed by Smith, above all, as a way to legalize his pariah regime. That is why the racist gang- leader’s tour of the United States looks like an advertising cam- paign: in between White House receptions he has his hands full with speeches to. conservative ‘brain trusts’ and televised in- terviews. The American media.is trying to play up the harmless, almost pathetic image of the grey-haired, slightly stooping ‘‘grandpa’”’ in an old-fashioned suit with a narrow tie, who once served in the Royal Air Force. He’s not in the least frightening, says a UPI commen- tator who doesn’t seem to be _aware that he is playing into the hands of both the visitor and his hosts. Smith and Sithole, one of the Black .quislings in Rhodesia’s Executive Council, have been granted B-1 visas that are issued _ to businessmen. Their political business in the United States has quite a few ramifications. To begin with, they intend to’ _sell to the American administra- tion and law-makers the so-called agreement on an “‘internal settle- ment.”’ This deal between Smith and Black. collaborationists has been termed unacceptable and il- legal by the United Nations. Be- cause of this, Washington is try- ing to keep clear of it and insists on amore flexible British- American neocolonialist formula for Rhodesia. PLO ON CAMP DAVID Representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization inthe ay: USSR. Rhodesian head meets with Vance — - U.S. welcomes Smith | _ What is frightening is a very dif- ferent thing, and Smith makes a point of explaining this to the Americans whenever an oppor- tunity presents itself. The racist accuses the Western leaders of taking the side of the “‘Marxist terrorists’ in Rhodesia. Smith ints out that his Black st s ead he could play a more nae role in ‘‘a large-scale confronta- tion of the free and non-free worlds.” - This is nothing but an attempt ‘to provoke Washington into inter- fering militarily on the side of the current Salisbury regime. Even Rhodesian politicians see the risks that are seemingly over- ~ looked by the state-managers of Smith’s tour. “‘Do not fool the - . American people into backing you in an African Vietnam of your own making,”’ white liberal Allan Savory warned Smith in a special statement. However, this is precisely what the racist leader is doing. The question now is whether the Car- ter administration thinks fit to ex- change one visa to Smith for thousands of Rhodesian visas to American ‘‘volunteers.”’ But even if the risk.of being sucked into the Rhodesian prob- lems is exaggerated, the visa to : Smith will cost Washington’s Af- rican policy dearly, judging from the outcry of African members at the United Nations. In a message to Kurt Waldheim, a group of Af- rican states justly characterized the move of the American ad- ministration as encouragement to the racist regime to mount new repressions against Zimbabwe’s Black population. The document calls into question Washington’s . vaunted “‘new African policy”’ and its claims to the role of a world human rights champion. _ It is likewise clear that the State Department has issued its visa to Smith on the shreds of the Sec- urity Council’s resolutions pro- | hibiting material and moral sup- port to the minority regime. Fol- lowing the scandalous exposés of sanctions-busting by the British oil monopolies, no one is sur- ’ prised at this turn. The West was, remains and will continue to be a patron of out-dated racism in southern Africa. - This does not mean, however. that Washington or anyone else met in a press conference last month in Moscow to denounce Sadat’s Can issue the racist regime a visa meeting with U.S. president Carter, and Israel's Begin at Camp David. i : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—October 20, 1978—Page 9. into the 21st century.