Magazine Section

SOVIETS MARK 45th ANNIVERSARY

Plan for building Communism

running ahead of schedule

By JOHN WEIR
- MOSCOW — Just one
Year ago 6,000 delegates,
ee gathered in Moscow
‘ the 22nd Congress of
€ Communist Party of
he Soviet Union and after
weeks of deliberation.
@nimously adopted a 20-

practical plan for
Uilding communism in
Sur time.

l@ year has sped by and the .

wet press is full of reports of
~9in deliveries and output of
dustrial enterprises above what
was planned, and
umerous ex-
mples of new
heights of labor
heroism in honor
- of the 45th an-
‘ niversary of the
October ’ Revolu-
tion, which is
also the first an-
Historic niversary of the
© 22nd Congress.
ere can be no doubt that
8rand plan of communist cor
Ction is being successfully
€d out, that achievements in
first year are running ahead
the plan.
a Ao not mean, however,
; _the enterprises are pull-
their load. An announcement
t the overfulfilment of the
Ma given branch of indus-
om conceal the fact that
" &@ number of. plants have
at ed over the top, a number
ers are lagging behind. _
t has also become imperative |
eo a good riew look at the,
Of Soviet agriculture, not
ae there is a ‘‘crisis’’ but
the ‘., it has become clear. that
i nsformation of agriculture
2, freee farm production by
{ mes by 1980—and the trans-
; am of the present-day col-
is € farmer into the commu-
Worker of tomorrow cannot

the
of

Plan

Whi
fon

achieved without some far-

The ed new measures.

Where eed for defense in a world
is stil] the threat of aggression
“ins teaabima and the extra-
“the leva] measures taken to raise
“Compet} of agriculture have also
Tak, 4 the Soviet Union to

Make «
Cut-backs”’ in several in-
Stances, veral i

ONG HARD BATTLE

aq to communism isn’t
and he Sailing: it is a long
tears td battle. Sometimes re-

Victoriong. called for to ensure
Rreatest S advance later. And the
larant battle of all, that will
batty, fe final victory, is the
aoe the minds and hearts
ideas.’ to eliminate old habits,
the and ways, and to replace
es ed hew communist atti-
Since Way of life.
hag te the 22nd Congress much
Poulan. Written and spoken to
Tetion, © the political and theo-
Prop, P°Stulations in the new
ing Lae to lift the understand-
has the Soviet people of what

Noy cr Undertaken. But the

greatest discussion has been on
the application of those policies
and ideas to the practical tasks
of building the new society.

Soviet government leaders, par-
ty secretaries, scientists, econo-
mists, pedagogues, factory and
farm managers, trade union offi-
cials, etc., and ‘‘just people”’ have
been tackling the mighty task at
meetings and in the press from
every conceivable angle.

Just to give an idea of the kind
of problems that are being wrest-
led with, without pretending to
give a comprehensive survey or
select the most important ones,
here is a sampling:

@ While billions of rubles are
being allotted to construction of
new plants, why are the present
machine-building plants being
utilized on the average only a
bit more than for one seven-hour
shift per day? Production could
be more than doubled even with
the plants there are now.

® While it is all to the good
that tractors, TV sets, etc., are
built to different designs by dif-
ferent enterprises, why can’t they
be coordinated so that spare

‘ parts would fit different models?

e Why are there so many non-
productive ““workers’”’ in various
enterprises? For example, in the
‘““Zomsomolets” collective farm
near Rostov there are 128 persons
on the administrative-manage-
ment staff (all kinds of specialists
and their assistants, watchmen,
bookkeepers and what have you).
They constitute 20 percent of the
work force and collect 22 percent
of the income!

The reorganization now .taking

place, to have only one “rayon” -

—county—where there, now are

’ three or four, will release two-

thirds of the present party and
government staff and let them

“actually show their leadership in

the shops or fields .

e@ Why are individuals permit-
ted to buy bread (which is sold
cheap purposely so that all the
people could have plenty) to feed
hogs and poultry which they sell
for private gain at the market?

e Why aren’t old age pension-
ers (women here receive pensions
at 55 and men at 60 years of age)
permitted to keep their pension
and still work for more than
two months out of the year at
their trade or profession? Many
of them are skilled workers full
of health and vigor.

e Why aren't workmen paid
not only for quantity but for
quality, and if they turn out
shoddy work, why aren’t their
wages docked by 25 percent? And
in general, shouldn't the whole
wage structu
make sure that prizes and bonus-
es are received by those who
really deserve them, not only by
producing above plan but by
producing high quality goods and
cutting costs of production?

And literally thousands of other
questions affecting the work,
housing, feeding, recreation, edu-
cation and life of the people.

. 9, 1962 PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 5

: resources,

re be overhauled to »

HONOR MAN IN SPACE AGE. This sculp-
ture in honor of outer space exploration was

recently unveiled in the Soviet Union. Sculp-
tor was G. Postnikov.

CEASELESS STRUGGLE

Enemies of communism have
always gibed that the socialist
system must inevitably by bu-
reaucratic and its economy inef-
ficient. Even if it were so, how-
ever, socialism would still be
ahead of capitalism because it
wouldn’t be paying the enormous
tribute exacted from the economy
by the capitalist owners of indus-
try and finance. As for bureau-
cracy, one only has to look at
the number of civil servants and
the staffs of the various private
firms in Canada and the U.S. to
see that we are in no position to
throw stones.

As to the efficiency, under capi-

talism it is gained by refined and.

ruthless exploitation of the work-
ing man, by raping the natural
by bankrupting the
hind dog in the never-ending race
for profits, by throwing millions
of workers and great quantities
of goods created by them, both
“obsolete’’ machinery and surplus
commodities, into discard.

Not to speak of economic cri-

VAST ELECTRIFICATION PROGRAM. A vast network of
new power stations such as this one in Armenia, are springing
up all over the Soviet Union. This one will be a thermo pchver
station and will be run by cheap natural gas coming from

ses, political reaction and the
calamities of war. ,

In the USSR a ceaseless strug-
gle is being conducted against
bureaucratism, inefficiency and
waste. A people’s struggle.

Building communism is a titan-

ic task which would be impos- °

sible but for the united effort of
the masses of the Soviet people,
not only as workers, but as
critics, amenders of plans and
fighters against stodginess, con-
servatism and other retarding
tendencies.

The people have always made
history, but to build a communist
society the people must act con-
sciously, purposefully working
towards their aim and themselves
becoming transformed in the
process.

Here are samples of problems
which, while arising in a specific
sector, could only be solved as
links in a chain, and whose solu-
tion is being advanced by the
conscious activity of the people.

© It took a long time to con-
vince some: scientists and farm

Azerbaidzhan. It is shown here being assembled.

leaders that it wasn’t necessary
to always keep one-third of the
land fallow, as pasture land, or
that it was time to plough and
seed Marginal lands hitherto ly-
ing virgin.

But even as some of the pro-
fessors were stil] arguing, the
chemical workers had already got
at the root of the question and
held metings to revise their
production plans in order to
provide chemical fertilizer to
those new lands that were being
put to work.

e It has been frustrating to
read of splendid inventions that
had been tested and found excel-

lent, several samples had been ©

made for exhibition . . . and there
it stayed year after year.

PEOPLE’S BUSINESS

The first anniversary of the
adoption of the great 20-year plan
for the building of a communist
society in the USSR finds per-

formance in industry, agriculture,

construction, education, etc., gen-
erally running ahead of plan.
Some modifications have been
forced by life (mostly because
of U.S.-sponsored plans of aggres-
sion), but the few retreats are of
a temporary nature.

But the most significant and
lasting achievement in this first
year, it seems to me, is the great
change that is taking place among
the many millions of the Soviet
people, the true master of this
great country, who are making
the building of communism their
own personal and collective “‘bus-
iness.”’ :

That’s not only a guarantee that
the plan won’t fail. It also assures
that the plan (and all the “‘little
plans” into which it is divided)
will be continually ‘‘re-edited”’ by
the people who are carrying it
out, and we may be sure that
such ‘‘re-editing”’ will not only
be in the direction of greater
realism, but also in the long run
it will speed up the march on
the broad highway to a commu-
nist society.