_ Ing real wages and between them Many only hear about it How wide is the world crisis? _Now and then writers for the big business press get beyond their depth and begin speaking of the world-wide recession, or the Crisis in all industrialized coun- tres. _ What they refer to is'a reces- Sion and crisis throughout the Capitalist world. The vast majority of the people of those countries feel the pres- Sure of the evils of mass un- employment, uncontrolled in- lation, housing problems and de- lining standards in all the areas of Social benefits. This is certainly the case in Canada, and it prompts one to look at the other world, the Socialist world, to see why it is a form of lying to speak of a World-wide recession. ‘Twenty new towns annually appear on the map of the Soviet Union, and each week eight in- dustrial projects go into opera- tion, and 45,000 apartments are Opened for occupancy,”’ a Soviet Planner said in a recent article. It’s significant because we hear about Canadidn towns closing down, about the economy operat- Ing at only 80% of capacity, of layoffs. And when it comes to apartments and houses, the con- Stant enormous raises in rents force people to remain in hovels, whose rents are also outrageous. 50-Year Rent Freeze Soviet rents range around 4% or 5% of income depending on what utilities are included; and this has not changed in 49 years. © wonder a Soviet writer can \ Say: “In 1977.and.1978 more than... ion people (this is equiva- lent to the population of New York and Tokyo taken together) will have their housing conditions Improved. Almost 73% of the apartments will be built with state Uunds and given to people gratis.”” k Another of those things that €€ps going up arid up and up in anadian cities and between anadian cities is travel costs. — “City public transport fare in the country (USSR) has been invari- able since 1935,” states the writer apa above, a reporter for “‘Ovosti Press Agency. 2 ve frequently hear that com- Panies will go out of business over here if they don’t raise prices. And the slogan, leave it to the pri- Vate sector, is becoming a new _ Statement of faith for capitalist 80vernments. Still, far from going broke, the Socially-owned industries of the R are increasing invest- Ments, increasing output, boost- and the state have enough to give 12.2 million people vacations or a course of medical treatment either free or at a 70% discount. ‘(Regular medical and hospital care is already free.) How do they do it? First there is.no one who ‘‘owns for a liv- ing.’ There are no profits siphoned off from the producers — the working people — into the hands of directors interlocked with a dozen other directorates. Besides that, the Soviet Union is reducing the share of costly de- fence in its total budget. Defence spending for 1978 will be kept at the 1977 level — equal to $17.2- billion — but since the total Soviet budget is up, the defence portion will drop from 7.2% to 7%. (As a comparison, the USA is spending $391 per capita against the USSR’s $93 per capita on de- fence.) Some Price Changes The Canadian big business media made quite a thing of some price changes in the USSR in March when some consumer items whose prices have re-_ mained unchanged over .a long period, rose. Coffee, jewellery and gasoline were three of these. On the other hand prices were cut on many kinds of clothing, fab- rics, footwear, some television sets and refrigerators. Housing, city transit and all children’s goods are subsidized by the state. Prices are pegged on rent, heat- ing, gas, electricity and basic foods, like meat, milk and grains. -Shortage of Manpower In 1978 as well as in sub- sequent years, there will be a shortage of manpower because those entering productive employment will be the children of the children born in the war years when the birth-rate drasti- cally declined. (Twenty million Soviet citizens were. killed in World War II.) Despite these facts, a Soviet economist recently summed up the outlook in non-economist lan- guage: _ ‘*The USSR is the only country in the world that has been. free from unemployment since the early 1930s. The prices of such basic foodstuffs as bread, meat and butter and many other foodstuffs have remained un- changed for several decades. “It is worth noting that ih the last decade and a half the real per capita incomes of the population have doubled.” : And, considering the stability of prices and the increasing budgets for social services, that’s saying something. to April 1978. from last April. And how do we stand? OTTAWA — Statistics Canada’s figures for April 1978 indicate that in many major Canadian centres, three basic necessities led the price increases which resulted in a country-wide 9% jump in the cost of living from March 1977 Food, housing and health and personal care caused the greatest increases in living costs as indicated in this partial table based on Statistics Canada figures. The figures following each city name are the percentage increase to this April FOOD HOUSING HEALTH & CITY PERSONAL ALL CARE = ITEMS St. John’s 10.8 7.9 S27. 78 Halifax 9.2 10.5 9.0 8.0 St. John (N.B.) 10.5 8.4 9.5 7.8 Quebec City 12:7 8.5 12.7 8.7 Montreal 112 9.1 9.8 8.7 Ottawa 12.8 8.0 7.6 9.0 Toronto 11.8 7.9 78 9.2 Thunder Bay 14.6 es) 10. 9.7 Winnipeg 15.1 TEL. 5.2 9.0 Saskatoon | 10.9 8.9 6.1 8.5 Regina 13.4 10.0 Te 9.9 Edmonton 14.3 8.3 8.7 8.9 Calgary 14.4 8.1 8.2 8.9 Vancouver 11.7 7.1 aS «Pe Note: These figures show only the increases within given cities and do not indicate comparisons between citigs. This young soldier has volunteered with the rest of his unit to help b Each year 20 new towns appear on the map of the USSR, and each week eight new industries open and 45,000 New apartments are ready for occupancy. sasesgurress scar uild Siberia’s biggest power project. eres nt G ON nae Tae Bs, Se ‘e: Lae fr a a i COR 40 HOU McAN Ped PACIFIC TRIBUNE—May 5, 1978—Page 5 4