: vs aaa WORLD By WILLIAM KASHTAN Leader, Communist Party of Canada The Jan. 16 peace initiative of the Soviet Union shows how determined it is to end the nuclear arms race and open the door to total nuclear disaramament. The proposal advanced by Mikhail Gorbachev, general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, is a far-reaching, 15-year plan for eliminating the nuclear arms race. This will include the following measures: Step one would cover the next eight years and involve the reduction of 50 per cent in U.S. and Soviet weapons that can reach each other’s territory. The first stage would include the elimina- tion of intermediate-range missiles in Europe. Britain and France would be required to pledge not to build up their respective nuclear arsenals. The United States would pledge to stop nuclear testing. In this first stage, warheads would be reduced to 6,000 by both the Uni- ted States and the USSR. Step two, to last until 1997, would be the participation of all nuclear states in the process of nuclear disarmament and the elim- ination of all their tactical nuclear weapons. The last step by the year 2000, would be the adoption of the Uni- versal Accord to eliminate all nuclear weapons. All these proposals, which are presently being submitted to the Geneva disarmament sessions of the United States and the USSR, have but one stipulation: the can- cellation of Star Wars. Star Wars must be renounced. It is the chief obstacle to disarma- ment. All these proposals, which show the Soviet Union’s determi- nation to carry forward the Gen- eva spirit, are added to by its decision to continue its mora- torium on nuclear testing for another three months. Will the U.S. administration use this time to also declare a mora- torium? It has been given another chance to prove its sincerity about arms control and an end to the arms race rather than accelerating its nuclear testing program as it did in 1985. President Reagan has _ been compelled to admit the Soviet proposals are constructive, although he hedged his remarks with qualifi- cations. U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz has “hemmed and hawed” and tried to play down the Soviet Union’s far-reaching prop- osals. It can be anticipated that the military-industrial complex, all those forces that want to continue the policy of confrontation and Cold War, will try and throw road blocks in the way of nuclear disar- mament. The reactionary forces of United States imperialism are opposed to ending nuclear tests. They want to develop new types of weapons, space weapons included. They have not abandoned their efforts to achieve a first-strike nuclear superiority over the Soviet Union; this indeed is the aim of Star Wars. Such efforts that throw obstacles in the way of disarma- ment must be countered by mas- sive peace action. The Soviet Union’s peace prop- osals give the world a new chance to win peace and end the night- mare of nuclear destruction. But whether that chance becomes real- ity will depend upon the peoples of the world, including the people of Canada. Peoples’ peace action is now dec- isive. That peace action led to the Geneva Summit and must now lead to the implementation of the “Eliminate N-weapons by year 2000,’ USSR proposes Mandela to appeal banning order i Surrounded by supporters anti-apartheid leader Winnie Mandela leaves a Johannesburg court room after losing the first round in her battle to live in her home in Soweto. Judge Louis Le Grange upheld the right of the apartheid state to banish its own nationals, but gave Mandela leave to appeal calling it ‘‘a matter of personal freedom of the individual.’’ The wife of African National Congress leader, Nelson Mandela, Winnie has been under a banning order since 1962. Since 1977 she was retricted to a remote area in the Orange Free State, but following several attacks on her home and clinic she moved to Johannesburg. She has been arrested twice for defying the order and is now free on bail. A banning order also prevents the victim from meeting with more than one person at a time and makes it illegal to write or be quoted in the press. ‘‘Only in South Africa, is a person prevented from living in their own home,”’ Mandela said. Geneva spirit in concrete form. The Mulroney government must be compelled to speak up against Star Wars, in support of the moratorium against further nuclear tests and in support of the new Soviet peace initiative which opens up possibilities for ridding the world of nuclear arms once and for all. The Mulroney government must also be told to stop being a door- mat for United States imperialism which it has shown itself to be around Libya. Now Canada is in danger of being sucked into a dan- gerous military adventure which could ignite the world. . | Canada must tell the United States’ administration to get dowr to the business of disarmament. It must also tell it to stop interfering in the affairs.of other countrie: including Canada’s. | Soviet public discusses new direction 8 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 22, 1986 The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has released its draft economic guidelines _ for public discussion. The CPSU document deals with the next Five Year Plan (to the end of 1990) and with the period ending with the year 2000. The basic social objectives are the improvement of living standards and the quality of life, the consolidation of the great, existing economic potential and the mainte- nance of the country’s defence capability at the required level. The CPSU draft starts from the reality that the Soviet Union already has a powerful economic base, large scale mechanized farming, a modern infrastructure and a highly qualified work force. It also leads the world in many areas of science and technology. In+he current Five Year Plan period (the eleventh), which ended Dec. 31, 1985, the average monthly earn- ings of factory workers and office employees have gone up by 13 percent, in terms of real purchasing power. The earnings of collective farmers have risen by 29 per cent. Pensions have been increased substantially, along with allowances to families with children and to working mothers and other social benefits. All this took place while the prices of all basic neces- Sities remained stable. Whereas the leading economic sector, industry, increased output by 20 per cent, the production of consumer goods outpaced the manufac- ture of the means of production. Nobody here is discuss- _ ing how to do away with unemployment, or to shave it down a percentage or two, as in Canada. Instead, be- cause there is full employment, people are talking about how to reduce the scope of unskilled, arduous manual labor. That would release many workers for other jobs and, with retraining full pay, rise to higher levels of skill \ and remuneration. From Moscow Jack Phillips The long-term goal is to increase real per capita in- comes by 60 to 80 per cent by the year 2000 and to greatly expand social security benefits, the length of paid vaca- tions and leisure and recreational facilities. In the next five years, real per capita incomes are to rise between 13 and 15 per cent. There will be more high quality con- sumer goods and more shopping facilities and services for the public. Housing construction will be expanded and the re- structuring of the countryside will be speeded up. Further electrification, wider use of chemical processes in production, computerization and increased utilization of bio-technology are the order of the day, so as to ensure” a decisive advance in the productivity of labor. Such an advance will not mean more profits for big, privately-owned corporations as it would in Canada, because there are no such corporations under socialism. It will mean a better and richer life for the working people. _ Resource saving is to be the major means of meeting the growing demand for extra material resources. Close to 80 per cent of the demand for more fuel, energy, primary products and raw materials is to be met by the J more rational use of recyclable products. = To improve the country’s fuel and energy system, it is planned to step up the output of electrical power from — atomic stations by five to seven times. Natural gas pro- — duction is to go up by 1.5 to 1.7 times. Capital invest- ments will be made ona strict priority basis, particularly | in regard to the modernization of industrial processes, technical retooling and plant renovation. ‘ In the construction industry, builders will be asked to — further streamline their work and to reduce costs. Also | on the agenda is a further refinement of the economic organization and managerial system. The objective is a new, updated interaction between central planning, the © use of economic levers and incentives, local initiative by — enterprises and public authorities, and an even greater involvement of working people in the decision-making — process. . The twelfth Five Year Plan has a key role to play in — ensuring the success of the long-term plan to the end of | this century. It is intended to be the major turning point | in all trends of the country’s development. Mikhail Gorbachev, General Secretary of the CPSU, | has called for a business-like approach in resolving prac- tical problems. ‘‘It is necessary,’’ he said, ‘tto ensure — that all meetings will be efficient without excessive os- — tentation, clamor and too. much organization. It is the | duty of high-ranking state and Party cadres to take the — most active and direct part in them.’ Judging by reports from every part of the country, the — draft guidelines will be discussed and debated by tens of — millions of people, party and non-party, before | consideration by the 27th Congress of the CPSU, which opens in Moscow on February 27.