LETTER FROM BERLIN

Dynamic economy,
no unemployment
mark GDR's story

By FILS DELISLE
Tribune Berlin Correspondent
BERLIN—The Tribune issue of

Dec. 17 carried a cable from this
correspondent showing that .. .
the onward march of socialism
in the German Democratic Re-
public, with its guarantee of
steady progress for all sections
of the people, has been confirm-
ed once again.”

The outline of this. socialist
advance, I reported, was the Pro-
gram for 1976, the first year of
the new Five Year Plan, which
was adopted by the GDR parlia-
ment in its last session of 1975.

Unfortunately between the time
I filed the cable here and the
time it appeared in the Tribune,
an important section of the re-

port had disappeared. My report,

as published, did not tell the full
story because the paragraphs
dropped dealt with how a social-
ist country keeps its economy
and its price levels stable while
its capitalist trading partners are
cutting down on their purchases,
while demanding ever higher
prices for what they sell to the
GDR and other socialist coun-
tries. :

This matter was dealt with at

| ae
Selina ial

os

back into people’s needs.

the session of the GDR’s Volks-
kammmer. In an extensive re-
port, Prime Minister Horst Sin-
dermann first made the point
that that successes of 1975
“make it possible for us to carry

~ USSR discusses future targets

take part

By JOHN WEIR |
Tribune Moscow Correspondent

MOSCOW — With the 25th
Congress of the Communist Par-
ty of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
only a month away, not only the
16 million members of the Party
but the whole country is dis-
cussing the guidelines presented
by the Central Committee, espe-
cially the targets proposed for
the next Five Year Plan.

At meetings and in letters to
the press, thousands of sugges-
tions are being presented, many
of which will find their way into
the final documents adopted at
the Congress. The confident ad-
vance of the Soviet Union and

the socialist community united

in the Council for Mutual Econo-

?

23
8
**

As the USSR prepares for the 25th Congress of the Communist

mic Assistance (CMEA) in con-
trast to the economic decline in
the capitalist countries is demon-
strated by industrial production
figures; in the United States, Ja-
pan, West Germany, Britain and
Italy it fell in 1975 on the aver-
age by 8.3% while in the social-
ist countries it rose by 8.5%.
_ The share of the CMEA coun-
tries in world steel output now
reaches 26.1%.

Equipment manufactured in
the Soviet Union is supplied to

-Mmany metallurgical enterprises

in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and
Rumania; entire rolling and steel
smelting plants are being deliv-
ered.

There is no energy crisis or
threat of one in the socialist

Party, its economy and that of its partners in the socialist world is
advancing. Energy and natural resource exploitation and sharing is
widespread as this report shows. Photo above: the control panel of

the Kola atomic power station.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JANUARY 16, 1976—Page 8

in planning

countries. A big contribution is
made by cooperation of the
CMEA member states in the
development of the Orenburg
gas condensate deposits and the
construction of the 2,750 kilo-
meter long trunk gas line from
Crenburg to the Western fron-
tier of the Soviet Union. Bulga-
ria, Hungary, the German Demo-
cratic Republic, Rumania and
Czechoslovakia will get 15,000
million cubic meters of, Soviet
gas annually.

The second Druzhba (Friend-

ship) oil pipeline has been com-
pleted and last year it already
carried 50. million tons of oil to
the western socialist neighbors
of the Soviet Union.

The CMEA agencies have
drafted a long-terrn cooperation
program in the fuel-energy field

‘down to 1990.

Progress of the Soviet Union
and other socialist countries is
good news to the developing
countries as well. These coun-
tries account for over 10% of
the socialist countries’ trade —
and it is trade that brings bene-
fits to the developing states,
helping them to build up their
economy and culture. :

Thousands of Soviet experts
go to work in 50 countries every
year. Vasili Ivashov, Deputy
Chairman of the USSR State
Committee for External Econo-
mic Relations, points out that all

these experts could be well em-.

ployed at home where there is
a shortage of labor in some
spheres, but the Soviet Union
considers it to be its internation-
alist duty to provide comprehen-
sive assistance to the develop-
ing countries.

Also about 500,000 engineers,
technicians and skilled workers
have been trained in Asia, Africa
and Latin America with Soviet
assistance,

A thousand projects — steel
mills, electric power plants etc.
— have been or are being con-
structed in “third world” coun-
tries with. Soviet help. Many
developed capitalist countries
are also making profitable trade
deals with the socialist coun-
tries. Canada could do better
than she has done so far.

< iP

Consumers in the GDR are shielded from higher prices for imported goods by ‘state policy. Whi
goods in the capitalist world rise sharply, profits made by socialist industry and agriculture are pu

forward the national economic
plan for 1976 on a high level of
development.” Then he turned to
the difficulties caused by the eco-
nomic disarray in the capitalist
countries and said: “In the in-
dustrialized capitalist countries,

-the governments are wracking

their brains to figure out how to
siphon off more from the people
and to divert more to the mono-
polies. We, however, are con-
tinuing along the road of increas-
ing our economic power for the
well-being of the people.”

* Sindermann drew attention to
the fact that the GDR is con-
fronted on the world market by
“a deepening crisis of the capi-
talist economy.” Constantly ris-
ing prices in the capitalist coun-
tries, alongside their limitation
of imports, exerted a negative
influence on trade between them
and the GDR. But “through good
marketing, through products
suited to real needs and through
competitive costs,”’. the ‘GDR

- would do everything it could ‘“‘to

keep the effects of the capitalist
crisis remote from our socialist
national economy.”

Sindermann added: “That is
not an easy task. We have the
advantage, however, that 70%
of foreign trade is with the So-
viet Union and the other mem-
bers of Comecon.”

It was on that basis that the
GDR could calmly state that it
would raise its foreign trade by
9.7%.

The importance of Prime Min-
ister Sindermann’s remarks lies
in the fact that socialism is not
being built on.the moon, but on

planet earth, where there is an_

extensive capitalist world which
is undergoing. economic crisis,
dislocations, soaring inflation and
similar ailments.. The capitalist
illness has a dislocating effect
on everything, including the
world market.. But the GDR, as
Sindermann has pointed out, and
other socialist countries, have
been able to shield their own
peoples from the hardships, un-
employment and massive inse-

Role of CIA

GEORGETOWN — The Peo-
ple’s Progressive Party has
strongly criticized a recent deci-
sion by the Trades Union Con-
gress here to continue accepting
support from abroad. This was
prompted by the fact that “as-
sistance” received in the past
has come mainly from the Ame-
rican Institute for Free Labor
Development (AIFLD) which has
strong CIA connections.

AIFLD has a long record of
interferrence in Guyanese trade
union affairs, and was prominent
in the move to oust the PPP
frcm office in the 1960’s. U.S.

curity spread everywhere by tit
retrogressive capitalist system
Thus, the: GDR now has to pa
its capitalist trading partners
good deal more for what it im
ports from them. But at tha
point the superior organizatiol
of socialism comes into play. It
stead of these higher prices bé
ing passed on to the consumé!
as in the capitalist countrié
they are absorbed by the staté
Purchasing organizations of th
GDR do indeed now have to pé
more for their imported raw mé@
terials. But they continue to sé
these to the consumer at tht
same fixed prices as before. Tht?

difference is made up by subvel!
tions from the socialist state
id

Where does the money co
from? From the profits of indus tl
try and agriculture, which }
Canada, the USA and other capt
talist countries go in packets @
billions of dollars, not to tht.
people but to General Motofs t!
Exxon and the other oil trust,
the enormous Rockefeller, Mor.
gan, Rothschild and other supra
national monopolies, 2

The simple fact is that, in tht
international arena, capitalism
wracked by crises it cannot wiS! }
out of existence, while in thtj
GDR and other socialist cout
tries there is continuing, plat
ned, proportional and dynam
advance. j

One simple statistical examp!
tells the story. In capitalist Wed
Germany, last weekend brougll
the news that unemploymel
had risen again and that the
were now over two millid
workers totally unempoyed
working only part time theft.
What was the figure in the sé
cialist GDR? Nil. Zero. The
was absolutely no unemploy
ment of any kind here. The ant
communist propagandists ca
rage and roar as loudly as the}
wish. The fact remdins: the caph
talist economic and social sich
ness stops at the borders of tht
GDR in the west and at the
viet pacific coast in the east.

‘| / ‘ ;
abor fronts”
publications have shown thal
the AIFLD was deeply impli@
ated in the plot to remove ti!
Jagan government — includifl
recorded meetings between AF¥
CIO president Meaney and TUY
leaders. Meaney is also preside” -
of AIFLD.

q

rous examples of CIA pene
tion into Guyana via its “tra
union” fronts among others.
called on the TUC.to reverse
decision when it meets again
several weeks,