4 By VILLEN LUSTIBERG
f MOSCOW — Almost in the
(Same way as medieval alchemists
i Were expecting a miracle from the
Mysterious —_*‘philosophical
‘Stone’, so in the mid-fifties of the
s Oth Century the West was ex-
| P€cting scientific progress to be-
ome the panacea for all its ills.

'_ Today western. scientists are
Teversing their attitude: they are
/ Prone to accuse the scientific and
"€chnological revolution of al-
j post all the troubles in the world.
| ‘hey attribute to it the economic
/ “isis, abnormal economic prog-
/ SS and even the growing number
! Of heart attacks . ..
' itp SCO once again expressed
$ attitude to this question in the
H-Sth CPSU congress’ planning of
Hthe scientific and technological
ievolution in the new five-year
Plan period.
j The all-embracing scientific
| Pfograms are found literally in all
i SPheres of material production.

Recall 1927

Even in our dynamic age, the
Method of comparison makes it
i Ossible to understand the true
#ope of accomplishments be-
#*Use each country and, proba-
oly, each person has his own
Standards by which he measures
Major events.

Let’s recall the 15th Congress
Of the Party in 1927, when the:
( YOUng socialist state adopted its
j St five-year plan. The indus-
{ alization plan had just been
; '8aWn up. The heavy. industry
fi) Y8S as yet to be created. The
jOuntry did not have its own
| Nachine-tools, automobiles and
sMircraft, and was badly in need of
| eee Everything had to be
jj Che for the first time.
| What problems did the dele-
p Sates discuss at that time? We
h (“m over the pages of the ver-
j °atim records of the congress:
j “Nemployment has not yet been
H moved, there is an acute shor-
{lage of Joes specialists. There

Hi not slfficient researchers.
te eorian Mikhail Pokrovsky
nated: “In no other field does the
Runtry face greater anarchy and

40s than in the organization of
Scientific work’’.

*fOwer expert Gleb Krzhi-
@novsky pointed out with

4

The new Soviet five-year plan
8borates for the first time
Cific programs for the solution
ene country’s most crucial sci-
tific and technical problems.

The pla

ye

| nning of the
Scientific revolution

res 5

In 1927, when the USSR adopted Its first five-year plan, It was badly In

need of energy. Now it is self-sufficient in energy supplies of all forms,
for example this atomic power station.

anxiety that only 27% of rural
pupils were finishing - primary
school and mentioned, as a basic
task, the need to put into opera-

tion power capacities of 2.1 mil-

lion kilowatts by the end of 1931.

The West was sarcastic about
this in the same way as it some-
times reacts even now: if this
five-year plan could be fulfilled in
50 years even then it would be
stupendous. This is utopia’’, a
certain Kremer, chairman of the
**Russian’? committee of the
German economy, said about the
first five-year plan.

Entire Strategy Scientific

Almost 50 years have passed
since then (and what years! —
The most murderous war and the
restoration of war-ravaged
economy) and history states that
facts killed the West’s irony.

Three generations of Soviet
people do not know what un-
employment is. The country’s
annual energy potential runs to
more than 1,000,000 million
kilowatt-hours. (the entire “all-
union power potential’ of the first
five-year period which
Krzhizhanovsky dreamed of was
about equal to two generating un-
its of today’s Leningrad atomic
power station). Today every
fourth researcher in the world is a
Soviet citizen.

All sections of the 10th five-
year plan and the entire economic

strategy of the CPSU is deter-

mined by the accelerated de-
velopment of scientific research.
Whether it is power engineering,
agriculture, environmental pro-
tection or problems of manage-
ment — all this has a direct bear-
ing upon advanced scientific
thought. The Soviet Union has
the draft of the comprehensive
program of scientific and
technological progress and its so-
cial and economic results for the
next 15 years, up to the year of
1990, which will provide
guidelines for successful
economic management in the
country.

The development of science in
such conditions is not utilitarian
pragmatism, but genuine prog-
ress. Science will never be an
obedient servant of economics.
Science is opening up the road to
new summits of cognizing the
world. It is a trail-blazer for hu-
manity.

Science is a major factor con-
tributing to accelerated social de-
velopment. And the force of a

socialist system lies in the fact that
in it, as the mathematicians would
say, the vectors of the scientific and
technological revolution and of
socialism coincide. This is one of
the main theses of the report of
the CPSU Central Committee.

It is because the interests of
socialism and the possibilities of
the scientific and technological
revolution coincide that the party
of Communists is so intolerant of
miscalculations, shortcomings,
lax thinking and sluggishness —
all that slows down scientific and
technical progress, and sharply
criticizes them.

Science and Socialism

Indeed, science in our times is a
direct productive force. But it be-
comes such a force only if its dis-
coveries are introduced into the
process of production. The speed
of change is determined by the
times and the social objectives of
society. It took 80 years for the
steam-engine to establish itself. It
took the telephone half a century,
the airplane —20 years and trans-
istor technologies — three years.
The laser ‘‘arrived’’, with the
speed of the scientific and
technological revolution, in two
months.

It is the speed that we some-
times lack. This was pointed out
by Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei
Kosygin in their reports. They
said that the country cannot be
satisfied with the present rates of
introducing the achievements of
science and technology into pro-
duction.

For the first time ever we have
elaborated in our new five-year
plan specific programs for the
solution of the most crucial scien-
tific and technical problems.

These programs embrace the
whole range of the work to be
done: from forecasting of the
guidelines of scientific research,
to the industrial introduction of
the results obtained. The tasks
these programs have envisaged
are backed by the necessary re-
sources and are tied in with the
plans for production, capital con-
struction and material and techni-
cal supply.

Is this not quite a natural plan?
It is, but only for the socialist state
which, due to its nature and struc-
ture (public ownership of land,
natural wealth and factories), is
capable of channeling the approp-
riate forces and resources to the
necessary direction.

By NAN McDONALD

THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE of the National Action
Committee on the Status of Women is scheduled to open atthe -
Beacon Hotel in Ottawa April 23. Affiliated organizations
from across the country have received the call along with a
preliminary program for the four day session. Delegates will
assess the results of International Women’s Year and are
expected to propose plans for the next round of action.

. THE FOUR DAY MEET @ will include a panel discussion of

the federal government program on IWY. Invited (but not yet
confirmed) is Minister of Health and Welfare Marc Lalonde,
who’s ministry covers the status of women. Lalonde could
come under heavy fire from the delegates if questioned on a bill
that was introduced to the Commons last July dealing with the
burning issue of equal pay for work of equal value. Liberal
Finance Minister Donald Macdonald when asked in the house,
if women workers asking pay equality with men would be
exempt from the federal anti-inflation program, answered:
‘“‘The question of equal pay for equal work is dealt with
adequately by an anti-discrimination bill introduced in the
Commons last July.”’

BILL C-72, which Macdonald spoke of does not even come
close to ending wage discrimination between men and women
workers. In fact it is a regressive step and makes a mockery of
the justifiable demand of women across the country who are
fighting for equal pay for work of equal value. Far from ending
discrimination in wages, the bill is worded so that it invites
employers to discriminate against women earners. Further, it
attempts to remove the issue of women workers’ wages from
the Labor Code and place the issue under the Human Rights
Code. Progressive and democratic organizations have sent
letters of condemnation of this regressive step being promoted
on the issue of equal pay. (The bill has not been passed.)

MINISTER OF JUSTICE Ronald Basford has inherited Bill

C-72, and hangs onto it as if his portfolio depended on it. The
issue of equal pay for work of equal value belongs rightly
under the Labor Code, and must not be removed. The
shuffling of vital legislation is not only dishonest, it attempts to
confuse and misguide, and further, attempts to separate the
struggle for women’s equality from the overall struggle of the
working class. Government would better serve working
women by injecting some guts into the now existing Labor
Code, such as the United Nations Declaration of the Status of
Women, which the Liberal Government supports in principal,
and which would prevent the wage gap from growing even.
wider, and would eventually putan end to wage discrimination.

MINISTER OF LABOR John Munro could be in for a stormy
session. Since the passage of Bill C-73 (the wage cutting bill),
inequality has been incorporated into Canadian law. Wages
have been frozen and with them the campaign for equal pay for
work of equal value. Percentage wage increases have always
worked against women, but while the government says it
stands for equality it lowers the living standards of women
through wage controls, while prices in food, clothing, rents
and energy continue to rise, as there is no legislation to control
these prices. The government says it stands for equality but in
practice doesn’t give equality to women. Its own statistics
show that women make up the large part of workers who
receive the minimum wage. If it does stand for equality, why
does it not pass legislation increasing the minimum wage to
$4.00 an hour. This would give some breathing space to the
millions of women who are struggling to survive in this period
of deep economic crisis.

THE MAIN ISSUE that challenges the source of women’s
inequality is the equal pay issue. It is this issue that will cut into
the profits of the multi-national corporations who are the main
perpetrators of inequality and the main benefactors of gov-
ernment legislation such as Bill C-73. It further provides a pool
of cheap labor at a time when unemployment continues to
grow.

FOR THE MAJORITY OF CANADIANS the main issue of
contention today is Bill C-73. The fight to defeat this legislation
is becoming more and more an issue that the women’s move-
ment must embrace if the fight for equal pay for work of equal
value and equal opportunity in employment is to have any
meaningful value for Canadian women.

Other issues up for discussion at the conference are: universal
access to child-care services; removal of abortion from the
criminal code; birth control services to all who need them;
family law reform; pensions for women; support for Native
Women’s rights.

(Nan McDonald is a delegate to the annual conference of the
National Action Committee — Ed.)

.PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 23, 1976—Page 9