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Lower prices and more goods in the stores give Soviet cifizens

a rising living standard at a time when the people's living, standards
are being slashed throughout the capitalist: world.

By N. VOLUISKY

wg . s: : i % we

_. As from March 1 of this year, the ruble, by decision of the
Soviet government, has been put on a gold basis and the calculation
of its foreign exchange rate on the. basis of the American dollar has -

~ been discontinued. The ruble’s

grams of fine gold.
one dollar instead of 5.30

gold content is fixed at 0.222168
Its new exchange rate is fixed at four rubles to
rubles, established in 1937; and 11.20

rubles to one pound sterling instead of the former 14.84 rubles.
‘The ruble’s exchange rate has corresponding to its gald content also
“been altered in relation to all other foreign currencies. ;

These measures have been. 0c-
casioned by the growth of the
purchasing power of the Soviet
ruble and the depreciation of the
currencies of the capitalist®coun-
tries. Sah :

‘The Soviet Union has in the
brief ‘space of five years restored
its war-ravaged economy and li-
quidated the aftermath of the

war in the sphere of money ciru-
lation.

In December, 1947, the Soviet
government carried out a cur-
reney reform, withdrew from cir-
-oulation all excessive money and
issued a new full-value ruble. It
simutaneougly abolished ration-
ing of foodstuffs and all other
consumer goods and reopened free
and unrestricted trade in all these
commodities.

The country’s economic achieve-
ments have made it possible in
the course of ai mere two-odd years
to effect three successive reduc-
tions of retail prices on mass
consumer goods - - in December,

1947, in March 1949, and in 1950.
The purchasing power of the So-
yiet ruble doubled after the first
price reduction, and the next one
raised the ruble’s purchasing pow-
er still higher. Abra,

‘The third price reduction ef-
fected on March 1 this year has

-prought down prices on all consu-
- mer goods by an average of 21

percent and still more on prime
necessities. Thus, prices of bread
and flour have come down 20 to
30 percent, meat — 24 to 35 per-
cent, butter and margarine — 30,
to 85 percent, soap — 40 to 50 per-
cent. Bes

Ana lowering of prices is ac-
companied in the USSSR by. ever-
increasing output of jponsumer
goods.

There. currency circulation is be-

coming more and more dislocated.
The monetary reforms carried
out after the war in a number of
European countries had not sta-
bilized their currency. On the
contrary, the issuance of paper
money is again increasing there,

its value is sinking and prices
are soaring interminably.

The French france has been de-
preciated to a sixth of its value
since the war, and to a fourteenth,
compared with its prewar 1937
value, | ‘

Britain devalued the pound ster-

ling in September 1949, having
reduced its exchange rate in re-

lation to the dollar by 30 percent.

And devaluation of the pound
brought in its wake devaluation
of the currency; of 23 other capital-
ist countries. :

The victory of the American
dollar in its struggle against the
British pound does not, however,
in any way imply that the dollar

‘itself is so very stable. On the

contrary,, its international mar-
ket value has dropped to approxi-
mately a half of what it was be-
fore the war.

Thus while its oficial rate is
35 dollars per one troy ounce
(31.1 grams) of gold, actually an

- ounce of gold costs 60 to 70 dol-

It is especially worth noting ;

that while prices are coming down,
wages in the Soviet Union are not
being reduced but are systemati-
oally, and substantially rising year
by year. :
9283 : fs
An altogether different picture

prevails in the capitalist countries.

\

lars on the free market in a num-
ber of countries.

Rising prices, which inseparably
go with devaluation of money,
fall wholly on the shoulders of
the working people. :

Food prices in the U.S. at the
and of 1949 were three times high-
er than before the war. More
than three-quarters of the popula-

THE SOVIET RUBLE :
The world’s most

stable currency —

oils, sugar, meat, fish, macaroni; |

and woollen, silk, and cotton fab-
rics, ;

On the other hand, in a number
of West European countries which
suffered considerably less during
the war the per capita consump-
tion of basic commodities is to-
day considerably below prewar.

The currency crisis in the capi-
talist countries, on the one side,
and the growing value of the So-
viet ruble; on the other, reflects
two different lines of economic
development, that of the capitalist
and socialist systems.

In the countries of capitalism.* . : : E
an economic crisis is maturing, replete with great interna-

unemployment is growing, imper- ..

The Malanazi menace

_ By BRIAN BUNTING —

jalist rivalry is intensifying and
the irreconcilible contradictions
between capital and labor are
sharpening. ‘

It is economic dislocation inher-
ent in the capitalist system which
undermines currency circulation
‘in these countries. That is why
all attempts to improve the capi-
talist currency situation came to
nothing and are doomed to fail-
ure.

Soviet money is the most stable
currency in the world precisely
because it is backed by a planned
socialist economy based on public
ownership of the means of produc-
tion. Soviet economy is absolute-
ly exempt from ¢rises and slumps.

Production and distribution of
the basic -mass of commodities
is effected in the Soviet Union at
prices fixed by the state. And this
precludes all chaotic fluctuation
and speculative boosting of prices
— things common under capital-
ism. : San?

The stability and systematically
increasing purchasing power of

the Soviet ruble is based on the
steady growth of socialist produc- ©

tion. ‘ '

In the past 20 years, from 1929
to 1949, gross industrial output
increased in the USSSR more

than 8.5 times, while in the U. S._

it rose slightly more than one and
a half times, in Britain, less than
one and a half times,
France it went down by 10 per-
cent. i

In 1949 gross agricultural out-
put in the USSSR exceeded pre-

_war,, and will still more in the

suring, at the same time, stability _

tion are not ensured of a living ,

wage in the U.S. and the annual
income of 50 percent of American
families does not reach even half
the minimum subsistence require-
ments. ; RS

At the same time, profits of

‘American monopolies went up in
1948 to 21,000 million, a seven-fold
inerease over 1938.

In the Soviet Union, sale of

~ eonsumer goods to the population

ure.

in 1949 exceeded the prewar fig-
An especially big increase
over prewar has been registered
in the sale of butter, vegetable

*
. ‘

next few years.

The high pace of production and
the systematic lowering of opera-
ting costs ensure huge accumula-

tions in the Soviet national econ-

omy. And jthese accumulations
constitute the basic source for
further expansion of production,
development of social and cultur-
al undertakings, and strengthen-

ing the defense capacity of the ©

Soviet state. These accumula-
tions also serve as a reserve fund
for the consistent reduction of

retail prices.
ce erie}

Of tremendous: importance for
maintenance of the rapid pace of
economic development and for en-

of the ruble, is the fact that the
Soviet budget is always balanced
without deficit, in‘addition to the

budget’s creative and peaceful na--

ture. :

Under the Soviet Union’s state
bedget in 1949, for example, 65 per-
cent of all disbursements went
for fingneing the national econo-

my, and construction and mainten-

ance of social and cultural insti-
tutions. But in the U.S. 68 per-
cent of the 1949-50 budget repre-
sented military expenditures, and
these-are riisng to nearly 76 per-
cent in the budget for the 1950-51
fiscal year. ; j :

* Piling up of armaments and for-

mation of aggressive blocs make _

for deficits in the budgets of capi-

talist countries and for discolation
of their finances.

Increase in the value of the So-
viet ruble is accompanied by the
growth of the national income of
the USSR, which in 1949 was al-
ready 36 percent above power. At
the same time, the income of the
Soviet industrial and office work-
ers increased by 24 percent and
that of agricultural workers by
more than* 30 percent. In the
capitalist countries working peo-
ple cannot even dream of such
improvement in their income and
living standards) :

The ruble’s change to the gold
basis is a new triumph for social-

aie ‘ CAPE TOWN

we .
“THE country does not want
fresh doses of apartheid,” said
General Smuts, leader of the Op-

position, when the South African
parliament resumed its session in
Cape Town after a short recess
this month.

Smuts was protesting the fact
that the Nationalist government,
in its mania for introducing apar-
theid (segregation) legislation,
was neglecting the real interests
of the country, and that the
South African people as a whole
‘were becoming weighed down by
grave economic problems.

He might have added that the
Nationalists’ policy was straining

race relations to the breaking

point, For several riots have brok-
en out in African areas on the
Pitwatersrand, and with each ex-
tension of the color bar a new
spirit of resistance is spreading
among ‘the oppressed people in

South Africa.

Yet the Nationalists press ahead
with their plans to convert South
Africa into fascist state. Most
important piece of legislation dur-
ing the first half of the present
session was the Population Regis-
tration Bill, introducing a nation-
al register and registration cards
for all except African women and
African men under 16.

This bill will result in the classi-
fication of, all South Africans on
racial lines. The registration
ecard will carry details of the
bearer’s race and must be produc-
ed on demand within seven days,
Classifications are European
(white), Colored (including Indian
and Malay), and Native (includ-
ing the various African tribal divi-
sions). : =

The real significance of this
bill is appreciated only when read
in conjunction with the Group
Areas Bill, one ‘of 30-odd bills to
be introduced during the remain-—
der of the present session. Under
the Group Areas Bill the govern-
“ment is empowered to declare any
area a European, Colored or Na-

tive area, in which members of

other races may not own property

or reside. Once these two bills
- become law, the Nationalist aim of

achieving the complete separation
of the races will be carried a stage
fugther towards fulfillment.

: e

Further fascist legislation in

tional significance. It will , still
more enhance the economic might
of the USSR and fortify its posi-
tion in the competition between
socialism and capitalism.

The ruble’s change to the gold
basis will also further consolidate
the bond between the Soviet Union
and the People’s Democracies
which have firmly taken the path _
of planned socialist economic de-
velopment. Their close economic

‘cooperation with theeSoviet Union

will safeguard them from fetter-
ing treaties similar to the Mar-

shal plan and will safe guard them _

from the ravages of economic
crises which are gripping the cap-
italist countries ever tighter.

store for South Africa before the
present session of parliament is —
over includes:

An amendment to the Urban
Areas Act, governing the move-
ment of the African people.

The proposals include extension
of the pass laws to African women,
hitherto excluded from their op-
eration, increase from two to five
years of the period which must
elapse before the wife and family
of an African from the reserves
may join him once he has found
employment in an urban area; ex-
pulsion from urban areas of all
Africans who, in the opinion of
government officials, are “idle or
disorderly,” who are habitually or
“intermittently” unemployed, who
are unable to maintain themselves
or their families, who gamble or |
drink or who in other ways render
themselves: objectionable to the
authorities. :

Such expelled Africans can be —
ordered by the government offici- —
als to go to certain prescribed dis-
tricts, and to work there for cer- _
tain specified employers at rates
of pay to be fixed by the said
government officials. This is noth-
ing more nor less than forced
labor, and is obviously the govern-

‘ment’s answer to the cry of the

farmers that they are short of
labor. x :
Reports of this Bill, although it
has not yet been laid before the
House of Assembly, have aroused
the fierce indignation of the Afri-
can people, ajre goaded to ex-
tremity under the present discrim-
inatory laws. Mass protest meet-

-ings have been held in all the
main areas and committees have
been elected to carry out a co

ordinated campaign of opposition. _
Prominent Europeans, including»
Liberals, Communists and others,
have issued statements condemn-
ing the proposals. ~« EA
An “anti-Communist” Bill,
which has been promised, but of |
which details are not yet known: —
In its campaign’ against the
Communist party the government
has already banned two leading —
spokesmen, Sam Kahn, MP, and
Dr. Y. M. Dadoo, president of the

tion of the overseas journals

For a Lasting Peace, For a Peo-
ple’s Democracy, and New Times. |
It has also banned a pamphlet,
the aims of the Nationalist gov-
ernment, E ek

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MAY 5, 1950—PAGE 5
Rts sic