EN eas Done ek te

‘permet ON came ag. OP mage Bee

RL ren emt |

eS > estroge tek Rag ype LS

Auto production to
| meet needs of 1980's

What will be the largest auto-
mobile plant in Europe is going
up in a formerly unindustrialized
area of the Soviet Union.

It is being built on the banks
of the Kama river in the Tatar
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Re-
Public.

The Soviet press service, No-
Vosti reports an interview with
the Chief Engineer of the pro-
ject, M. I. Sitsinsky.

Question: In the first place
What prompted the decision to
build this giant plant?

Answer: Some figures to start
With. By 1980 the planners esti-
Mate that the freight handled by
Motor transport will be more
than four times the level of 1965,

_ With its share in the total freight

turnover increasing consider-
ably.-The reason for this is the
8eographical location of produc-
tion, the size of the population
and the rapid advance of the na-
tional economy. The existing
fleet and present production of

avy trucks is barely sufficient
for today’s needs, let alone the
future.

Also they will be unable to
Meet the requirements .which
are for the transportation of
large cargoes, especially over
long distances. A new type of
Atuck with a,comparatively small
axle load is needed that can be
used on all roads. The best type
Of vehicle has already been de-
termined — a diesel-powered,
€ight-ton, three-axle truck with
One or two trailers capable of
Carrying a load of 16-20 tons.
After studying all aspects, the
Conclusion was reached that the
Manufacture of such vehicles

Should be organized on the lar- .

8est possible scale.
The Kama complex is a major

4

priority construction job. It will
be the biggest auto complex in
Europe, with an annual produc-
tion of tens of thousands of ve-
hicles. But it is not only a mat-
ter of numbers but also of the
types of trucks. West European
firms are still scratching their
heads over the problem of stan-
dardizing the entire diversity of
types and sizes of large trucks
and their engines—after all this
would result in a 30-50% reduc-
tion in labor and in the cost of
production. It is impossible to
achieve this, however, without
amalgamation or take - overs.
This is why there is as yet no
plant in Europe comparable with
the one being built’on the Kama.

The USSR’s socialist economy
provides us with the opportunity
of organizing new production,
of designing an intricate com-

plex. using the most up-to-date

technology.

When the International Auto-
mobile Fair opened in Frankfurt-
on-Main, as well as studying the
exhibits, we had the opportunity
of visiting the leading West Ger-
man truck manufacturing plants.
A characteristic reaction to the
information given by A. Tarasov,
the U.S.S.R. Minister of the
Automobile Industry, on. the
building of the Kama_ project
was that of a prominent special-
ist of one of these firms. He re-
marked: “For us such a scale
about which you, Mr. Minister,
have informed us is new coun-
try which we have not as yet
explored. Your plan for building
such a complex exceeds the pos-
sibilities of all automobile plants
putting ot trucks in West Ger-
many. As far as we know there
is also nothing similar to it in
the United States as well.”

3 organizations say:

Prov. Gov't should pay

Farmers, pensioners and To-
Tonto resident have joined forces
in their campaigns for the re-
Moval of education taxes fom
Property.

. Three organizations — the
United Senior Citizens of On-
tario, the Confederation of Re-

. Sidents and Ratepayers Associa-

tions and the Ontario Federa-
tion of Agriculture — have
agreed to co-ordinate their pro-
grams for tax reform in Ontario.
_ These groups between them
represent over 188,000 Ontario
residents.

In a joint statement issued on
October 2, the presidents of the
three organizations, Mr. J. L.
Lerette’ of the Senior Citizens,
Mr. Derek Hayes of CORRA and
Mr. Gordon Hill of the OFA, ex-
plained their positions:

“The provincial government
at present pays 51 percent of
the cost of education. Property
Owners pay the other 49 percent

in the form of municipal taxes
>,On property. .

“Our three organizations are
united in believing that the prov-
incial government must pay the
whole bill. Education taxes must
Come off property.

_ “The fact is, the property tax
is a thoroughly inequitable

method of raising funds for edu-
cation. It may have had its place
in pioneer society, ‘but it’s hope-
lessly antiquated today.

“Rapid population growth, in-
creased mobility of population
and higher. educational stand-
ards have all combined to place
enormous pressures on munici-
pal councils. These councils have
taken the only path they could
take. They assed the load on to
property owners.

“We believe the provincial
government must distribute edu-
cational costs on a more equit-
able basis. We suggest that the
ability-to-pay principle is the
best guide.

“In other words, we are ask-
ing the provincial government
to increase its contribution to
education from the present 51
percent to 100 percent.

“The United Senior Citizens
of Ontario, the Confederation of
Residents and Ratepayers Asso-
ciations and the Ontario Fede-
ration of Agriculture
shoulder to shoulder on this is-
sue, and we are inviting all other
property owners—in the cities,
in towns and in the country—
to join us in seeking the remov-
al of education tax from pro-
perty.”

stand |

U.S. student poll

Pro-union actions on

The American Federationist
(AFL-CIO), in an. article enti-
tled “American Youth: Which
Way Now?” quotes a poll taken
among students of 50 U.S. col-
leges about their attitudes to-
wards labor:

“While anti-labor attitudes
have been in vogue among the
intelligentsia for almost two
decades, most of our respon-
dents told of some pro-union
activities on their campuses.
Students seem most able to re-
spond to highly publicized na-
tional labor struggles such as
the strike by farm workers
against non-union grape grow-
ers or the recent nation-wide
strike against General Electric.

“Sixty percent of’ our respon-
dents reported activity in sup-
port of at least one of these two
strikes at their schools. Over
36 percent reported student ac-
tivity in support of labor strug-
gles which took place within the
campus community, on behalf
of faculty or non-professional
university employes. Twenty-
four percent reported activity
in support of other unions in
their locality. That 24 percent

mentioned off-campus, pro-union
activities other than the GE
strike or the grape boycott is
in some respects quite startling.
. .. This fact seems to indicate
a greater desire among students
to participate in union efforts
than one might have expected.”

The article went on to make
the following comment:

“Of the 45 million young Ame-
ricans between the ages of 15
and 29, roughly 21 million of
them are neither students ‘nor
college graduates. Diffused
throughout the work force, they
constitute about one-fourth of
the trade union membership.
They tend to be more suburban-
ized than older workers. They

‘feel the squeeze of an unequal

tax burden and of astronomical
interest rates that make it hard
to finance a home and start a
family.”

Sixty percent of the youth ask-
ed reported activity in support of
either the grape boycott or the
GE strikers; 24 pércent mention-
ed other off-campus, pro-union
actions.

upswing

A Soviet tailor's story

Living in the Byelorussian
town of Boruisk, which in Shol-
om Aleichem’s time was jesting-
ly called the Jewish capital, is
a family of unusual destiny: Ilya
Ryaboi, tailor by trade, has
changed. citizenship four times.

He was born in the town of
Grodno in 1912, and lived the
first years of his life as a Rus-
sian citizen. At the age of two
he became an orphan, and was
brought up by his Aunt Liza to
whom he became attached as to

‘his own mother. She was actual-

ly the one who helped him to
become a tailor.

. By that time Ilya was already
a citizen of Poland which acquir-
ed possession of the town of
Grodno after the intervention of
14 states against Soviet Russia.
In 1939, when the Western re-
gions of Byelorussia and the
Ukraine were reunited with the
Soviet Union, Ryaboi became a
Soviet citizen. In 1941 he went
to the front, fought at Leningrad
and Stalingrad, liberated Prague,
had a serious concussion,~ stay-
ed in hospital, and in 1945 re-
sumed his peaceful trade of
tailor.

After the war Ryaboi settled
down in Lvov where he married
Yevgenia, a girl accountant. —

“Yt think a lot now how this
had happened and how I could
make the biggest blunder in my
life,’ says Ilya. “It all began
with a letter coming from Aunt
Liza in Israel. She was calling
us over and saying that she had
her own house and that she
would help us all to settle down.
So I started asking for a visa to
leave for Israel, and soon I re-

ceived it.

“J don’t. know why we went |
there. We certainly did not have ,

a bad life in Lvov. We were not
Zionists and we were not called
there by a nationalist feeling.
Israel can be the homeland only
for those who were born there.
whose fathers, grandfathers and
greatgrandfathers lived there.
What connection did we have
with the ancient Jewish tribes
conquering Palestine 3,000 years
ago? Our ancestors had lived in
Europe for ages, and it was at
least stupid to regard ourselves

as the children of King David.

“So why did we go there?
Here is approximately how I
thought: trousers are made and
worn under socialism and under
capitalism.

“So why shouldn’t I, a tailor,
go over to Israel, especially with
my Aunt, who was like a real
mother to me, living there? I
was too’ late in understanding
that the opposite thing should
have been done—my aunt should
have come over here.

“We had our first shock in
Haifa where our steamship ar-
rived,” goes on Ryaboi. “It came
out that Aunt Liza had died, and
in Israel we had no other rela-
tives or ‘acquaintances. From
Haifa we were sent to the village
of Keriat Shmone and put in a
long barrack, in a room with a
cement, floor. They don’t give one
flats in Israel, as in the USSR,
but sell them. Well, and they
took from us quite a lot of
money in advance for this miser-
able dwelling. And the flat in
Lvov seemed to us a long-lost
dream.”

In a decade of stay in Israel, —

the Ryaboi family accumulated

. enough observations for com-

parisons with their former life.

“When we lived in Lvov,”
says Ilya, “it seemed natural to
us that man always has a job
and is needed somewhere. On ar-
riving in Israel I told myself;
you’ll make clothes as always,
and people will pay you money

for this. Yet, it came out that.

there are much less people who
want to order trousers than the
tailors who can make trousers.”
And yet, Ilya was lucky: a form-
er compatriot helped him to get

a job. True, he did not become a.

tailor, but a loader. And his wife
also acquired ‘another profes-
sion”—an accountant, she now
became a maid. However, even
this “luck” did not last. long:
the job was temporary, and soon

they had to find something else.

Recalling the life in Israel,
Ryaboi’s wife spoke not only of
their jobs, earnings, flat and
prices.

“All this is important,” she

says, “yet; this is not the only
thing. You can be lousy with
gold and be an unhappy person.

You can have difficulties and yet -

feel fine. In the years right after
the war we had a very hard life
in our home parts, but we were
never despondent, we believed
in a better future, and it did
come. In a decade of life in Israel
I never felt good. ‘We quickly
realised that we were in an abso-
lutely strange world.”

“The Zionists, for instance,
talk a lot of Jewish unity,” ad-
ded Ryaboi. “I didn’t see this
unity, it simply doesn’t exist. I

just can’t understand what kind

of unity I can have with the
owners of the company which
tore down the house where we
had a room, and this to build
plush villas, and paid us meagre
money as a compensation. Here
is something else. If you’are ‘ash-
kenazi,’ i.e., a white Jew, then
you are hated by the ‘sfardim’—
black Jew, and vice versa. And
this is being es by the
Zionists themselves. If the pro-
prietor is an ‘ashkenazi’ he hires
‘sfardis’ last of all, fires them
first of all, and pays them less.
If the proprietor is a ‘sfardim’
he behaves exactly the same
with regard to the ‘ashkenazis.’
There are also ‘sabras’ and ‘non-
sabras’ i.e., native-born Jews
and arrivals. Preference is al-
ways given to the native-borns.

When the Ryaboi family start-
ed thinking of returning home to
the Soviet Union, quite an im-
pediment was the realization of
a big blunder in life. a natural
feeling of embarrassment before
compatriots. Ultimately permis-
sion to return was granted.

At present the Ryaboi family
live in Bobruisk where they
have been provided with a flat
free of charge in the centre of
the town. Ilya is a tailor in a
home industries combine — a
special establishment for sick
‘people providing them with an

opportunity to work at home. —

His wife works as an accountant
(her own profession). Son Yev-
geny is an ambulance driver,
and Svetlana is about to gradu-
ate from secondary school.

~ PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1970—PAGE 5.

EERE TI RINE ROAST ROR ASNT BSE