The next five years—Canada and USSR

By EMIL BJARNASON
aian tare the prospects facing Cana-
Near Sag during the next five
dict? all we be so bold as to pre-
musty ProBNOstication we might make
ing the hee from present realities. Dur-
Ga, aee winter of 1970-71, a million
the one ‘ Were out of work, victims on
Ceases Bed of “normal” cyclical pro-
on the ot Capitalist development, and
Teactiong €r of the cynical policies of a

ely an government which deliber-
Ostensible People out of work for the
Ut the Purpose of curbing inflation.
than the paure , Which is much worse
cure at an Is€ase, turns out to be no
Of this ye - During the winter months
annual er the cost of living rose at an
Month ic of 5% — the highest three
he ease in 10 years.
< een of the past continues
Ctises of Of inflation alternating with
Y hittin unemployment and periodical-
at a ee peaks simultaneously —
Unemplo € our situation in 1975: the
Phage yment phase, the inflationary
_» © both together?
Perh: a 3
Enter i Some new features will
Often thr Picture. The government has
tog try fatened, without so far daring
On orga Cut its threats, to clamp down
Wages 12d labor and put a freeze on
ance of 7 fantime curbing the resist-
Org € population with new Public
‘ Acts,
theft gout €conomic statisticians put
how ane uters to work to calculate
addeg Y More of our people will be
S0cial agi tte Million or so now on
ho Bee ttnice? Have they calculated
© depeng, Millions more will by 1975
Now tore €nt on the Old Age Pension,
of living n at $80, regardless of the cost
8, by 8 Ndoubtedly, they have done
NOt bean, chow their findings have
Spégg,“USed to adorn the budget

*

to pn if the Canadian worker wishes
Ven in nat lies in store for him.
Robbie B € relatively near future, like
fear, ao only guess and
t

Cetin Not be so. The fears, un-
are a Msecurity of the Canadians
arch Rp iable consequence of the
rand in conn.pianless system. They
Wing j, .cUtrast to the lot of people
Planned societies.

€ncy of united action

ot urg
es
fight for bot movement in the

a

the Beil
e

Co ca Committee of the

Its Mist Pa

Pri
Solution’ 17-19 meeting. The re-

Sin :
| Part:
nt, Statistics on unem-
deci; Tport to show a
March ae in the month of
are ce At the same time
i SS people reported as
De 3 4 Small labor force.
De have se of thousands. of
in n fact t Topped out of sight.
ee Se in 4° IS a considerable
4 Who Gathe Number of work-
ni Oe, € unemployed. It is
a ion ¢ ws et well over one
nd ans are unemploy-
C S
int of ning work, Rca se
. an rents cruel and
in Bia, of cooling the
8 mags deliberately creat-
of 84 to pyp™™Ployment.
that @empIg ve e8eering number
Dum yed at least twice
Working poor”,
ds of self-em-
t of business by

iad

Tete pe, econ

Deo Omic conditions,
ale €eking to join the

he first time,

Tr number of

§ > Ww <

Ponsibit; pnen With family

an for ¢
(\))
tegting “or large

ties eking out: an

existence on public welfare and/
or in jobs at starvation pay.
Jobs was emphasized in This, together with monopoly-
tre Solution adopted by rigged prices on necessities of
life, high interest rates, unbear-
tty of Canada at able rents and housing costs,

At the 24th Congress of the Com-
munist Party of the Soviet Union, held
in Moscow this month, the Soviet
people were given a blueprint of their
future. The indices of the ninth Five-
Year Plan spelled out in detail what
will happen to incomes, pensions, con-
sumer goods, housing etc. The Soviet
citizen was enabled to see his future
up to 1975.

Because this is the ninth Five-Year
Plan, following eight previous plans
which were successfully fulfilled, the
people have cause to know that these
targets are not the mere demagogic
promises of politicians, but reliable
forecasts of what will be accomplished
by the collective activity of the popula-
tion and its government.

Let us look briefly at those prospects.

Unemployment? Leonid Brezhnev
warned that the plan will have to be
fulfilled by rising productivity because
there simply are not enough people,
even in that vast country, to fill all of
the available jobs.

Inflation? Twenty years of stable
prices have given the Soviet people the
assurance that this problem will not
arise. To quote Brezhnev’s report: “The
big and complicated task of saturating
the market with consumer goods must
be carried out with state retail prices
remaining stable, and moreover, as the
necessary economic preconditions are
created, price reductions should follow
for some consumer items.”

Note that Brezhnev spoke of saturat-
ing the market with-consumer goods.
For anti-Soviet commentators with
their stubborn insistence that a social-
ist society cannot satisfy consumer
wants, this will be an arresting thought.

But it is a realistic one.
* * %

For two generations, the Soviet
people have had to tighten their belts
in order to satisfy higher priorities.
First came the desperate necessity of
defending their country in two long
and destructive wars. Then the need
to build a powerful heavy industry
base as the precondition for consumer
production. Then the need to channel
enormous resources into education and
health facilities. And finally, to solve
the most gigantic housing problem
ever faced by an advanced country.
Those priorities have been met.

Democratic Party, the Commun-
ist Party of Canada should be
invited to actively participate.

Coupled with the above pro-
posal for immediate action for
jobs, steps need to be taken to

But one should not imagine that the
Soviet Union is only now beginning to
concern itself with consumer goods
production. The fact is that for the
past 10 years, output of all types of
consumer goods has been rising rapid-
ly. The pace and scope of that increase
has been obscured by an inherent fea-
ture of consumer durables, namely,
that if the useful life of an appliance is
10 years, then it takes 10 years at a
certain level of production before the
total supply to the population reaches
the corresponding level.

The output of consumer goods in-
creased by 49% during the past five
years. It is planned to increase that
much during the next five. Thus, what
is new about the ninth Five-Year Plan
is not the high rate of increase of con-
sumption, but the fact that it applies
to a level of consumption that is al-
ready high.

Take refrigerators, for example. In
1960, Soviet output was about one-
tenth of the U.S. level. By 1970, it had
reached the U.S. level—about four: mil-
lion units a year. The target figure for
1975 is 6.7 million units, or about
170% of the current U.S. output. Simi-
lar output levels apply to washing
machines, sewing machines, TV sets,
etc. .

Although the planned average in-
crease in consumer goods output is
48%, such a rate is unnecessary for
some items such as leather footwear
which already substantially exceeds
U.S. levels. On the other hand, house-
hold and cultural goods as a whole are
to be increased by 80%.

*& * aK

During the five-year period, the real
per capita income of the population
will increasé 33%. In Canadian terms,
this is equivalent to an increase every
year in wages and pensions of 5%,
over and above the cost of living.

The manner in which this rise in
real income will be distributed is spell-
ed out in advance, setting the dates for
increases in wages, increases in pen-
sions and reductions in taxes. Also
there will be a huge increase in state
expenditures for health, education and
other free services to the population.

* * *

At the same time, it should be recog-

any waiting period;

out a means test;

ever-rising taxes, inadequate or
non-existing
and health care, and it is easy to

see why there is a phenomenal

increase in poverty, which must

be directely related to unem-

ployment in the first place. —

The results of these conditions
cannot be anything else then ex-
tended welfare rolls, the cost of
which, in turn, is again charged
workers who are employed and
those least able to pay, particul-
artly at the municipal level...

This Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Canada
solidarizes itself with the nume-
rous and urgent appeals by 1m-
portant sections of the trade
union movement calling upon
the Canadian Labor Congress to
initiate an all-Canada Full Em-~
ployment Confe
out a program an a
campaign for jobs as an In
able right of every Canadian.

To make such a conference
representative of the working
people of Canada, all unions, af-
filiated or not, farmers organiza-
tions and unemployed, the New

rence to map
d chart a public

organize the unemployed as part
of the campaign for full employ-
ment, for their rights as citizens,

quate income for themselves and
their families while unemployed.
Calling again on the Trudeau
government to reverse its econo-
mic policy of catering to mono-
poly, and to embark upon a pol-
icy of economic growth and full
employment for the benefit of
the Canadian pecnle: ae follow-
i emands were listed:
A oe construction of 250,000
subsidized public housing units

1972; : /
e Substantial allocation of funds

at both the federal and provin-
cial Jevels for public works, in-
cluding financing of needed pub-
lic works at the municipal level;

e Immediate action to legis-
late a $2.50 per hour minimum
wage at both the federal and
provincial levels of government,

e Unemployment insurance
benefits to the amount of 80%
of the average full-time working
wage and payable for the dura-

tion of unemployment without
e Protect the family farmer
and raise family farm income.
e Double the level of old age
security pensions, payable with-

e 100% benefits and coverage
under workmen’s compensation
including their right to an ade- laws; |

e Increase general welfare as-
sistance and remove the cost
from local governments entirely;

e Remove low income earners
from tax rolls by doubling the
basic exemptions, and lowering
of excise and sales taxes on
life’s necessities.

e Immediate tax reform to re-
move the cost of education,
health and welfare from pro-

erty taxation at the municipal
between now and the end of yen ig

eA tax policy based upon abil-
ity to pay, including a steeply
graduated personal incomes tax,
and a tax on all capital gains
whether realized or unrealized;
e A Prices Review Board to
publicly review. all price
creases, and with adequate pow-
er to call witnesses and to exam-
ine the justification or otherwise
of requested alterations;
eA moratorium of plant clos-
ures and lay-offs in both the
PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 1971—PAGE 7

nized that there are some areas in
which Soviet material standards lag
behind the West and will still lag at
the end of the ninth Five-Year Plan.
The most conspicuous example is in
the supply of individual passenger
automobiles, where the planned output
for 1975 is 1,300,000 or about--one-
sixth of U.S. levels. In view of.the fact
that alternative transportation is avail-
able in the form of superior transit and
railway services, those who are con-
cerned about the environmental ef-
fects of the automobile may well argue
that this is an advantage.

Another, and possibly more serious
lag, is in electric energy output. Al-
though the rate of growth of output is
high, the planned output will be only
4,000 kilowatt-hours per capita com-
pared with about 7,000 in the U.S. and
10,000 in Canada.

* * *

The ninth Five-Year Plan represents
a turning point in the peaceful compe-
tition between socialism and capital-
ism..In many material branches of
production, the projected Soviet levels
are far above present U.S. levels, and
greater than any probable 1975 U.S.
level. This applies, for example, to
steel production which is planned to
be 142 to 150 million long tons; oil
production; housing; milk and dairy
products; fish; cement; and many cate-
gories of consumer durable goods.

International comparisons of indices
and of G.N.P. are subject to innumer-
able statistical objections, but their
movement gives us—in the rough, at
any rate—some measure of relative
progress. At $710,000,000,000 the Sov-
iet social product in 1970 was about
75% of the U.S. level. The planned
increase of 41% will raise it by 1975
to something over 105% of the present
U.S. level. Even should the U.S. achieve
a normal rate of growth during the
same period, this indicates that Ame-
rica’s days of economic supremacy are
numbered. °

In the meantime, the Soviet citizen
enjoys the security of guaranteed em-
ployment, free medical services, free
education, subsidized housing, and the

sense of well-being that comes from .

knowing that conditions will continue
to improve every year.

alternative employment is found
for every worker affected by
such contemplated closures and
lay-offs;

e Public Review Boards with
labor representation at both the
federal and provincial levels of
government to conduct public
investigations into each and
every case of proposed plant
closures;

e Wherever such closure is
found to be unavoidable there
must be provision for severance
pay of a minimum of one month’s
pay each year of employment
for every worker to be laid off;

e The assumption of full gov-
ernmental responsibility, at both
the federal and provincial levels,
to assure economic growth and
expanded job opportunities,
wherever need be by national-
ization and public ownership
and control;

e That national enterprises
and Crown corporations under
public ownership and democratic
: control be established to de-
im- velop secondary industries for
processing and manufacture of
our abundant resources, and
with special emphasis on areas
that are presently under-devel-
oped and suffering from econo-
mic stagnation. ~

private and public sector until