The credibility gap T IS-an interesting pastime to stroll through toy depart- ments and look at the phe- nomenon known as adult games. The credibility gap is a dice game, where each player has a Liberty Bell token and draws from two decks of cards; one is a deck called the Administra- tion’s Pack of Lies, and the other is the Citizen’s Cards. The goal is to reach the cen- tre of the board where lies the Big Wheel and his Truth Vault, by means of a three ring track marked off by red, white and blue squares. The track starts at the Washington Airport from which the players move forth to acquire “truth trophies” for un- covering ‘political lies.” The value of the truth trophy HILE USS. Johnson was out on President ' his recent ‘peace’ safari, shedding crocodile tears for the loss of that “great champion of peace and democratic freedom,” Austra- lia’s late Herbert Holt, mean- time attempting to bamboo- zle the Pope with his latest ‘peace’ trickery; things were happening at home. As is customary of course, ‘LBJ’s Yuletide ‘message’ to the American people (spil- ling over into Canada), was also well larded with hopes for ‘peace and prosperity’ to all, as befits the great Ameri- can tradition. I can well im- agine the LBJ Yuletide dithy- ramb made countless millions in the teeming ghettos of America, both Black and white, hold their stomachs and literally gag. Just about the time LBJ was wishing “yo ... all” a Prosperous 1968, another “message” was coming through, clear and brutal _ from metropolitan and state Officials via the Associated _ Press, TVand other news media. A message from Miami, New Jersey, Philadel- phia, Little Rock, Chicago, New Haven and other key centres: This “message” was to the effect that the forces of repression were really go- ing to “get tough” in 1968. No foolin; in 1968 its going to be real “bullets for the mob” instead of “war on pov- erty” or peace in Vietnam. In 1968 all Americans who march for peace, homes, jobs or bread are to get genuine “hot lead.” According to the AP story “felons are going to learn that they can’t be bond- ed out from the morgue.” The “felons” of course are the American people who refuse to “go all the way with LBJ” Looks like another “long hot summer” in 1968! In the November edition of the Catholic Worker pub- lished in New York there is an article by the Rev. Father Peter Berrigan telling of the arrest and imprisonment of himself and three associates by the FBI.2 These ‘men: had cut open their, veins, and, Jet) _ away.” Since their imprison- depends on the seriousness of the political lie, for the lies fit into 36 categories. Some of the categories are an “artful am- biguity,” “diversionary anec- dote,” an “indignant evasion,” ‘“dmpassioned doubletalk,” ‘“stra- tegic deception” and “escalating lie.” However, there are such wind- falls as “the anonymous leak” giving the lucky player a real . break. Or landing in the ‘State Department Archives” can win the player three trophies by that action alone. Political Luck is precarious, though, for the play- er can just as easily get tangled up in something as unfortunate as a “statistical cobweb.” The first player to gain 20 trophies is the winner. their blood spill over the Selective Draft Records in Baltimore, Ohio: “We shed our blood wil- lingly and gratefully in what we hope is a radical and con- structive act. We pour it upon these files to illustrate that with them as with these offices; begins the pitiful waste of American and Viet- namese blood 10,000 miles ment Father Berrigan and his associates have also added a hunger strike to their protest —against the U.S. war in Vietnam, and official brutal- ity at home. Recalling his early teach- ing as a Catholic priest, Fa- ther Berrigan says, “I recall a Louisiana summer some six or seven gears ago, when the State Legislature passed near- ly 300 pieces of law, most of these against Black people. Finally I recall a ‘saying of Tacitus, remembered from two painful years of college Latin; the more corrupt a so- ciety, the more laws it needs.” ~ “The law therefore is or- . dained,” writes Father Ber- rigan, “to protect our free- doms, not our basic human rights — property not people. This society knows very little about what is fundamentally good for people—it knows a great deal about what it has decided is good for people. Its law expresses perfectly” what it holds dear and desir- able . . . our social monolith reacts like a wounded animal —reacts to absorb, to ridi- cule, to ostracize, and all fail- ing—to crush.” Thus the great monolith of U.S. imperialism with its er- satz freedom steps out on the threshold of 1968 with pledg- es of “peace with honor” (?) via a heavier bomb tonnage for Vietnam —and promises of “bullets” and the morgue for Americans at home. A characteristic, if albeit not a pleasant yulitide ‘“mes- sage” to start off a New Year. But the American people — and the Vietnamese people will undoubtedly write ‘the’ The Shevchenko Male Chorus and the Toronto Mandolin Or- chestra have released their second album. The new recording in which the chorus and orchestra devotethem- selves to interpreta- tions of Ukrainian songs establishes the group as foremost in this field in Canada. The album, prior to its release to music stores, may be pur- chased through mem- bers of the orchestra and chorus or by di- rect mail order through the Shey- chenko Male Chorus, 300 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. The cost is $4.25. final footnote/fs- 0) tay a AG wor? Lethe Rac ws sae 2 ge, JANUARY 94 988 PRCTFIC TRIBUNE Page SRN Soar PND e RA Dene AUG ee Cow Economy (Continued from Page 9) level of world productive forces will be in 15 or 20 years, what levels the GDR will need to reach them, and then sets out the targets necessary from year to year to reach that level. In other words, the plan starts with the objective and then works backward. It is aimed at tackl- ing the problems of today from the viewpoint of tomorrow. Planning concentrates on ten- dencies of progress in science and technology and those sec- tors of the economy on which all others depend. These sectors are the electro-technical indus- try, electronics, engineering, the chemical industry, metallurgy and power. e New Accounting Methods and Factory Management Factories in the GDR are join- ed together in a form of social- ist trusts called Associations of National Owned _ Factories (VVB). Eighty of these associa- tions direct about 1,700 large state factories. Previously these VVB’s were administrative bodies financed directly from the state budget. Now each factory or group of factories will have to pay its own way, to show a profit (so- cialist surplus value) through a new system of accounting that includes the concepts of prices, costs, profits, sales, research and new technology. Each factory is not only responsible for produc- ing goods but also for selling them on the home or interna- tional market. This latter point is no small factor in ensuring the production of high quality goods. The profit is split three ways. Part of it. goes into the general revenues of the state. Another _part is retained for investment and expansion. The third part is paid to workers in the form of bonuses. The state budget finances only new projects or changes that are too big for individual factories or VVB’s to introduce. e Worker Participation in Factory Management Factory plans’ and objectives cannot be, adopted before they are discussed ‘and’ endorsed by of GDR spurts the workers in the factory. Plant managers must account for their activities directly to the work- ers in the factory at meetings. A minister or factory director subjected to serious criticism at trade union meetings is likely to be replaced. The union in the factory has the responsibility of improving -working conditions and protect- ing the workers interests when new automated processes are introduced. Workers displaced by technological change receive full pay while being retrained and must be kept on the factory payroll until new jobs are found for them either in the factory or elsewhere. e@ Economic Incentives As mentioned above, part of the profit made in a factory is paid directly to workers in the form a bonuses, over and above wages, the reward for good work. If a factory goes over the top in its plan and makes extra | profit, 75 percent of it goes into the bonus pool. The incentive of bonuses en- courages workers and manage- “ment alike to keep down the costs of production, including the installation of new labor saving machinery, eliminating waste, and producing goods of high quality that will readily find a market. Workers, technicians and en- gineers are highly rewarded for new labor-saving and cost-sav- ing techniques. Bonuses are one of the me- thods which successfully link individual interest with the in- terests of society to everyone's. benefit. e Industrial Price Reform An essential part of the new system of planning and manage- ment was the industrial price reform brought about in 1964. It was necessary because prices for products subsidized by the state such as coal, power, gas * Consumer prices have _not forward been affected, however, have remained stable. The results of these economic reforms have been highly grati- fying and help to account fof | the amazing economic miracle that is the GDR today. Only seven countries in thé { world today have a higher in dustrial production than the GDR, a land of only 17 million people. In 1966 economic reforms in the GDR entered still anothef new phase, with new emphasis on better planning and the wide- spread introduction of advanced and automated methods of pro- duction. The method of planning is a | follows: The State Planning Commis- sion provides a minimum of im - dex figures which are guides. and Using these figures the fac- tories draw up their own plans which are submitted to the vari- | ous Associations of Nationally Owned Factories. From there they go to the State Planning Commission and finally to the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers modi- fies them if necessary in keep- ing with national objectives. i Then back they go to the fac- tories and again start on their way up. : A further development of worker participation introduced in 1966 was the provision for the election of production com- mittees in the factories, com- posed of the best workers, tech- nicians, engineers and_ trade union leaders. These committees share responsibility with man- agement for drafting and carry- : ing through the factory plans | and the production of high qua- lity, low cost products. It won't be too long before capitalist industrial states will teoee rw ee SHEKEL EPO LOR O POOR Pe A dd ot r)