: ‘a pighity abridged article of a series by Joseph orth that appeared in the Daily World, New York. * By * * . _TOGLIATTI, USSR — The Workers at the Volga Automo- bile Works are divided into teams That perform the 300 or so Ccupations involved in the en- tire process. These vary in size from 30 to 78 workers. Each: team has mastered some 20 to 25 of the operations. To cut down the monotony, the teams hange their work periodically, M agreement with the manage- Ment. They may change for a ty Or a month. It varies. No Worker is indefinitely to. con- tion. Thus,. monotony has been diminished. _ BUDAPEST—Socialism’s pro- blems are different than those of rth America and many West ropean countries furniture ‘ Suffering slumps, in Hungary, for -€Xxample, the demand is for more Stores and warehouses to handle tide of furniture being turn- €d out for extensive new hous- 4 ing developments. e Back in 1971 the government ea concrete action on the prob- €m — set up a program to 4 develop the furniture industry 4nd retail facilities. A nation- ide network of DOMUS stores oe iting furniture and other ap- ances is being established, oc 1975 and beyond. ilgaria Of 2 an 1 Si 98]. to 1989) - Gas 4 Will be New d h ‘the 205,000 flats, Fi i Central : heating. Togliatti— tinue work at any single opera- . and appliance businesses are ~ room sets at the store in Hungary's ity. pready flourishing in five cen- &S, with more outlets planned OFLA — A general plan has N approved for the setting up ~ @ central heating system in ae a. Its implementation is dir- } str Y connected .with the con-- p ,tUCtion of a southern ring of . © USSR-Bulgaria gas pipeline ai th. hext few years. When the ern ring is completed the ae problem of supplying the _~untry with gas will be solved. ne project will be completed Wo stages: one in the 1976- Period and the other in the Gs 1985 period. The principal 46 a of heat and the pipelines Rey, Nvey it will be built in the €nth five-year plan period (up heat during this period directed chiefly to the -dustrj Ousing estates and the in- Strial areas in‘the capital. By end of the plan period accommodating °ver 700,000 people, will have From the beginning of 1976 all It is so reduced that nobody complains of it. Of the entire plant personnel, only some 10,000 work directly on the main conveyor belt. “We have up- grading courses,” .we were told, “so that after an initial period on the belt, they can undertake jobs with higher skills.” This year some 1,500 were promoted to higher levels of work. “We have 2,000 in school now. We continually discuss all questions with our workers. We know what they feel about the work and their relations to the job. They are encouraged to take courses for upgrading, all of which is free of charge, and studying time is paid for. Our- training deals both with the theoretical and the practical. Many of our workers hecome In the Socialist World sources of heat will be adapted for switching over to natural gas. This will help to keep Sofia free of air pollution. Poland WARSAW (PAI) — The de- mand for books in Poland is enormous. This fact was the ins- piration behind -the decision to first begin organizing internatio- nal book fairs, which have taken place in Warsaw over the past 19 years. Represented at these events. are the world’s major publishing houses - which appre- ciate the needs of the Polish book-buying public and use this occasion to conclude advan- . tageous transactions with other countries as well. Of the western countries the most widely represented are publishing firms from the United States, Great Britain, and the Federal Republic of Germany, followed by France, Italy, Hol- land, and Canada. Czechoslovakia PRAGUE — The ideal answer for workers suffering from cer- tain chronic ailments but who, under capitalism, would have to. decide between staying off work and going to hospital (if anyone -would treat him), or staying at work and aggravating his ail- ment, is the night sanatorium. : Established years ago in the Soviet Union, these institutions now number four in Czecho- slovakia. : They are special medical es- ~tablishments run only by big enterprises with sufficient de- mand for. them. As many as 50 employees at a time take a four- week treatment course — WOrk- ing in the daytime, going to the night san in the evening. The benefits are notable. The State Medical Administra- tion pays for running the institu- tion, medicines, equipment and medical personnel. Further mo- nies from the medical insurance funds party covers the cost of meals. All other costs are paid by the industry — except for a patient payment -of about 10 crowns ($2) a day. > Night sanatoriums mainly by patients from ailments of the motor sys- tem, diseases of the respiratory tract, neuroses and ailments of are used the digestive tract and the blood . circulation system. suffering ° where worker and director are one mechanics,” our guide said. A special wage system is a stimulus to study. The more operations a worker masters, the higher category his wage. We asked- how their wages compare with workers in other industries. It is about fourth or fifth highest paid of all trades. Coal, metal and chemical work- ers get higher wages. Absenteeism? “It is no real problem,” was the answer. “We rarely have as high as 10%, which — some- times‘ happens in winter when, “like last year, there. was a flu epidemic. But the workers are conscientious about their jobs, feel they have a stake in them equal to the directors, which is the way we look at it. After all, as you know, the director is re- garded as one of us, not one against us, And the plant’s top committee consists of the direc- tor along with representatives elected by the trade unions, the Communist Party, and the Young Communist League. All of us are involved to one degree or another in the actual planning of the plant. We discuss the pro- posed. production plans, which representatives of all categories have a. hand in — we meaning the entire plant. The plans are not ratified until we. have had our say and made our propo- sals.” Accidents? The number has been reduced by 50% _ since the plant began operating and the rate is continually going down. “Every three months we check on the rate,” the head of the health and accident com- mission said. “We hold fulfil- ment meetings between the tech- nical directors and the factory committee:. The 3,000 activists pay scrupulous attention to these questions, and both the trade union and the factory committee are always in touch .with the situation.” ‘ He said that though progress has been made in all these cate- gories, they do not “rest on their oars.” “We work toward the day when there will be vir- tually-no accidents, and when the monotony of the belt will be totally eliminated. Our engineers and ‘scientists are constantly at work on this, and expect innov- ations, new machinery, will fin- ally accomplish the wearisome, repetitious operations and re- ieve the workers for creative work.” : Busy Life We talked to Manya Boriso- vitch, 21, who has been working on the belt the past year. “No,” she said, “I don’t find the work ‘wears. me out. Oh, I am rather tired’ after the eight hour day, but never exhausted. After din- ner~I am fresh enough to go to lectures two evenings a week, a dance class on Thursday, and to the movies with my date Satur- day evenings.” In the summers they go swimming in the Volga several times a week, and in the winter there is skating. : “It’s a busy life,” she smiled. HOFFA WITHDRAWS UNION CANDIDACY | DETROIT — Former Teamster union president James Hoffa says he will withdraw as a candidate for president of union Local 299, his home local in Detroit. Hoffa said his lawyers advised him to do so because if he even accept- ed the nomination for local pre- sident he would be violating the terms of his pardon. Hoffa was convicted of jury tampering in 1967. WORLD NEWS MAYDAY DEMONSTRATORS AWARDED $12-MILLION WASHINGTON — A USS. district court jury awarded about $10,000 to each of 1,200 people arrested during the 1971 May Day demonstration when they were listening to anti-war speeches on the steps of the U.S. Capital. The $12-million verdict was granted on Jan. 16 in a civic suit for false arrest, false imprisonment, viola- tion of the arrested persons’ rights and malicious prosecution. The case was brought against the Metropolitan and U.S. Capitol police and District government by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the settlement is the largest ever awarded in a civic suit in which no large corporations were involved. It was also the first time damages have been awarded in a class action involving more than a handful of ‘people. : Richard Nixon, who was president at the time of the May 5 demonstrattion, had later praised the police for their handling of the situation. : ANGOLAN INDEPENDENCE TO COME NOV. Il : PENINA — Portugal agreed on Jan. 15 to grant independence to Angola, the last of its African colonies with which independence settlements have been reached. Guinea Bissau is already free and Mozambique, Sao Tome, Principle and the Cape Verde Islands are scheduled to set up their own governments this summer. _ Angolan independence will come next Nov. 11. The agreement signed here provides for a 10-month transitional government bal- anced between the three Angolan liberation movements, the Popu- lar Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola and the National Union for the Total In- dependence of Angola. SPANISH MILITANCY MOUNTS PAMPLONA — Unrest in Spain mounted on Jan. 15 as thou- sands of industrial workers here walked out in sympathy with striking miners. All 15 Pamplona industries were reported clozed down: by the strike in support of miners in nearby potash mines who have been off the job for over a week. - Clashes between police and workers still continued after violent street battles on Jan: 14. Police fired over the heads of demon- strators then’ sprayed them with rubber bullets and tear gas. : Clashes also occurred in Barcelona after Spain’s largest automo- bile company fired 385 workers and suspended 19,443 for six days after they had taken part in an illegal strike. SOVIET-JAPANESE TRADE TALKS MOSCOW — Miichi Miyazawa, Japan’s Foreign Minister arrived here_Jan. 15 on a visit intended to improve Soviet-Japanese trade and economic cooperation. Miyazawa’s arrival took on unexpected significance in view of developments around the new U.S. trade act. The Japanese Minister told an airport news conference before his departure that he hoped relations between the two countries will expand in all spheres, but particularly in cooperation developing the natural resources of the Soviet Far East. POLLS SHOW ITALY’S CP NEARING: FIRST PLACE ROME—When Italians elect their next parliament the Commun- ists- will move a step nearer to becoming the dominant political party, according to Italian public opinion polls. One poll even pre- dicts that the Communist Party of Italy will dislodge the ruling Christian Democrats who: have been the country’s largest party for 30 years. The next elections are not due until 1977, but if the economic and political crises worsen, they might come sooner. Over 6,000 demonstrated for the freedom of Des Warren and Eric Tomlison, jailed in an attempt to get scabbing building workers to join in a strike. : PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1975—Page 9