The following material by APN ~ political commentator Gennady» . Pisarevsky looks at both the economies of the capitalist and

Socialist states as we enter the 980s.

xe oe

CAPITALISM

year. And this in a country which accounts for 20% of the world’s industrial potential.

In Czechoslovakia, industrial production increased by 3.8%. In the GDR, the national income rose by more than 5% in the first

ity, Soviet supplies continue to meet most of the Comecon Euro- pean countries’ needs in energy and fuel. To increase energy production, the Soviet Union must move farther to east Siberia, to forbidding regions with a harsh climate. This leads to a

{ The economic situation in most 0 six months of the year, as com- “, :

_ Doh-socialist countries is bleak. f OF pared with the same period last S€ in the cost os gerry a Economic news from that part of 4 £ year, and industrial production pals sede se sah, ea te agar the world sound more like health went up by 5.9%. Although oil, gas and coal

bulletins on a dying person. No sooner had the capitalist economy recovered from the 1974-1975 crisis than it again found itself in a protracted depression.

The “discomfort index,’’ which combines the rate of in- flation and the rate of unemploy-

These figures indicate that the member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon) remain the most dynamic economic region of the world. It should be noted that in the 1970s the national income and

_ industrial production in the Com-

econ countries grew almost twice as fast as those in the indus-

prices in Comecon countries are geared to world prices, they are not exorbitant. The price of oil, for example, is fixed on the basis of the average world price during the five years preceding the year of supplies. Last year, for in- stance, Comecon countries bought Soviet oil at 60% of the world price. As a result, Soviet

& ‘ ment, has been rising at a frighten- : on Sethe F supplies of oil and petrole ro- : trialized capitalist nations. The SUPPHes Of ol and petroleum p ing pace throughout the year. The i n ro ul (- Council's aenibere accounted for ducts to Comecon countries from energy crisis has come to a head. 1976 to 1980 will enable the latter

Formed in the United States, the clouds of economic crisis have reached Western Europe and Japan. The leading western power itself is in an economic mess: in three months its gross national product fell by 60,000 million dollars. The automobile industry, a driving force of the U.S. economy, is in need of thorough repairs: fuel-saving, sturdy and compact Japanese and West European cars are edging out posh but uneconomical American automobiles.

A slight reduction in the growth of prices cost the Americans a loss of millions of jobs. There were 8.2 million jobless in the United States in July. Soviet leaders proved right when they warned that President Carter’s

embargo on grain sales to the-

USSR would boomerang — the Soviet Union managed to keep up its livestock population, whereas,

waters

with almost two million people out of work. Even West Germany and Japan, the two economically strongest countries in the West, are in pre-crisis fever.

In the latter half of 1980 West Germany’s GNP is expected to fall by 1.25% in terms of the an- nual level. Inflation is to rise from 4.7% last year to 7% this year and the number of jobless will reach one million.

In short, the economies of the advanced capitalist countries en- teréd the 1980s with a greater number of problems which they find increasingly hard to solve.

True, there are problems in the economies of the socialist coun- tries as well. These are different problems, however. There is no unemployment; prices are state regulated and the economy as a whole is. growing at a nor- mally steady rate. e

Real incomes of the population constantly grow too and large- scale, social development pro- grams are being consistently put into practice.

In the first half of 1980, for example, industrial production in the Soviet Union increased by 4.5% over the same period last

about a half of the world’s indus- trial output. The two main economic prob-

lems of current interest in Com-.

econ European countries today are-efficiency of production and quality of work. In the 1980s the Soviet. Union and other de- veloped socialist countries need not increase sheer output as fast as they did a short while ago. Now they will concentrate on sectors where the industrialized capitalist countries are still in the lead. These are, above all, higher productivity of labor through bet- ter use of achievements in science and engineering, and _ the improvement of quality of goods. For objective reasons, Com- econ countries also face some energy problems. Energy is no longer cheap and every country has to come to grips with this real-

to save a total of more than 5,000 million roubles (one rouble is roughly equal to $1.60 ULS. at the official rate of exchange).

New war plant

WASHINGTON: — The Un- ited States Congress has agreed to consider a draft law which would allocate an additional three mil- lion dollars for the construction of

‘yet another plant to manufacture

chemical weapons. 3

The planned site for the new plant is Arkansas.

Of the tens of thousands of tons of chemical weapons that are al- ready in the U.S. arsenal, a large number are deployed in West Germany on the borders of social- ist countries.

\ ets to the Western press, iL Bley Can f; 000 ° Re . ae ¥ rg | ASI neil risT WE RAISE yatuntiy SO WE HAVE A Suipiye of AS TO THC EConotuc ott sete OUR PRICES, AND : ! WE CUT PRODVCTION, 7 CONE TIS ACL Labor productivity has begun HOLD You WAS ou Buy GETA TAY CUT 70 KEEP CAUSED RY . to fall in the United States and real « LESS OUR PROFITS VE wade: SUN SPoT¢

incomes of the population have

AND LAY ‘fou OFF

. a,

___ sharply dropped. In the first half ° . fOr o&

_ of 1980 they fell by almost 7%. ’ ee

Other Western countries, ® Y U baexey,

| especially Britain, fare no better -1 —* ai UAS 11-97.

An excuse to dis

{ STUDY “LINKS’ MINIMUM WAGE TO UNEMPLOYMENT |=

The genéral secretary of the YoungCommu- [- _~

pand wage

See ei

law says YCL

Rather than eliminating minimum wage legisla-

Se =

tion, as the survey recommended, governments must immediately raise these wage levels, which currently range from a low of $2.75 in Nova Scotia to a high of $3.65 in Quebec, the YCL said. “‘Even the highest of minimum wages still leaves the worker far, far behind the escalating cost of living and well below the poverty line. A first step must be the closing of the minimum wage loop- hole which allows employers in many parts of Canada to pay those under the age of 17 an even lower rate.”’

Gidora said that the YCL was proposing a gen- eral minimum wage across the country, “‘which must be stringently enforced with jail sentences to employers who ignore it’’ of at least $4.50 per hour which must be indexed to the inflation rate.

‘‘Despite what employers and some sections of the government bureaucracy would like us to be- lieve, this will have no detrimental effect on employment, as indicated by five previous government studies, and will offer at leasta mod- |4 icum of protection for those in low paying, un- skilled jobs. Of course, the real answer to raising living standards of the hundreds of thousands of young people on the minimum wage lies in their taking action themselves to organize into strong trade unions, and negotiating wage settlements to | accord them a decent standard of living.’

Gidora added that the YCL would be petition- ing other youth organizations in the country ex- pressing its concerns over what it sees as an at- tempt to dismantle the minimum wage.

nist League of Canada warned Aug. 30 that the publication of a study linking the existence of a minimum wage to high unemployment among young Canadians may be ‘“‘just the excuse the governments of this country are looking for to do away with minimum wage legislation.

“Any effort to undermine minimum wage legis- lation would be a comic tragedy to the hundreds of thousands of young people in this country who rely upon this legislation as their only protection

M unscrupulous employers,’’ Mike Gidora

Cc ‘

The survey, published jointly by the Economic Council of Canada and the Institute for Research into Public Policy, two Ottawa-based prived

_ Organizations, alleges that the minimum wage de- creases the number of jobs available to young People on the tenuous grounds that most com- panies paying the minimum wage are small cor- porations unable to pay higher wages costs. ‘‘Itis clear from these fallacious conclusions that the researchers have not examined the wage rates paid by such giant multi-nationals as McDonalds restaurants, which almost exclusively adheres to the minimum wage, or the. rates paid casual employees by outfits such as Simpsons and other retailers, which again are very close to minimum wage rates. Any effort to eliminate the minimum

. Wage legislation would be welcomed with open arms by these industries, and would not be re- peved in lower prices, but simply in higher pro-

ts.”

“eae Canada Manpower Centre <7 . ey ae a he Centre de Main-d oeuvre du Canada

ee A Re A OCG

The minimum wage is not the source of higher youth unemployment . said the Young Communist League charging that the wage laws are frequently the only form of protection available to young people.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPT. 5, 1980—Page 9