Harvey Murphy in the USSR

Workers free, well-to-do

By WILLIAM TURNER

The workers of the Soviet
Union, contrary to the cries of
Western propagandists, enjoy a
standard of living that far sur-
passes the lot of their fellow-
workers in capitalist countries.

This assertion from an on-the-
spot view of the Soviet worker
is shared by Harvey Murphy, re-
tired official of the United Steel-
workers Union, who with his
wife Isabel recently concluded a
tour of the Soviet Union.

Their travels took them to the
major cities and industrial cen-
tres throughout that vast coun-

<a (Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev,
olgograd, Rostov, Taganrog,
Sochi), which confirmed Mur-
phy’s conviction that socialism
and the people who have built
it have demonstrated its super-
iority through 50 years of hard
struggles.

There is a sincere desire on
the part of the Soviet worker to
meet with trade unionists from
other countries. Murphy’s im-
pressions are that the Canadian
worker can contribute greatly in
this direction of labor solidarity,
by pressing for action on the
resolution adopted in 1968 by
the Canadian Labor Congress
calling for exchange visits of
trade unionists between Canada
and the socialist countries.

“In Moscow I met officials of

- the Metallurgical Workers Union
who were very pleased to hear
of this resolution and looked
forward to meeting our labor
representatives.

“Later as guest of Ivan Kos-
tiukov, president of the Metal-
lurgical Workers Union I made
a presentation of a recorded
speech made by Paul Robeson
to a public meeting in Vancou-
ver via telephone when he was
barred from delivering it in per-
son during the height of the cold
war in 1950. I offered this gift
as a gesture of solidarity to
their union membership from
the workers of British Colum-
bia,” Murphy said.

“Following this ceremony be-
side the Kremlin wall in Red
Square, I was priviliged to pay
homage to the memory of Big
Bill Haywood whose grave is
marked by a plaque on the wall.
It made me think that here lies
a bond of friendship between a
great miners’ leader of workers
on our side and the Soviet peo-
ple. That’s solidarity,” he de-
clared.

Murphy was amazed and im-
pressed by the changes that
have taken place in Moscow
since being there in 1930. the
vear of the first Five-Year Plan.
Moscow then had -a population
of three million; today it nudges
past the 8 million mark. Like
other world centres it has com-
mon problems arising from popu-
lation growth. Traffic conges-
tion, housing and transportation
are the main areas that figure
prominently in city planning. It
has called a halt to extension of
its city boundaries. Following
the lead of other Soviet cities it
foresees the need. within the
span of the 1970’s for the con-
struction of new cities.

Many of these cities are now
being built in the far north be-
yond Leningrad to the shores of
the Bering Sea. In Leningrad
Murphy met with the regional
representatives of the northern
region. “Modern cities and
towns, some of 100.000 people,
have been built,” he reports.
“They have conquered the prob-
lems of perma-frost in pushing

~ civilization to. the Arctic. Like

Canada, this northland is rich in
mineral resources. I was told
that the production. of nickel on
the Kola peninsula is now sur-
passing Canada’s.”

Special inducements are of-
fered workers, especially the
youth, to move north to help
build these new towns and in-
dustries on this Soviet frontier.
Wages are higher than in the
rest of the country with an au-
tomatic increase of 10 percent
a year. Workers in heavy and
hazardous jobs are eligible to
retire at 45 (in other industries
it is 55). If a worker continues

to work beyond his retirement .

age, he receives besides his
wages 50 percent of his pension.

Every union agreement in the
Soviet Union contains—what is
known as_ incentive clauses.

This means that as production
increases the worker receives on
top of his regular wages, bonus-
es, special vacation extras and

Kirghiz, USSR. The Toktogul
built on the Naryn River.

so on. He also knows that by
increasing production he is help-
ing the economy to make avail-
able more goods at lower prices.
“In Canada .we have the op:
posite,” Murphy commented.
“As production increases the
prices of goods go up too.”.
Five memorable days were
spent in the immartal city of
Volgograd which in 1943, famous
as Stalingrad, aroused the ad-
miration of the world by its sac-
rifice and valor against the
armies of the nazi Wehrmacht.
From Volgograd a visit to
Rostov and the adjacent indus-
trial centre of Taganrog as
guests of the manager of the
steel plant and the president of
the union in a tour of a com-
pletely automated factory en-
gaged in the production of steel
pipe. “This plant has a museum
that honors its workers who dis-
tinguished themselves during
the Revolution and the war.”
A few days spent in Kiev a
modern city rebuilt on the ruins
of the war with its graceful
tree-lined boulevards, parks and
colorful floral displays, elicited
this enthusiastic comment from
Isabel Murphy: “The people are
very proud of the beauty of
their city. They point with pride
at their trees, parks and ‘flower
beds and remind you ‘there is a
tree for every window in Kiev.’
When you look around you
more or less will agree with
them.”
“What impressed me most,”
Harvey Murphy summed up,
“was the system of social secur-

ity for the Soviet worker. His.

family is guaranteed jobs, edu-
cation, medicare, pensions. It’s
something to see workers able
to live free of worries and debts.

PACIFIC, TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 28, 1969—PAGE10.

Hydroelectric power station being

Compare this with the Canadian
worker. For instance, in Trail, ©
B.C., there are six finance com-
panies all in the business of
making loans. A smelter worker
there told me that by the time
he receives his pay check the
‘ducts’ have got most of it, you
know, ‘deduct this’ ‘deduct
thats;

“We talked to Soviet people
in all walks of life. Everywhere
we found freedom to discuss,
and people welcomed it. I think
that we in Canada can break
down a lot of the myths and
‘barriers that stand between us
and them by working for more
exchange of delegations be-
tween our two countries. I hope
that the trade union movement
moves in the spirit of the 1968
resolution passed by the Cana-
dian Labor Congress to clear
the way for a trade union dele-
gation from Canada to the Soviet
Union in 1970.”

=

There seems to be no end
to the insults to which: the
over-taxed, under-paid, deep-
frozen, gnome-ridden British
people are subjected.

The latest is the plea that
they should shed tears over the
financial plight of the Royal
Family.

Prince Philip says that the
royals will ‘‘go into the red”
next year and “may have to
move into smaller premises.”

This should have happened
a long time ago. It was the ad-
vice given to the Queen last
year by London’s Young Com-
munists, who organized a de-
monstration to Buckingham
Palace, demanding that it
should be converted to house
1,000 homeless people. «

It would be nice to think that
the Prince had pondered long
and seriously over their advice,
and finally come to the con-
clusion that they were right.

Pe ee ae

But he made clear that it is
not the plight of the homeless,
but the huge subsidies given
to the monarchy, with which
he is concerned.

His comments were all part
of the propaganda preparation
for an increase in the hand-
outs to the Royal Family.

This little game should be
nipped in the bud right away.
The trouble is not that. they
get too little, but that they get
far too much.

x

a

The best review we can make
of the poem Vladimir Ilyich
Lenin by the great poet of the
1917 Revolution Vladimir Maya-

‘kovsky is to quote a sample of it:

I know,
your critics’ll
grip their whipsticks,
your poets’ll go hysteric:
“Call that poetry?
Sheer publicism.
No feeling,
no nothing—
just bare rhetoric!”
Sure,
“capitalism” rings
not so very elegant;
“Nightingale”
has a far more delicate sound.
Yet I’ll go back to it
whenever relevant.
Let stanzas
__ like fighting slogans resound!
I’ve never been lacking in
topics—
you know it.
But new’s no time
for lovesick tattle.
All
my thundering power of a poet
is yours,
my class
waging rightful battle!
“Proletariat”
seems
too clumsy for using
to those
whom communism
throws into a fright.
For us, though,
it sounds
like mighty music
that’ll rouse
the dead
to get up
and fight.
The book Vladimir Iyich
Lenin by V. Mayakovsky is in a
beautiful hard cover 215-page

. iil
SUTTTEEELEE EEE ee MT

FOOD FROM 250,000 ACRES OF LAND,
FIVE TONS OF GOLD PLATE TO EAT FROM

The Prince says that only a_
- "very small proportion” of
what the Queen gets is hers to
spend on what she wants.
Perhaps, he will enlighten
us further. It would be very in-
teresting to have all the facts
about the finances of the mon-
archy, many of which have
been deliberately shrouded in
secrecy for decades.

It is noticeable that the
Prince did not suggest that the
matter should be referred to
the Prices and Incomes Board,
so that it could produce one
of its voluminous reports giv-
ing all the facts and figures.

Ww

What we do know is that the
Civil List gives the Queen
£475,000 a year, £60,000 of
which is regarded as necessary
for her personal needs.

On top of this, Prince Philip
gets £40,000 a year. Prince
Charles gets over £100,000 a-
year, and Princess Margaret
gets £15,000 a year.

But in addition the Queen
has a personal fortune estim-
ated at between £50 million
and £60 million, draws an in-
come of around £200,000 from
the Duchy of Lancaster, and
has very large private invest-
ments.

In his broadcast recently the
Prince made much, of the fact
that the Civil List has not been
increased for 18 years.

But what he did not say is

MMH CC ;

the real victims of our soci@

edition that .contains both fe
glist

of the poem. Progress B
$2.25 Toronto.

mat

scsi

Greet Chile (7

Canadian workers are walt

with the Latin American peoh’
in the struggle against U.5:T
perialism and for social prog
—that was the gist of a teleg™
sent by William Kashtan, a
“eral secretary of the Commut
Party of Canada, to the cong’
of the Communist Party of © e
one of the strongest wl hat
parties in South America, a
is currently being held 1 5A :
tiago. The message read:
Conditions make it difficl”
participate directly in your a |
gress, but we share will
wishes for its success 2
cause of peace, democracy, ™ 1
pendence and socialism. WE i |
confident your congress
open up a new chapter of Ue
advance for the working Pe’,
and all the forces of progres:
Chile and deal further signify
blows against U.S. imperi@™ —
and its agents. i that)
We stand with you 12 (4
struggle and in the strUge ge
strengthen the unity of “iy
munist and Workers’ parties in
the principles of Marxism-L® io
ism and proletarian intermm®
nalism,
Yours in solidarity an
nity
Central Committee,
Communist Party of
Wm. Kashtan,
General Secretary.

Ss,

ult Oy

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canadt

i SS

that in that period the ‘royal
income from other sources

gone up enormously. Revenues
from land and property hala
gone up 300 or 400 percen"
and from investment still mor

A, - A
w x w

AAW
aacesatc inca See.

The mistake is not that the
Civil List has remained
same, but that this extravol” g
ance was undertaken in ! :
first place. ihe

Prince Philip conjures US a, |
picture of a poverty-stric a e
Queen running into debt 9” f
wondering where the next bot Ae
tle of champagne is comi?
from. :

The reality is that she is ples
vided with a yacht (at a cos
to the taxpayers of £500,000 ®
year), several cars and a num
ber of aeroplanes. . 4: ,

Modest housing accommo”
ation is provided at Bucking,
ham. Palace, Balmoral an
Sandringham. Her dresses ar
paid for out of the Civil List. ;

She has food from ne
250,000 acres of land whith
she ,owns, and five tons ve
gold plate from which to edt!”

So. shed no tears for
Queen. Don’t. cry into YO"
beer over the Prince’s plight

- fol
Reserve your sympathy ye

——

bree

j
y
y

—the unemployed, the home
less, the sick and the ol p gS
and see that they, and not F
handful of parasites, are give
priority.

- —Morning Star, Lon

don