The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1988 (11. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1988-03-01 / 2. szám

BI-MONTH L Y B 20435 fr THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) Vol.2 XXXII MARCH-APRIL, 1988 “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion"' Article 18 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Battle Lines Drawn for Party Conference T he 19th Conference of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, due to open in the Kremlin on June 28, is likely to be tef crucial importance for Mikhail Gorbachev’s at­tempt to reform and revive the USSR’s ailing economy. The 5,000-strong Conference — the first of its kind since 1941 — will be held at the mid­point of the current (12th) Five-Year Plan (1986 —90) and about half-way between the 27th Party Congress (February—March, 1986) and the 28th (due early in 1991). It is specifically convened, on Gorbachev’s initiative, to review and stimulate progress in the radical economic and social re­structuring outlined at the 27th Congress. its declared agenda is to: (1) review implementation of the 1986 Congresss de-1 1 cisions on restructuring (perestroika); (2) I assess the results of the first half of the current Five-Year Plan; (3) examine the performance of Party organisations in push­ing forward with restructuring; and (4) consider measures for “the further démo­cratisation of the Party and of society". dvocates of perestroika recall that, in the past, such conferences have been assembled at “crucial historical moments“. They have taken major decisions, including changing the composi­tion of the Central Committee, or have clarified “disputed, difficult or new problems“ that could not be resolved fully at the preceding Party Congress. Typically, the example now thought particu­larly relevant is the 10th Party Conference of May, 1921, which endorsed Lenin’s shift of the New Economic Policy reopening the door (tem­porarily) for limited private enterprise. All the items on the Conference agenda are highly controversial. They already are the sub­ject of a barely veiled struggle within the Party. The June, 1987, plenary meeting of the Cen­tral Committee finally gave Gorbadiev the go­­ahead on a specific programme of reforms, the centrepiece of which is the Law on the Soviet Enterprise (brought into force on January 1, 1988). The basic concept is that, to reserve the econo­my’s decline, individual State enterprises are to be given an unprecetented degree of autonomy and financial responsibility. Other radical changes are to be brought into operation, in overlapping stages, by the begin­ning of 1991 (when a new-style Five-Year Plan is due to start — on novel guidelines, still to be determined). Taken together, the sweeping changes — al­ready carried out or contemplated — dismantle much of the centralised planning and administra­tive machinery set up in the 1920s and vastly ex­panded since then with disastrous effect. Gorbachev has insisted all along that the pro­posed economic reforms require a fundamental change in attitudes which have become ingrained in Soviet society. Fie has defined perestroika as embracing *not only the economy but all other aspects of society: social relations, the political system, the spiritual and ideological sphere, the style and work of the Party... [it represents] a real revolution of the whole system of relations in society, in the minds and heart of people ..." In a major speech on November 2, 1987, mark­ing the 70th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, Gorbachev warned that the next two or three years would be “most difficult, decisive and ... critical“ — precisely because of the need to tackle simultaneously large-scale problems in the economy, in society, in administration, and in ideology and culture. He acknowledged even then that he faced “strengthening of resistence“ from conservative forces who- sec restructuring as a “threat to their selfish interests". Nobody, he said, admits to being against re­structuring — but its opponents in the Party, State and industrial buteaucracry seek to apply the brakes, by emphasising the difficulties, the cost, and the risk of undermining the “ideological fonudations". They also whip up dissatisfaction among the population — plausibly enough, because the pro­cess of switching from a hypercentralised and inefficient “administrative command“ economy entails abolition of subsidies, greater exertions and a massive redistribution of jobs. I t is officially forecast, for example, that three million jobs in industrial production will be cut in the current Plan period (ending in 1990). By the end of the next decade, redun­­(Continued on page 2) B Soviet Politburo preparing for coming Party Conference; General Secretary Gorbachev (right) and No. 2 Ligachev (2nd from right). IN THIS ISSUE Battle Lines for Party Conference 1-2 "Extremist" (Communist Boo-word-27) 3 "When is Democracy Coming?" 3 Professor Analyses Flawed Ideology 4 Gorbachev Expounds Perestroika 5 'Long Road' Solving Afghan Problem 6-7 Moscow and Pretoria, Second Thoughts? 8 Chinese Urged To Become Share-buyers 9 Budapest Condemns Persecution 9 Euro-Parliament Censures Romania 10 Police Beat Praying Girls 10 Eastern Europe 40 Years ago (XXI) 11

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