Further on, Nekilepov wrote: "The self-management system is incompatible with Soviet minister of the metal industry, S. V. Kolpakov, cited an important perverse the marketization that has already taken place on heavy industry. "In the last few years, the metal industry has fallen from second or third place as regards wage levels to seventh place. The enterprises have not been able to compete in wages with cooperatives able to to use the great bulk of their incomes for pay-
Labor shortage in basic industries
"The departure of skilled workers from basic industry, where working conditions are hard, especially to the cooperatives, where for equal or lighter work they can ear two or three times more, has stripped many enterprises." The reason the enterprises could not pay as much as the coop. eratives was that the latter did not have to invest. But one of the major factors in the crisis of the bureaucratic economies, alongside the ineffectiveness of investment, is that the rate of investment has declined owing to continuing low productivity and increasing pressure from the
Kolpakov also cited national unrest as a factor disrupting the metal industry. This, among other things, reflects the fact, cited by some representative of the Central Asian republics, that an outsize proportion of primary industry is located in the peripheral republics, especially in Cen-
A difficulty with Gorbachev's idea of occasional barb in recent months, it has maintained a steady barrage against the Ukrainians. Nonetheless, mobilization has won major new concessions. The authorities were forced to promise a referendum on confidence in the Supreme Soviet and a law allowing Ukrainian youth to do their military service in the republic. On October 23, the premier and president of the republic resigned. Le Monde's correspondent commented: "Everything indicates that the Ukraine is entering a period of intense political agitation and confronNationalists reject new Union
Treaty
One of the slogans raised in the actions in the Ukraine seems to be rejection of Gorbachev's proposed new Treaty of Union. In fact, Rukh adopted an unequivocal call for independence at its congress at the end of October. The October 25 issue of Literaturna Ukraina, a writers' weekly close to Rukh, includes an open letter from Ukrainians in Moscow urging the Ukrainian Supreme Soviet not to accept any new treaty of union but to strike for independence while the iron is
Curiously, the letter singles out Trotsky, of all people, as an opponent of Ukrainian independence. "We remember that Ukraine has more than once been lulled to sleep by words about federalism and sovereignty. A convinced federalist was Trotsky — the inspirer and ideologue of the destruction of Ukrainian statehood." Actually, in his last writings Trotsky argued for an independent and this position unknown in the Ukrainian movement. This passage suggests deliberate disinformation by rightist ideologues who want to discredit all socialists in the eyes of Ukrainian national democrats, and therefore decided to concentrate their fire on the revolutionary leader favorable positions toward Ukrainian
The October plenum of the Soviet CP did not at all reflect any lessening of tensions on the national question. In fact, Pravda (October 11) printed a long ranting speech by A.K. Morkunas, identified as a kolkhoz tractor driver in Lithuania, that denounced the Sajudis government as "pro-fascist," and demanded Moscow
"We Communists in Lithuania are disturbed by the fact that the present leader s of the republic are meeting no resistance from the organs of Soviet power and are acting in a more and more naked way, feeling that they can do what they please. On the road of building a pro-fascist authoritarian regime, Landsbergis and his henchmen have resorted to legal measures to exclude the [Communist] Party from political life, to direct repression against the Communists defending the socialist gains of the working people of the republic."
### Lithuanian government makes major error
Makunas referred to a law passed on September 25 declaring that legitimate political parties could not be directed from abroad. In a situation of sharp confrontation between Lithuania and Moscow, the Moscow loyalist party plays a provocative role. But the attempt to deal with this problem by legal and therefore implicitly repressive methods was a major error. The Lithuanian government does not have the means for this. Its only strength is its democratic example.
Morkunas went on to accuse the Lithuanian government of expansionism, displaying a map including a part of Byelorussia in Lithuania. In fact, it is the neo-Stalinist government of Belorussia,
At Home with the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient using economic power to bring the rebellious territories to heel is that for this you have to have a favorable political relationship of forces. Moscow holds decisive economic cards in the confrontation with Lithuania, but its political weakness has made it impossible to play them effectively, and in fact further undermined its authority.
Certainly, the fact is that there are no signs of recentralization in the USSR, and least of all of any cooling of nationalist ardors by chilly winds of "economic reality." In fact, the national movements have continued to spread and radicalize, as shown in particular by the campaign by Ukrainian front, Rukh, to force the resignation of the Kiev government, still in the hands of the Communist Party.