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Supreme Soviet approves law
allowing private, small factories
MOSCOW - Beset with a sinking
economy and rising discontent, So
viet lawmakers made a drastic break
with Communist orthodoxy Tuesday
by voting to allow private citizens to
own small factories and hire their
own workers.
Applause swept through the Krem
lin chamber as the Supreme Soviet,
by a 350-3 vote with 11 abstentions,
passed the Property Law, which the
official Tass news agency described
as “the main plank’’ of President
Mikhail Gorbachev’s campaign for
economic reform.
The law permits Soviets for the
first time in nearly seven decades to
privately possess “means of produc
tion,’’ an approach at odds with clas
sic Marxist thinking, which sees in
private ownership the roots of the
capitalist exploitation wiped out by
the Russian Revolution 72 years ago.
Deputy Premier Leonid Abalkin
said the law, to go into effect July 1,
will enable private citizens to own
workshops, garages for automotive
repairs, farm enterprises and other
small-scale ventures to supplement
the notoriously ineffective state-run
economy.
Also, subject to restrictions from
legislatures in the 15 Soviet repub
lics, the law permits one citizen to
hire another for pay, a practice that
currently is illegal and was a key
target of the Russian revolutionaries.
In the early 1920s, Vladimir Lenin
and his Bolsheviks temporarily re
treated from their drive to implement
communism and allowed private
ownership of the means of production
under the New Economic Policy, or
NEP. The policy was ended under
Lenin’s successor, Josef Stalin.
Tuesday’s vote was hailed by
supporters not as a tactical move
backward but as a great advance toward
a more just anti prosperous society. It
again showed Gorbachev’s bent for
pragmatism, even when it runs counter
to policies pursued by his predeces
sors for decades.
Abalkin stressed to reporters that
new appoaches were needed to wrench
the country from its economic quag
mire, which he said was deepening.
“Either we speed up the reforms, or
we ship things using military trans
port,” he said.
He revealed that Soviet economic
performance had worsened in the past
two months, with industrial produc
tion slipping 1 percent. “There is a
crisis of confidence, of confidence in
the government,” he added.
Although the Property Law con
serves large economic monopolies
for the state-run sector, it declares all
forms of ownership juridically equal,
including property owned by indi
viduals, the government and collec
tives, and says society gains by com
petition among them.
‘ ‘This is an enormous step forw ard
because it lays down the principle of
pluralism in the forms of ownership
and the basis of their equality and
their protection from the government,”
said progressive lawmaker Alexei
Yablokov.
In another sign of the new eco
nomic thinking, a government-spon
sored preamble offered by Abalkin
proclaiming “socialist property” to
be the foundation of the country offi
cially named the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics failed to pass the
542-seat legislature.
“The preamble would turn the law
into a propaganda slogan,” objected
deputy Konstantin Lubcnchenko, a
senior lecturer in Moscow State Uni
versity’s law faculty.
Despite its new stance on properly
rights, the law continues to skirt the
socialist aversion to private properly
by referring instead to “the property
ofc&|g$s.”
“It’s unfortunate that there is no
mention of private property, but the
principle is there,” Yablokov said.
Soviets long have been permitted to
own cars, summer homes and other
personal property, and the new law
won’t change that.
Abalkin said a key provision of the
23-page document orders state-owned
factones and other businesses to allo
cate a share of after-tax profits to
workers.
By providing them with a material
stake in their enterprise’s profitabil
ity, the law will presumably encour
age Soviets to work harder, a problem
Gorbachev’s leadership has said is
crucial to raising the often abysmal
rate of productivity.
Abalkin cautioned that the law was
“just a piece of paper” and by itself
won’t bring about an economic mir
acle.
“We need to change the stere
otypes of behavior, and peoples'
psychology,” he said, apparently
referring to the widespread Soviet
hostility toward any form of private
enterprise.
Afghan troops and rebels attempt coup
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Soldiers
led by the defense minister joined
with Moslem guerrillas Tuesday to
try to overthrow Afghanistan’s gov
ernment, but were defeated by troops
loyal to President Najib, Kabul radio
reported.
The official radio said the loyalists
controlled Kabul, the capital, and an
indefinite curfew was imposed at 7
p.m.
In the Soviet Union, which spon
sors the Najib government, the offi
cial news agency Tass said: “The
loyal troops have now mopped up the
main pockets of resistance, leaving
the situation in Kabul firmly con
trolled by the government.”
Western diplomats, guerrilla lead
ers in Pakistan and the Soviet media
reported heavy fighting and said
Afghan air force planes had bombed
Arg Palace, Najib’s headquarters in
the heart of Kabul.
Heavy artillery and tanks fired for
several hours on the buildings of the
Defense Ministry and the army’s main
political directorate, Tass said. It also
reported shelling of residential dis
tricts, but said it abated after dusk.
Kabul radio said the coup leader
was Maj. Gen. Shah Nawaz Tanai.
the defense minister, a hard-line
Marxist linked to at least of two of the
five previous coup attempts reported
against Najib, who took office in 1986.
He was joined by followers of the
fundamentalist guerrilla leader Gul
buddin Hekmatyar, the radio said.
Najib said on slate telcvisionTues
day night: “Some soiled elements
today tried to carry out a conspiracy
and provoke bloodshed, but the gov
ernment forces have neutralized them.
They have been suppressed.”
Repeating a message broadcast
earlier in the day by Interior Minister
Aslam Watanjar, who was named to
replace Tanai, Najib urged Afghans
to help capture the general “dead or
alive.” He said mutinous soldiers who
surrendered by 4 a.m. today would be
given amnesty.
Ahmad Sarwar, Afghan ambassa
dor in New Delhi, said he spoke with
Najib by telephone Tuesday night
and the president sounded “very strong
and very confident.”
“He said everything is under con
trol,” said Sarwar, whose wife is a
sister to Najib’s wife. He said Najib
told him one group of Tanai’s follow
ers had been killed and another cap
tured.
Najib did not say when the fight
ing started or mention where he was
when the telephone contact was made,
Sarwar said. The ambassador said
another source in Kabul, whom he
would not identify, told him the de
fense minister was in hiding.
According to his source, Sarwar
said, some of Tanai’s supporters
bombed Kabul from the air, but no
bombs fell within half a mile of Najib
or Arg Palace.
Tuesday’s attempted coup was the
third said to involve Tanai and
Hekmaytar, leader of the fundamen
talist Hezb-i-Islami, or Party of Is
lam.
On Monday, 124 of those arrested
went on trial in Kabul, including senior
army officers. The other three were
released.
Gephardt says Soviets
should have U.S. aid
for successful reforms
WASHINGTON - House Demo
cratic Leader Richard Gephardt said
Tuesday the United States should
offer direct aid to the Soviet Union
to ensure that its reforms succeed.
“We should be investing in our
own self-interest,” Gephardt said.
“And stability, democracy and a
market economy in the Soviet Union
are in America’s strong self-inter
est.”
The proposal brought immedi
ate criticism from some quarters,
with a presidential spokesman
saying the Soviets don’t want di
rect aid.
Sen. Bill Bradley, D-NJ., also
said that the Soviets haven’t re
Suested U.S. help and that, if they
id, it would be wasted without
economic reform. “Unless they
reform the economy, it’s going down
a rathole,” Bradley said.
Others on Capitol Hill said that
while they thought Gephardt’s
proposal would spark a useful
debate, the idea would fall on dis
approving public ears.
“If you’re going to start giving
foreign aid to the hated commies of
70 years’ worth, you’ve got a real
sales Job to do in the United States,”
said Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo.
Gephardt noted an appeal by
Czechoslovak President Vaclav
Havel, in a Feb. 21 speech to Con
gress, to help his country by help
ing the Soviet Union continue on
its reformist road.
If Havel, who was imprisoned
by the communists, can call for aid
to the Soviets, “the least we can do
is listen,” Gephardt said in a speech
that also contained his harshest
criticism to date of Bush’s policy
toward Eastern Europe.
He accused Bush of “a lack of
leadership in this most crucial
moment,” throwing billions of
dollars into the military budget to
defend against “communists who
don’t want to be communists any
more,” while ignoring their eco
nomic needs.
“It’s as though George Bush’s
Pentagon budget were written by
someone who hadn’t read a news
paper in a year,” Gephardt said,
drawing applause. Indeed, most of
the administration’s budget was
drafted last year, after the opening
of the Berlin Wall but before many
other dramatic developments in
Eastern Europe.
At the White House, spokes
man Marlin Fitzwater called the
charges “general old political
stuff,” ana added, “The Soviet
Union doesn’t want direct aid.”
But others, while saying the
Soviet Union should have to meet
certain conditions before receiv
ing U.S. help, acknowledged that
events have moved so rapidly that
aid is no longer out of the question.
House Speaker Thomas Foley
said heagreed with Gephardt “It’s
a dramatically different circum
stance from a few months ago,’’
Foley said, noting local elections
that have taken place in the Soviet
Union and the existence of com
peting political parties.
‘‘Those changes are coming on
very fast, and we have a stake in
this country in supporting those
changes,” Foley said.
Gephardt, a 1988 candidate for
the Democratic presidential nomi
nation, proposed the idea of direct
aid in a speech to the liberal Center
for National Policy and acknowl
edged that it would be difficult
politically.
“There are votes to be lost in
taking a risk for peace, in appear
ing insufficiently tough on the
Soviets. And there are votes to be
lost in calling on the American
people to make some changes to
adapt to the changing world,” the
Missouri congressman said.
Speaking to reporters later,
Gepnardt added:
“We live in a paradox. We now
face the prospect of giving assis
tance and support to people who’ vc
oppressed people for 45 years.’’
But he said that during a trip to
Eastern Europe two months ago ‘41
was embarrassed that we are not
being as strong and as courageous
as they are. Can’t we do something
to help?”
Specifically, Gephardt called for
a “Food for Freedom’’ program to
send U.S. food aid to the Soviets;
the lifting of trade restrictions,
including those on high-technol- j
ogy exports, and guarantees for
businesses that want to invest in
the Soviet Union.
“A stronger Soviet economy
will facilitate the process of peace, ”
said Gephardt4 4 How can the Soviets
pull Red Army troops out of East
ern Europe if they have no jobs and
no homes for them to return to in
Russia?”
Direct U.S. aid is possible now
because “the Cold War as we have
known it for four decades is over,’ *
Gephardt said. While the
ity remains that Soviet
Mikhail Gorbachev could be ousted
or his reforms could fail, super
power competition in arms and
influence has changed in funda
mental ways, he said.
Nebraskan
Editor Amy Edwards
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Editorial
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1990 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Kohl drops demands for Polish concessions
BONN, West Germany - Chancel
lor Helmut Kohl dropped his demand
for Polish concessions on a border
treaty and moved closer Tuesday to
guaranteeing a united Germany would
not claim land ceded to Poland after
World War II.
His government proposed a parlia
mentary resolution, to be introduced
Thursday, saying a united Germany
should sign a treaty with Poland de
claring that the right of Poles ‘ ‘to live
in secure borders will not now or in
the future be questioned by us Ger
mans.”
After a Cabinet meeting, at which
ministers discussed disagreements over
the chancellor’s handling of the bor
der issue, Kohl said: ‘ ‘The things that
burdened us are cleared away/’
Kohl had been criticized for his
reluctance to state clearly, presuma
bly in an effort to preserve the conser
vative vote in December elections,
that a reunified Germany would not
question Poland’s western border.
Foreign Minister Hans*Dietrich
Gcnscher and his Free Democrats
agreed with Poland that Kohl must
clarify his position on the sensitive
border issue.
After a meeting Tuesday between
Kohl and Gcnscher, their second in
two days, Free Democrat official
Torsten Wolfgramm said the chan
cellor had abandoned his demand that
Polish assurances accompany a bor
der treaty.
“It is completely clear,” he said.
“A treaty would contain only the
border question.”
Rudolf Seilers, Kohl’s chief of staff,
also indicated a treaty would concern
only the border.
Silesia and East Prussia were
awarded to Poland and the Soviet
Union, respectively, at the Potsdam
conference of 1945. That led to the
expulsion of 12 million Germans, and
at least 2 million died in the process.
Genscher was bom in what now is
East Germany. The foreign minister
has made it clear he and his party arc
willing, in return for reunification, to
give up all claims to the territory lost
to Poland.
Seilers said the parliamentary reso
lution would recommend declarations
of respect for Poland’s western bor
der by the parliaments of both Ger
manys, to be made after the East
German elections March 18.
President Mikhail Gorbachev of
the Soviet Union warned against any
attempt by a reunited Germany to
change the borders drawn at the end
of World War II.
“Naturally, the inviolability of
postwar borders is the main issue in
this respect,” he said in Moscow.
“To use German reunification to
reanimate revanchist plans would be
to pursue an irresponsible policy
fraught with very serious conse
quences.”
The Bonn newspaper Die Welt
quoted Jaruzclski as saying, when
asked whether he feared German
reunification: “Yes and no. 1 worry
as a Pole and European because of
historical experiences. The position
of a mighty power, a dominance, could
lead to this position being somehow
used at the cost of others.”
On the other hand, Jaruzclski said,
he believes “the Germans themselves,
the big powers and all European
peoples, especially the Poles, will do
