Alberto Monteiro wrote <snip> <<Here in Brazil we have to renegociate each year the income and benefits for the next year. When my company was State-owned [and the inflation rate was 30% per month], the Union liked to add to their requests lots of things that had *no* relation to our job, like "the g*vernment should distribute land to the landless people", etc.>> Here we have Union-owned companies and Union representatives in government. Union owns post, electricity, water, trains & ports and plenty of other companies and factories. I think it sometimes gets schizophrenic (sp) while fighting for the good of the workers. <<But they did include clauses to the benefit of the workers.>> But of course. Especially if elections are near. :-) Let me tell you about thing called KVIUT - "stability" or "security". It exists in State-owned and Union-owned complains. Once the worker gets KVIUT he can't be fired. Even if he does not work.
I wrote <<probably most things that you think was propaganda about SU are right. It's amazing how much crap you can make people believe. :-( >> Alberto Monteiro wrote <<Let me see... <<It was said that medicine in the SU was so backwards that it still used leeches...>> <snip> It uses leeches *again*! As latest development. <G> <<It was said that the markets had nothing useful to be sold, and that you had to wait hours in a line before buying any food.>> Not "any" - meat, eggs, butter - things like this. My family left in 1973 - we didn't see much of queues - for tropical fruit (oranges, bananas) or for jeans. My "field orders" were - if I see a queue: to take place, to find out what queue is for, to phone home. :-) There were other queues where you didn't stand - only was written down - queues that could take several years - for furniture, for electrical appliances (sp), for books. When your turn arrived - not always you got what you waited for, but, usually you took it. (My friend's family had some SF series - they started out waiting for encyclopedia). People say it's different now - there is everything, but you have to have money. <<It was said that people had no right to move from town to town without showing lots of documents.>> Not as tourists, no. But if you want to go to live in other town there is a problem. You can't get permission to work without showing, that you have permission to live in town, you can't get permission to live in town without showing that you are employed. Did I mention that in SU it was illegal to be un-employed (illegal, like is punishable by jail?)>> <<It was said that religion had to be practiced in clandestine ways.>> "Religion is opium for the nations" It's simply forbidden. Almost no working worship places. Those that are opened are under KGB surveillance (sp). You can get arrested for practicing religion. You *are* arrested for teaching religion. I read Orson Cadd "Enchantment" not long ago. The chapter about family turning religious to leave the SU is totally wrong. What they done would have gave them speedy ticket to Siberia. You see? Most of the things *are* true. :-) Of course, now it supposed to be different. Ilana
