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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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051589
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05158900.027
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1990-09-22
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WORLD, Page 51World NotesSOVIET UNIONWorkers of the World: Strike!
According to Marxist-Leninist dogma, Soviet workers have no
reason to strike because they live in a proletarian paradise. That
has not, however, stopped the working masses in the world's oldest
socialist state from occasionally walking out.
Last week Moscow decided to drop the ideological baggage and
proposed a new law that for the first time would allow the
country's normally docile labor unions, to which more than 90% of
all Soviet workers belong, the right to strike. The law is expected
to be enacted later this year.
The government's action is partly a result of increased work
disruptions under Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika. Last year alone
brought at least 15 strikes around the country involving factory
workers, miners, bus drivers and carpet weavers. Last month even
the Leningrad police walked off the beat for 24 hours, demanding
better working conditions.