The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1933-01-28
|. INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE
OF THE FIVE YEAR PLAN

-SA is private AFFAIR "a LLS soviet
Union: an important and serious affair,
but nevertheless private, national af-
fair of the Soviet Union.
History has shown however, that the
Five-Year Plan is not private affair of
the Soviet Union, but an affair of the
whole of the international proletariat.
Long before the question of the Five
Year Plan was raised in the period when
we concluded the fight against the inter-
ventionists and proceeded to the restora-
ton of economy, Lenin said, that the
restoration of our economy possessed a
profound international Importance that
every step which the Soviet Power made
on the path of restoration of economy
evoked an echo in the various strata OF
the population of the capitalist countries,
and divided humanity into two camps
into the camp of the supporters of the
proletarian revolution and into the camp
of it's opponents.
Since then many years have passed,
and every step made by the Soviet Power
in the sphere of restoration of economy,
every year, every quarter OF this period,
brilliantly proved the correctness OF these
words of Lenin.
But the most brilliant confirmation of
the correctness of these words of Lenin
was given by the Five-Year Plan of con-
struction, the inception of this Plan, it's
elaboration, its realization. In fact, it
seems that no single step we have taken
ON the path of economic restoration III
our country met with such a response
among the various strata of the capitalist
countries of Europe, America and Asia,
as the question of the FiyeYear Plan,
the question of its elaboration and real
ization.
At first the Five-Year Plan was re-
ceived by the bourgeoisie and its press
with scorn. A "chimera," utopia
that is how they designated our Five
Year Plan at the time. Later, when it
began to be seen that the carrying out
of the FiyeYear Plan was yielding real
results, they began to sound the alarm by
maintaining that the Five-Year Plan
threatened the existence of capitalism,
that its realization would lead to the
European market being flooded with
goods, to an increase Of dumping, an eX-
tension of unemployment Still later,
when this trick employed against the
Soviet Union did not yield the expected
result, there commenced number of
journeys of various representatives of
firms, press representatives, representa-
tives of various societies, ETC., to the
Soviet Union, for the purpose Of seeing
with their own eyes what was actually
taking place there. I do not speak here
of the workers delegations, which right
from the commencement, from the first
beginning of the Five-Year Plan, ex-
pressed their enthusiasm over this begin
ming, wished the Soviet Union complete
success and expressed their readiness to
support the working class of the Soviet
Union wholly and entirely.
Since that time there commenced the
division in so-called public opinion, IN
the bourgeois press, In the bourgeois So
cieties of every kind, etc. The one main
tanned that the Five-Year Plan had SUI
fered a complete failure and the Bolshe-
Wiki were on the verge of collapse. Others,
on the contrary, declared that. although
the Bolsheviki were bad people, they
would nevertheless succeed in regard to
the Five-Year Plan and would undoubt-
edly achieve their aim.
(After reading a whole number of ex-
tracts from bourgeois papers of every
kind dealing with the F;ve-Year Plan,
Comrade Stain continued:
Thus we see that in the bourgeois camp
there prevailed division and disunity.
Whilst certain circles advocated the de-
struction of the Soviet Union with its
allegedly collapsed Five-Year Plan, other
circles were apparently in favor OF trade
connections with the Soviet Union, be-
cause they probably reckoned that they
could derive advantages for themselves,
from the successes of the Five-Year Plan.
THE attitude of the working class in the
capitalist countries to the question OF
the Five-Year Plan, to the question OF
the successes of socialist construction IN
the Soviet Union, is quite different. One
could confine oneself ho7 to quoting the
statement of one of the many workers
delegations which visit the Soviet Union
every year. for example the Belgian work.
ers' delegation SsThis statement is typical
Of every Workers delegation without ex-
ception, whether it is an English or
French. German or an American work