MAGGIE MELANSON / DAILY TROJAN
Former Prime Minister Michael Manley defends his socialist solutions to Jamaica's economic problems in the 1970s. Manley argued with supply-side economic theorist Arthur Laffer about the merits and faults of socialism in Third World countries.
Socialist economics debated
MAGGIE MELANSON/DAILY TROJAN Arthur Laffer assails socialist economics as a solution to worsening national fiscal dilemmas in the Third World countries.
trojan
Volume XCtll, Number 56	University of Southern California	Tuesday, April 12, 1983
32nd Street Market agrees to 'maintain a clean store'
By Melinda Smolin
Staff Writer
The owners of the 32nd Street Market signed an agreement Thursday to “maintain a clean store" at the request of a local community group that accused the market, last month, of having unsanitary conditions.
Since the complaints were lodged, and a subsequent inspection was conducted by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, members of the South Central Organizing Committee agree that the condition of the store has improved. However, the group wants to see that it stays that way.
The letter of agreement was signed at a circus-like ceremony at St. John's Church on Adams Boulevard, in which Morrie and Lewis Notrica, the market owners, were subject to severe criticism and mockery. Continued interruptions from committee members, however, prevented the owners from defending their market.
The meeting consisted of a mock trial with three committee members serving as prosecutors who periodically leveled accusations. Each accusation was accompanied by a drum roll.
The alleged violations, based on a February inspection by 200 volunteers, consisted of spoiled vegetables, blocked emergency exits, rotten meat and an overwhelming smell emanating
from the meat department. Many of the group's allegations were never substantiated by the health department, but some, such as overcrowding, uncleanliness and mice infestation were verified.
After all the "evidence” was given at the meeting, the "judge" asked the audience to serve as a jury to decide on a verdict.
The 100-person audience delivered a unanimous shout of, "Guilty!"
After the trial, a skit was performed by five persons dressed as cockroaches, rats, mice and fish. They trotted around the front of the room singing a corttrived ditty that sounded like a military camp song.
Loraine Watts, co-chairman of the SCOC read aloud the letter of agreement to the enthusiastic crowd. "All we want is for you to maintain a clean store," she said. "We're asking you to correct any unsafe or unsanitary conditions."
Lewis Notrica came to the podium after he signed the four-foot-long letter and attempted to explain to the spectators some of the problems the market faces.
Outbursts from people in the audience, such as, "We're pleased that you came here tonight; may we please get on with the meeting," prevented Notrica from speaking.
In a later interview, he said that he was going to tell the SCOC that what they were asking for was "an impossible dream unless they work with
By Steve De Salvo
Assistant Gty Editor
It was more than two years ago that Michael Manley, former prime minister of Jamaica, was defeated in a re-election bid after opponents said he had ruined the economy through
us. They didn't ask us for anything out of line." He added that the store has been "more diligent in keeping our eyes open about things they've complained" about since the report was issued in March.
"They make accusations and they don't let you respond," he said. "That meeting was orchestrated. I think an activist group is the best thing in the world when they are objective and honest. Their motives are good, (but) they refused to let me respond."
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excessive government intervention.
Manley, a controversial international figure, again was forced to defend his eight-year rule of that Caribbean country when Arthur Laffer, a leading proponent of supply-side economics and a university professor, said the experiment in Jamaica was an example of the failures of socialism.
In a debate held before a large audience in Bovard Auditorium Monday, Laffer repudiated Manley's sodalist experiment and said the only solution for the Third World countries is private enterprise.
"Nobody is made better off when someone else is pulled down," Laffer said, adding that tax hikes, increased social spending and a price control system virtually destroyed the Jamaican economy.
"When Manley came into power in 1972, .85 of a Jamaican dollar equaled one U.S. dollar. By 1980, when Manley left, 1.78 of a Jamaican dollar equaled one dollar," Laffer said. "And this happened during the decline of die U.S. dollar here."
He said Jamaica's budget def-idt skyrocketed from $60 million in 1972 to $655 million in 1979. "And this was despite huge tax increases," Laffer added.
Jamaica's real gross domestic product declined every year during Manley's eight years in office because the socialist government frightened away foreign investors, the university professor said.
Laffer said Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Ivory Coast and Ber-
muda have successfully used private enterprise to improve the standard of living.
"Bermuda has less than one-tenth of one percent unemployment. And it has no sales tax and no income tax. I think this proves democratic capitalism works on Bermuda."
But Manley said the example of Bermuda was a ridiculous one.
"Bermuda is a tiny little tourist dot. Things are more complicated in Jamaica."
Manley defended his polides in Jamaica. He claimed that when he left office, only 10 percent of the population was illiterate, compared with a 40 percent illiteracy rate when he entered office. He said before he took office only 10 percent of Jamaican youths took jobs or entered school beyond the age of 15. At the end of this term, 80 percent of the youths went to either work or school.
Manley said the entire Third World is now in a "deep crisis." He said colonial and imperialist countries have "ex-duded the Third World from evolving and from the process of local capital formation."
He said the Third World was prevented by imperialist powers from becoming indigenous and self-suffident — politically and economically.
"The Third World needs a just sodety, suffident enough so that people believe in it," he said. "It needs to develop a work ethic and an entrepren-uerial dass."
Manley said these conditions can only exist through government intervention in the economy.
Offer to Soviet scientists helped bring profound changes
By Susan Shaw
Staff Writer
Though there is little hope that any or all of the seven Soviet sdentists whom the university offered jobs will ever be allowed to emigrate, it has become evident that the university's action has helped bring about some profound changes.
The Soviet Union announced two weeks ago that it has discontinued its policy of revoking degrees, a policy it had enforced with vigor during the past 16 months, stripping at least 65 Jewish scholars who were deemed disloyal to the Communist Party of their academic degrees.
It is hard to determine to what degree the university's offer directly influenced the Soviets, but the university's action has, indeed, prompted other universities to take similar actions to protect their Soviet colleagues from harassment.
For this reason, Michael Melnick, research associate' professor of basic sdences — who with
Irwin Lieb, vice president and dean of the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, hand delivered the invitations to the scientists in February — termed the trip a success.
According to Melnick "USC has helped start programs at three universities in the hopes that their efforts will be as good as ours."
While the Soviet Union has stopped revoking degrees, Melnick estimated that 500 scientists who have applied and been denied emigration, have lost their jobs.
Alexander Paritsky, former senior engineer and senior scientist at the Kharkov Research Institute of Metrology and one of those invited to the university, is currently serving a three-year sentence in a Soviet labor camp.
The New York-based Committee of Concerned Sdentists, of which Melnick is a board member, has drafted a letter of protest in the hopes of drawing worldwide attention among the
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