Perestroika and Lawrence Anthony Earth Organization: Difference between pages

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{{russianterm|'''перестройка'''|perestroika|restructuring}}

[[Image:PerestroikaTEO1.jpg|right|thumb|Poster showing Mikhail Gorbachev, with the slogan ''perestroika'']]

'''The Earth Organization''' is an independent, international [[non-profit]], [[non-partisan]], conservation and environmental organization, with new solutions, committed to the creative, responsible rehabilitation of planet Earth and the plant and animal kingdoms.

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'''Perestroika''' ({{Audio|ru-perestroika.ogg|pronunciation}}, {{lang-ru|перестро́йка}} [[international phonetic alphabet|IPA]]: {{IPA|[pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə]}}) is the Russian term (which passed into English) for the economic reforms introduced in June [[1987]] by the [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]. Its literal meaning is "reconstructing", which refers to restructuring of the Soviet economy.

The Earth Organization was founded in 2003 by veteran [[South African]] conservationist [[Lawrence Anthony]].

== The ''perestroika'' program ==

During the initial period (1985-1986) of Mikhail Gorbachev's time in power, he talked about modifying central planning, but did not make any truly fundamental changes. Gorbachev and his team of economic advisers then introduced more fundamental reforms, which became known as ''perestroika'' (economic restructuring).

The Earth Organization works in association with corporations and other environmental groups around the world in projects of mutual interest.

At the June 1987 plenary session of the [[Central Committee of the CPSU|Central Committee]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]] (CPSU), Gorbachev presented his "basic theses," which laid the political foundation of economic reform for the remainder of the existence of the Soviet Union.

==Purpose==

In July 1987, the [[Supreme Soviet]] passed the [[Law on State Enterprise]]. The law stipulated that state enterprises were free to determine output levels based on demand from consumers and other enterprises. Enterprises had to fulfill state orders, but they could dispose of the remaining output as they saw fit. Enterprises bought inputs from suppliers at negotiated contract prices. Under the law, enterprises became self-financing; that is, they had to cover expenses (wages, taxes, supplies, and debt service) through revenues. No longer was the government to rescue unprofitable enterprises that could face bankruptcy. Finally, the law shifted control over the enterprise operations from ministries to elected workers' collectives. [[Gosplan]]'s (Государственный комитет по планированию, State Committee for Planning) responsibilities were to supply general guidelines and national investment priorities, not to formulate detailed production plans.

The stated purpose of The Earth Organization is:

#''To create a fundamental change in mankind’s awareness of, and relationship to, his environment and the plant and animal kingdoms, by example and education, thereby reversing the downward spiral of life on Earth.''

The [[Law on Cooperatives]], enacted in May 1988, was perhaps the most radical of the economic reforms during the early part of the Gorbachev regime. For the first time since [[Vladimir Lenin]]'s [[New Economic Policy]], the law permitted private ownership of businesses in the services, manufacturing, and foreign-trade sectors. The law initially imposed high taxes and employment restrictions, but it later revised these to avoid discouraging private-sector activity. Under this provision, cooperative restaurants, shops, and manufacturers became part of the Soviet scene.

#''To bridge the gap between mankind, industry, commerce and the environment through applicable environmentalism, workable tools, accurate data and a business and scientific approach to the field of the environment.''

#''To raise ethical standards within the conservation movement.''

The Earth Organization has a strong scientific orientation and a reputation for bold conservation initiatives, including the rescue of the [[Baghdad zoo]] during the coalition [[invasion of Iraq]] in April 2003, negotiations with the infamous Ugandan [[Lords Resistance Army]], to protect game rangers and raise awareness of endangered species, including the [[Northern White Rhinoceros]], and work with remote rural African communities to rebuild cultural and traditional ties to nature.

Gorbachev brought ''perestroika'' to the Soviet Union's foreign economic sector with measures that Soviet economists considered bold at that time. His program virtually eliminated the monopoly that the Ministry of Foreign Trade had once held on most trade operations. It permitted the ministries of the various industrial and agricultural branches to conduct foreign trade in sectors under their responsibility rather than having to operate indirectly through the bureaucracy of trade ministry organizations. In addition, regional and local organizations and individual state enterprises were permitted to conduct foreign trade. This change was an attempt to redress a major imperfection in the Soviet foreign trade regime: the lack of contact between Soviet end users and suppliers and their foreign partners.

Through the activities of its scientific advisory board, The Earth Organization forwards and supports environmental education, targeting different age and culture groups, with the intention of firmly entrenching environmental education as a part of the syllabus of educational institutions.

The most significant of Gorbachev's reforms in the foreign economic sector allowed foreigners to invest in the Soviet Union in the form of joint ventures with Soviet ministries, state enterprises, and cooperatives. The original version of the [[Soviet Joint Venture Law]], which went into effect in June 1987, limited foreign shares of a Soviet venture to 49 percent and required that Soviet citizens occupy the positions of chairman and general manager. After potential Western partners complained, the government revised the regulations to allow majority foreign ownership and control. Under the terms of the Joint Venture Law, the Soviet partner supplied labor, infrastructure, and a potentially large domestic market. The foreign partner supplied capital, technology, entrepreneurial expertise, and, in many cases, products and services of world competitive quality.

The Earth Organization is registered as an independent non-profit organization in South Africa, with branches in the USA, France, Canada, Hungary and Slovakia.

Gorbachev's economic changes did not do much to restart the country's sluggish economy in the late 1980s. The reforms decentralized things to some extent, although price controls remained, as did the ruble's inconvertibility and mostly government control over the means of production.

== External links ==

By 1990 the government had virtually lost control over economic conditions. Government spending increased sharply as an increasing number of unprofitable enterprises required state support and consumer price subsidies continued. Tax revenues declined because revenues from the sales of vodka plummeted during the anti-alcohol campaign and because republic and local governments withheld tax revenues from the central government under the growing spirit of regional autonomy. The elimination of central control over production decisions, especially in the consumer goods sector, led to the breakdown in traditional supplier-producer relationships without contributing to the formation of new ones. Thus, instead of streamlining the system, Gorbachev's decentralization caused new production bottlenecks.

*[http://www.earthorganization.org Official Website]

*[http://www.earthorganization.org/WhoWeAre.aspx?CatID=1 The Earth Organization Scientific Advisory Board]

*[http://www.lawrenceanthony.co.za Founder of The Earth Organization]

[[category:animal charities]]

== Unforeseen results of reform ==

[[category:Environmental organizations based in South Africa]]

Gorbachev's new system bore the characteristics of neither central planning nor a market economy. Instead, the Soviet economy went from stagnation to deterioration. At the end of [[1991]], when the union officially dissolved, the national economy was in a virtual tailspin. In 1991 Soviet [[Gross domestic product|GDP]] had declined by 17 percent and was declining at an accelerating rate. Overt inflation was becoming a major problem. Between 1990 and 1991, retail prices in the Soviet Union increased 140 percent.

Under these conditions, the general quality of life for the Soviet people deteriorated. The public traditionally faced shortages of durable goods, but under Gorbachev, food, clothes, and other basic necessities were in short supply. Fueled by the liberalized atmosphere of Gorbachev's ''[[glasnost]]'' and by the general improvement in information access in the late 1980s, public dissatisfaction with economic conditions was much more overt than ever before in the Soviet period. The foreign-trade sector of the Soviet economy also showed signs of deterioration. The total Soviet hard-currency debt increased appreciably, and the Soviet Union, which had established an impeccable record for debt repayment in earlier decades, had accumulated sizable arrears by 1990. It did free up the arts and social sciences in the region and enabled formerly banned literature and films to be reconstructed to a degree, with filmmakers like [[Sergei Parajanov]] now out of prison.

In sum, the Soviet Union left a legacy of economic inefficiency and deterioration to the fifteen constituent republics after its breakup in December 1991. Arguably, the shortcomings of the Gorbachev reforms had contributed to the economic decline and eventual destruction of the Soviet Union, leaving Russia and the other successor states to pick up the pieces and to try to mold [[market economy|market economies]]. At the same time, the Gorbachev programs did start [[Russia]] on the precarious road to full-scale economic reform.

The failures of ''perestroika'' have led [[Alexander Zinovyev]] to coin the word ''catastroika'' ([[Russian language|Russian]] катастройка), a [[portmanteau]] of ''катастрофа'' - "[[catastrophe]]" and ''perestroika''. Zinovyev wrote: "the effect of explanatory work has appeared the return desirable. All what wished to avoid, has occurred to the double force... Queues were extended. The prices in the markets have jumped up. At home, in queues, in transport, on work, at assemblies people have openly worn the ''perestroyka''. Uncountable jokes were told. Someone has learned, that the word "''perestroyka''" is translated on the [[Greek language]] by a word "accident". On this basis a new word "''katastroyka''" has appeared. Pensioners and old members of a party have seen in ''perestroyka'' the [[counterrevolution]] and treason towards the [[Lenin]]'s cause". [[Philip Hanson]] used this word in his book, ''From Stagnation to Catastroika: Commentaries on the Soviet Economy, 1983-1991''.

==Conspiracy theories involving perestroika==

Some conspiracy theorists believe that the system of perestroika was put into place to deceive the West that Russia was friendly and that the Soviet leadership is still intact. Critics point to the fact that the many Soviet leaders were not tried for war crimes by their people after the collapse. They also point to the fact that [[Anatoliy Golitsyn]], a KGB defector to the West has successfully predicted with 94% accuracy the results of the Soviet Collapse, such as the Fall of the Berlin Wall, etc. These predictions were written in a 1984 book ''[[New Lies For Old]]'', and discussed more after the collapse of the Soviet Union in a 1995 book ''[[The Perestroika Deception]]''.

== See also ==

*[[Dakin Building]]

*[[History of the Soviet Union (1985-1991)]]

*[[Glasnost]]

*[[Demokratizatsiya]]

*[[Brezhnev stagnation]]

*[[Sumgait Massacre]]

*[[First Chechen War]]

*[[Nagorno-Karabakh war]]

*[[Georgian-Abkhaz conflict]]

*[[War of Transnistria]]

*[[Khojaly Massacre]]

== Further reading ==

* <cite>Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World</cite>, Mikhail Gorbachev, Perennial Library, Harper & Row, 1988, trade paperback, 297 pages, ISBN 0-06-091528-5

== External links ==

* [http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/Elberg/Yakovlev/yak-elb1.html Yakovlev on perestroika]

* [http://www.left-dis.nl/r/rubel.htm For a materialist vision of the perestroika - in Russian]

{{Cold War}}

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