Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1956. január-június (5. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)

1956-03-29 / 13. szám

March 20. 1956

AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ

15

IN HUNGARY

During the past few months, Hungarians hava been going home from Austria, Prance, Belgium, It est Hermáin:, Daly, England, Sweden, Switzerland and other countries. They have returned on the basis of the amnesty granted by the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People's Republii on the anniversary of the country's liberation, April I.'//. All able-bodied repatriates have found employment in their trade or profession.

Erzsébet Barsi, who returned to Hungary from England, works as a nurse in the Vas Street Gynaecological Clinic. She left Hungary in 1949, for family reasons. Immediately on her return she found employment—in the Pajor Sanatorium, incidentally, the very same place she had worked in prior to 1949.

András Fekete, 33, has started a new life in a new town: he has settled down in Sztalinvaros after ten years abroad.- He feels ashamed of the misgivings of his first days in his new home.

Repatriates are received with sympathy at their workplaces. People go out of their way to

A DECREE of the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People’s Republic calls for a general increase in pensions. The decree calls for supplementary pensions for those on pension at this time and considerably increased grants for those retiring beginning with October 1, 1954.

According to the 1951 Pension Act every manual and intellectual worker and their dependent relatives are entitled to old-age insurance. All men over 60 and all women under 55 years of age with ten years’ employment to their credit are entitled to pensions. Those who become partially or fully disabled as a result of illness, accident or other reasons, as well as widows, orphans and other dependent family members unable to work, receive pension benefits even under the above ages.

Since the 1951 Pension Act, pensions have been raised several times, for it is the aim of the Government of the Hungarian People’s Republic to make up gradually for the omissions of the former regime and to provide adequately for all aged and disabled persons. Following the recent increment in the Spring of 1954, every man over 60 and every woman over 55 years of age received 15 per cent of wages in the form of pensions. If the old-age pensioner did not wish to retire, but desired to continue working, a higher pension was granted, equal to 30 per cent of wages, after an additional five years of service.

The present increase in pensions—w'hich went into effect in October, 1954—guarantees a pension of at least 50 per cent of wages to every man over 60 and every woman over 55 years of

MANIPULÁCIÓ A CHILEI RÉZZEL

Az egyik chilei lap — az El Siglo — nyilvánoságra hozta, hogy némely US vállalat tisztességtelen manipulációkat folytat a chilei réz árával, s ezzel jelentősen megkárosítja az országot. Miről van szó? A chilei rézbányászat, amely a világ összes réztermelésének egyötödét adja — mintegy 90 százalékban az Egyesült Államok monopóliumainak a kezében van. A két legnagyobb amerikai rézmonopólium — az Anaconda Copper Mining Co. és a Kennecot Copper Corp. — több leányvállalatának kezében összponosul a chilei rézbányák kiaknázása. A monopóliumok egy chilei törvény alapján jogot kaptak arra. hogy a kitermelt réz árát megszabják, abban az esetben, ha azt az Egyesült Államokba szállítják. Az említett vállalatok azonban visszaélnek ezzel a joggal, s csak szinleg viszik a rezet az Egyesült Államokba. Valójában Európába szállítják és ott eladják.

Ez önmagában nem is volna baj. Az Egyesült Államok jogot kapott a termékek kivitelére, s ki is viszi azokat. Ez “tisztéséges üzlet.” A ravaszmake it easier for them to adapt themselves to the new life.

HITMAN DESTINIES

Vera Markovics graduated from secondary school in 1949. Her longing for her fiance was more than she could bear, so she left the country illegally and went to Paris where they were married. There she worked in the ready-made garment trade and, in the meantime, attended and graduated from a college for textile engineers. She too is a recent repatriate and an employee of the Hungarotex Foreign Trading Company where she can make good use both of her French and her profession. She expects her husband to join her soon.

Béla Jovi, a native of Papa, western Hungary, came back after nine years service with the Foreign Legion and is now a mechanic at MAVAUT, the Bus Service of the Hungarian State Railways. István Végh, an armoured-concrete fitter in the Prefabricated Parts Factory, has returned from Salzburg, Austria, to rejoin his wife and eight-year old daughter.

Antal Babicsek, father of five children, made

age, instead of the former 15 or 30 per cent. The minimum old-age pension, however, must not be less than 500 forints a month, whatever the pensioner’s former pay. Every year spent in employment since 1945 entitles the pensioner to a supplement of 1 per cent. The new pension law considerably increases grants for the disabled, and for widows and orphans. Those disabled due to an industrial accident or occupational disease receive pensions up to 80 per cent of their former pay. Widows are entitled to the full sum of their pensions even if they work. Orphans’ allowances must be paid until the child has passed its 16th birthday, but if the child is still at school, the State pays the grant up to the age of 18. The decree also covers those who retired prior to the new law. Beginning with October 1, 1954, they have been paid supplementary pensions amounting to 25 to 30 per cent of their original pension.

The broadest sections of the Hungarian people benefit from the present increases in pensions. Over 160,000 widows and orphans receive the 25 per cent increment. There is scarcely a Hungarian family without at least one member benefiting financially from the pension increase. Thus the Presidential Council’s new decree on pensions marks an important step forward in the Government program aimed at raising the living standards of the Hungarian people.

The overwhelming part of the increase of old age pensions is the burden of the State, the working people paying only three per cent of their wages or salaries to the funds.

ság ott van, hogy a réz árát csak az Egyesült Államokban való felhasználás esetén szabhatja meg a monopólium. (S általában igen alacsonyan állapítja meg.) A chilei kormány csak erre adott .jogot. Arra azonban nem, hogy a nyers rezet külföldön is tetszés szerinti áron értékesítsék. Külföldre a világpiaci áron kellene szállítani a rezet. Ennek ellenére e vállalatok alacsony áron szállítják ki a rezet, s magasabb áron adják el a piacon.

Az El Siglo nevű lap adatai szerint a tisztességtelen utón szerzett árkülönbözetből évente több mint 60 millió dollár többlethasznot szereznek az amerikai monopóliumok.

A chilei uralkodó körök ezt tűrik — sőt támogatják az ország kirablását, A chilei kormány nemrégen csökkentette az Anaconda tröszt jövedelemadóját 50 százalékkal. Ez a gyakorlatban azt jelenti, hogy az amerikai monopóliumok még nagyobb hasznot zsebelhetnek be, s a chilei nemzeti vagyon nagyobb részét csempészhetik ki az országból. i

Az amerikai monopóliumok ilyen hivatalosan támogatott üzletei mind gyakoribbakká válnak, s ezzel jelentősen rontják Chile dolgozóinak helythe pilgrimage from western Germany to Venezuela and from there to Italy in search of a livelihood, which he has finally found in his native country. He and his three elder sons work in a shoemaker’s co-operative at Solymár, near Budapest. Babicsek and his family left the country early in 1946, at the time Hungary was in the grip of the worst inflation in history. He landed in Curacao, where he opened a shop.

“At the outset I got along somehow,” he recalls, “but then I went under. You couldn’t compere against the Venezuelan and U. S. big business. The same thing happened to many other small businessmen who lost their livelihood and went to work for wages—and, of course, at the lower wages paid to foreigners.”

COMMUNITY SPIRIT

The repatriates were greeted by happy parents or wives, and a strong and forgiving country. Of course, this happiness was not unmarred for everyone. Three to eight years of separation has ruined some marriages and some of the repatriates have returned to find empty homes and estranged children. They are victims of the war —of the armed battles or of the propaganda of the “cold war.” Now they are trying to start a new, a normal family life and they have the help of the warm community spirit of a country that is building Socialism.

Superstitious Thugs Ignore Coffin Cash

NEW YORK.—Two bandits took $349 from the pockets of Nathan coffin manufacturing officials, but ignored $694 in cash on a casket.

The Stoler brothers said they were making up the pay roll and had stocked the money on a casket. The thieves fled without touching it.

Commented one brother:

“Apparently they were superstitious.”

Politics Goes On Credit

ST. JOSEPH, Mich.—The installment plan has finally arrived on the political scene.

Rex Edmunds, chairman of a $100-a-plate “Salute-to Ike” dinner next Friday, says Republicans can attend by paying $25 down and $25 a month.

BLOOD AND GOLD

By Endre Ady

It sounds alike upon my ears:

The gasp of lust or groan of ache,

The quirt of blood or gold ashake.

I know and vouch that this is All:

And all things else I worthless hold,

But blood and gold, yea, blood and gold.

And all things die, and all things pass. Degree and song and fame and wage;

But never gold and blood assuage.

Nations decline and rise again;

And best like me are all the bold Who keep the gospel; blood and gold.

zetét. Hivatalos adatok szerint a létfenntartási költségek 1953-tól 1955 végéig több mint háromszorosra emelkedtek és a munkanélküliek száma pedig mintegy 10 százalékkal nőtt. S ennek döntően az amerikai monopóliumok fokozódó garázdálkodása az oka.

Nem véletlen, hogy az amerikai monopóliumok kizsákmányoló tevékenysége fokozódott — de az sem véletlen, hogy a chileiek ellenállása mindinkább növekszik. A napokban Chile hat vezető politikai pártja szövetségre lépett, s célul tűzte ki a népi szabadságért, a dolgozók jogaiért, az országnak imperialista kizsákmányolása ellen a minden országgal folytatott széleskörű kereskedelmi kapcsolatok helyreállításáért vívandó harcot. E politikai szövetség következetes harca gáthat vethet a chilei kormány káros politikájának és az amerikai monopóliumok tizeiméinek.

Az utolsó negyedszázad alatt az amerikai farmokon a lovak száma 23 millióval fogyott, ami lehetővé teszi, hogy az igy felszabadított földeken 90 millió ember részére termeljenek élelmiszereket.

HIGHER PENSIONS FOR ALL