Word: plenum
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Given these problems and challenges, it is not surprising that the Vietnamese leadership has been alarmed by the startling and rapid changes in Eastern Europe. But political reforms were emphatically rejected earlier this month in a closed session of the 8th plenum of Vietnam's Communist Party. While the plenum promised to revitalize the party's frayed relations with the people, it also fired an outspoken liberal member of the Politburo, Tran Xuan Bach. That leaves only one liberal in the 13-member ruling body, Foreign Minister Nguyen Co Thach...
...these critics are taking their cue from the almost apocalyptic way in which many Soviets are talking about their own troubles. Perestroika, said Vladimir Brovikov, a delegate to the Communist Party plenum in February, "for five years has brought us into crisis, anarchy and economic decay." Still, it is worth remembering that dissatisfaction in the Soviet Union, while real and legitimate, is wired into two new amplifiers: glasnost (outspoken letters to the editor of Pravda) and demokratizatsiya (outspoken delegates to the Supreme Soviet...
...conservatives exacted their revenge on the last day of the plenum when the question of how to deal with wayward Lithuanian party members came up. Gorbachev struck a conciliatory tone, urging his Lithuanian comrades to suspend their decision to break away from Moscow headquarters and submit their program for the consideration of the party congress this summer. The central party ought to render assistance to Lithuanian party members who remain loyal, he said, but accept delegates from both the regular and breakaway groups to this summer's congress...
Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze took an even bolder line, urging the plenum to understand the Lithuanian moves "in the context of European and world affairs." Said he: "I am resolutely against any sanctions." That was certainly not the view of Ligachev and other party veterans. They pushed for a change of wording that would "condemn the actions of the incumbent leadership of the Lithuanian party, aimed at splitting and weakening the unity of the Communist Party and the Soviet federation." A compromise was fashioned, incorporating the criticisms of the Ligachev camp and Lithuanian party loyalists...
Given the rapid pace of change, Ligachev's small victory last week may prove to be his last stand. Gorbachev has called another plenum for next week to discuss how to conduct party elections. The General Secretary is determined to push ahead with a complete renewal of local party organization before early summer to prevent hard-line holdovers from stacking the delegations to the policy-setting congress. As he noted in his concluding remarks to the plenum, "It is inadmissible to tarry now. It is necessary to take the lead in stormy and complicated processes...