This was so not only in the basic industries of coal and iron and steel but also in the advanced fields of electricity, chemicals, and internal combustion.
"We're going to organize in the basic industries of our unions: construction, hospitality, health care, retail, food production and manufacturing," said Tom Woodruff, director of strategic organizing for Change to Win, a federation of seven unions that includes the Service Employees International Union, the Teamsters and the United Food and Commercial Workers.
But how can that be compared to an elected trade union leader struggling to save one of our basic industries and the jobs of thousands of workers against a ruthless oppressive government hell-bent on massive closures and the destruction of the trade union movement?
The system made it easy for the authorities to attain a high rate of forced saving and investment and a rapid buildup of basic industries, though at the cost of neglecting for many years the elementary needs of the citizens.
The latter resulted largely from reduced employment opportunities brought about by increases in the efficiency of Saskatchewan's basic industries and the lure of jobs elsewhere, especially Alberta.
The mayor of Naples, Rosa Russo Jervolino, agrees that the city has suffered from a loss of basic industries over the past decade, but points to aerospace and high technology as areas of growth.
Insofar as the investment plans of most basic industries depended in the last resort on a quantitative estimate of future demand, the Soviet system was reasonably well adapted to making such estimates, since so much of the additional demand was a consequence of the planners' own decisions.
Mr. Benítez became the acting minister last week when the minister of basic industry, the agency that oversees the oil industry, was fired for reasons still unclear.
On this foggy day, it was nice to dine with a man who has a clear vision of basic industry and the basics of life.
