World Notes SOVIET UNION

According to Marxist-Leninist dogma, Soviet workers have no reason to strike because they live in a proletarian paradise. That has not, however, stopped the working masses in the world's oldest socialist state from occasionally walking out.

Last week Moscow decided to drop the ideological baggage and proposed a new law that for the first time would allow the country's normally docile labor unions, to which more than 90% of all Soviet workers belong, the right to strike. The law is expected to be enacted later this year.

The government's action is partly a result of increased work disruptions under Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika. Last year alone brought at least 15 strikes around the country involving factory workers, miners, bus drivers and carpet weavers. Last month even the Leningrad police walked off the beat for 24 hours, demanding better working conditions.