Purge of party signalled

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 10

Purge of party signalled

NZPA-Reuter Moscow The Soviet leader, Mr Mikhail Gorbachev, has signalled, in a speech published yesterday, that he is aiming for a purge of conservatives from the ruling Communist Party at all levels, including the top leadership. “The ranks of party officials need renewal, a flow of fresh blood,” he told a meeting of Communist leaders from all over the country, according to a text published in the party daily “Pravda.”

“They need to be renewed at the level of the shop-floor, the district, the city, the region, the republic, the Central Committee and the Politburo,” Mr Gorbachev declared. The Kremlin chief, who combines the role of party General-Secretary and State President, was speaking at the end of what was clearly a stormy meeting marked by a growing split between officials unhappy about reform and supporters of change.

The meeting was called as the Kremlin faced what it has recognised is, a worsening economic' situation and a wave of strikes that have swept through the country’s coalfields over the past week. “If anyone still thinks we can control this aggravated situation and these intensified processes by using old methods and approaches and acting in the old way, then he has fallen into the greatest and the deepest delusion,” Mr Gorbachev said.