Xref: utzoo sci.space:10327 sci.space.shuttle:2757 misc.misc:5412
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-winken!uunet!mcvax!ukc!etive!bob
From: bob@etive.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle,misc.misc
Subject: Re: Civilians in space (Was Re: First concert from space--update)
Message-ID: <1655@etive.ed.ac.uk>
Date: 29 Mar 89 15:23:46 GMT
References: <1885@randvax.UUCP> <10325@bcsaic.UUCP> <1989Mar22.054649.15822@utzoo.uucp> <3015@eos.UUCP>
Reply-To: bob@etive.ed.ac.uk (Bob Gray)
Organization: Edinburgh Concurrent Supercomputer Project
Lines: 19

In article <3015@eos.UUCP> steve@eos.UUCP (Steve Philipson) writes:
>Soviets don't have that problem (yet), and their leadership can set 
>priorities and direct efforts to accomplish them with far less in the way 
>dissent.  If they have an edge because of the differences in political 
>systems, we just have to chalk that up to part of the price of democracy.  

The first dissent is already showing.

In the recent soviet elections, Boris Yeltzin was elected to
represent Moscow with 90% of the vote. He was standing
against the official Communist party candidate.

One of his election promises is to cut the Soviet spending
on space exploration and spend the money on housing or
other public projects to improve the quality of life for the
ordinary citizen.

Sounds quite familiar.
	Bob.