Page 157 - Mellinato, Giulio, and Aleksander Panjek. Eds. 2022. Complex Gateways. Labour and Urban History of Maritime Port Cities: The Northern Adriaticin a Comparative Perspective. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 157
Workers of the Port of Koper and the Economic Reform Period in 1960s Slovenia
ed reforms; he would go on to become President of the Executive Council
(EC, ‘prime minister’) of the SRS (1967–1972). His reputation in Slovene
historiography is that of the key figure of the 1960s ‘liberalism’ move-
ment (Repe 1990, 47; 1992; 2003, 272–83). In an unpublished 1971 inter-
view, Milovan Djilas, the renowned revolutionary and Tito’s close associ-
ate before falling out of favour with him and ending up in prison, praised
Kavčič as ‘the first modern statesman in Yugoslavia: smart, rational in
spirit and not an ideological mystic’ (Košir 2016).
Kavčič’s mission to Koper was essentially all about explaining the
new ‘rational spirit’ of socialism and demonstrating resentment towards
any remaining traces of ‘ideological mysticism’. Kavčič received no few-
er than 27 questions in advance from ‘the leading communists’ responsi-
ble for the local economy. One question was a little provocative, since it
addressed the issue of the ‘depoliticization’ of the economy, namely, how
should communists conduct their activities in the new situation? In oth-
er words: should the Party be kicked out of the companies? Kavčič was
careful enough not to answer directly. In his opinion, the Party was to be
the bearer of and fighter for the new way of thinking. But the core of his
argument was an affirmation of the law of value – supply and demand in
the socialist economy. In other words: the market and competition with
as little state intervention as possible. No federal investment funds, but
banks looking to finance profitable projects. Companies should deposit
as much of their resources as they could with the banks and receive inter-
est as income, which they could even divide among the workers: ‘Banks
should simply evolve into companies that collect incomes.’ As simple as
that. Kavčič even summed up the most up-to-date thinking of reform-
ers regarding foreign investments in the Yugoslav economy, not only in
the form of loans, but also through direct investment. Lastly, he said that
prices should be fixed for a very small number of commodities (such as
bread and grain), with all others regulated by the market itself. Since the
Slovenian costal region had recently experienced a considerable influx of
western tourists, the locals were very interested in keeping the foreign
currency for themselves instead of depositing it with the federal bank.
No problem, said Kavčič: the dinar will eventually become a convertible
currency, so hoarding liras, marks, and dollars will become irrelevant.
And of course, Kavčič was staunchly against any equalization of personal
incomes: ‘Those who are more competent, with higher intellectual poten-
tial and possessing creativity, must be entitled to a pay raise in a reason-
157
ed reforms; he would go on to become President of the Executive Council
(EC, ‘prime minister’) of the SRS (1967–1972). His reputation in Slovene
historiography is that of the key figure of the 1960s ‘liberalism’ move-
ment (Repe 1990, 47; 1992; 2003, 272–83). In an unpublished 1971 inter-
view, Milovan Djilas, the renowned revolutionary and Tito’s close associ-
ate before falling out of favour with him and ending up in prison, praised
Kavčič as ‘the first modern statesman in Yugoslavia: smart, rational in
spirit and not an ideological mystic’ (Košir 2016).
Kavčič’s mission to Koper was essentially all about explaining the
new ‘rational spirit’ of socialism and demonstrating resentment towards
any remaining traces of ‘ideological mysticism’. Kavčič received no few-
er than 27 questions in advance from ‘the leading communists’ responsi-
ble for the local economy. One question was a little provocative, since it
addressed the issue of the ‘depoliticization’ of the economy, namely, how
should communists conduct their activities in the new situation? In oth-
er words: should the Party be kicked out of the companies? Kavčič was
careful enough not to answer directly. In his opinion, the Party was to be
the bearer of and fighter for the new way of thinking. But the core of his
argument was an affirmation of the law of value – supply and demand in
the socialist economy. In other words: the market and competition with
as little state intervention as possible. No federal investment funds, but
banks looking to finance profitable projects. Companies should deposit
as much of their resources as they could with the banks and receive inter-
est as income, which they could even divide among the workers: ‘Banks
should simply evolve into companies that collect incomes.’ As simple as
that. Kavčič even summed up the most up-to-date thinking of reform-
ers regarding foreign investments in the Yugoslav economy, not only in
the form of loans, but also through direct investment. Lastly, he said that
prices should be fixed for a very small number of commodities (such as
bread and grain), with all others regulated by the market itself. Since the
Slovenian costal region had recently experienced a considerable influx of
western tourists, the locals were very interested in keeping the foreign
currency for themselves instead of depositing it with the federal bank.
No problem, said Kavčič: the dinar will eventually become a convertible
currency, so hoarding liras, marks, and dollars will become irrelevant.
And of course, Kavčič was staunchly against any equalization of personal
incomes: ‘Those who are more competent, with higher intellectual poten-
tial and possessing creativity, must be entitled to a pay raise in a reason-
157
