Speech #1000151664

The "End of the Year Editorial" in the "Refusenik Update" Union of Councils for Soviet JewsJanuary 8. 1988concludes that while the week of December 6. 1987. marked a major turning point for the Soviet Jewry movement. this new year 1988 calls for revised assumptions and new strategies: The historic outpouring of almost a quarter of a million American demonstrators to Washington to demand freedom for Soviet Jews was a powerful mandate. But. as the week of the summit went on. it became clear that merely "raising" the human rights issue by the American people. segments of the American press. and the administration is insufficient to produce any significant movement. More telling. the prospect of a 1987 summit clearly failed to persuade the Soviets. during 1987. that the American price for improved relations would depend on high and sustained levels of Jewish emigration. The modest increase in exit visas this past year (8.155) is in stark contrast to the comparable period of warming relationship In the late 1970s that culminated. in 1979. in the emigration of more than 51.000 Soviet Jews. Indeed. our government fostered the impression that expanded trade would be high on the United States agenda irrespective of progress In the field of emigration or Soviet failure to comply with the Helsinki accords and other human rights agreements. This signal to the Soviets was made evident by the involvement of the U.S. Department of Commerce in facilitating Qorbachevs meeting with leading American industrialists on the last day of the summit. Most important * * * for the first time. the Soviets began to strictly enforce the first degree relative invitation limitation. Without much question they are signaling a firm bar to application by the vast majority of the 400.000 Jews wishing to emigrate. Accordingly. as we face 1988 and beyond. the UCSL will continue to develop and press for more active intervention and linked negotiation on behalf of Soviet Jews both by our government and by the very Americans who demonstrated their commitment on December 6 in Washington. We call upon the Department of State. and the Congress. to work with us In developing more effective economic tools for negotiating improved soviet human rights performance. and ask the business community as well. to recall that they and their stockholders are Americans. committed by tradition and law to human rights.