The World - News from Oct. 8, 1989

A congress of 1,074 Latvian activists considered a 126-point list of goals aimed at building an independent economy and social structure in Latvia before it would secede from the Soviet Union. The program calls for a free-market economy based on private property and profit but avoids mention of popular demands for the removal of the Soviet “occupation” army. Instead, the Popular Front calls for the demilitarization of Latvia. People’s Front President Dainis Ivans and other leaders spoke against any abrupt declaration of independence during the congress, held in Riga, the republic’s capital. “We all know that no empire has given up its loot of its free will,” he said, warning that Moscow might seek to impose economic sanctions against the republic.