People's Democracy
(Weekly
Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 31
July 31, 2005
(Weekly
Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
|
Vol.
XXIX
No. 31 July 31, 2005 |
40 YEARS AGO
US Blackmail In Pakistan
A wave of indignation is sweeping through Pakistan Violent anti-US demonstrations broke out at Dacca, Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad (Sind) and other places to express the anger of the people at the US imperialists’ flagrant attempts at using economic aid as a weapon of blackmail.
Students paraded the streets of the different cities chanting slogans: "We don’t want dollars", "Yankees, go home", "Down with American imperialism." Another demand that rent the air was "Withdraw from military paets", "Quit SEATO and CENTP."
REAL FACE OF US AID
The abrupt announcement that President Johnson had asked the World Bank to postpone by two months the meeting of the Pakistan Aid Consortium, scheduled for July 27, and the report that a reappraisal of US economic and military aid to Pakistan was under way in view of Pakistan’s ties with China revealed once again the nature of US aid to backward or developing countries.
It made crystal clear that imperialist aid, even economic, is not without political strings, that it is a sort or lever to make the recipient countries toe the line the imperialists dicate. Whatever moral platitudes they may indulge in, they act on their supposed right to call the tune when they are paying the piper.
So by lending dollars to the poor and underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, they seek to create a world of satellites, an empire of the dollar, much vaster than any the world has ever seen. Economically also they have nothing to lose, for by charging interest at the rate of five to eight per cent and imposing unequal economic pacts they take back many times what they give.
Till 1961, the Pakistani ruling class pursued a policy of complete dependence on British and US imperialism: Pakistani remained a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, joined the aggressive military blocs, SEATO and CENTO, and entered into many bilateral agreements — economic and military — with the imperialists, which seriously impaired her independence and sovereignty. She allowed the US imperialists to build a military base in Peshawar.
Authentic estimates of foreign capital investment in Pakistan are not available but according to one estimate it amounts to Rs 1500 million. Foreign loans amounted in 1958 to about Rs 300 million but soared in 1964 to more than Rs 10,000 million. pakiStan became increasingly dependent on US loans and grants and the penetration of American capital went on unchecked. This inevitably retarded the independent development of Pakistan’s economy.
The imperialists allowed Pakistan to build some light tile mills but scotched all plans of setting up heavy industries like steel mills, heavy engineering and oil refineries. Essential land reforms were not undertaken and a policy of repression was pursued at home.
— People’s Democracy, August 1, 1965
