7 Days
22 December 1971
INTERNATIONAL
1971: Year of the Tottering Dollar
A ll p h o to g ra p h s D e je a n -G a m m a
HE 1971 D O L L A R C R ISIS
began and ended with wartime
reminiscences. Nixon's August
announcement of a new, tough
economic policy was greeted in
Tokyo as a financial disaster,
unexpected and incapacitating, a
"Pearl Harbour in reverse". Last
week, four months later, and
thirty years to the week after the
real Pearl Harbour attack, Nixon
agreed to
the promised de­
valuation of the dollar. News of
the devaluation, which was given
in a communique issued by
Nixon and Pompidou from the
Portugese Azores, caused the value
of the yen to rise even higher
against the dollar.
T
Meanwhile, the American city of
Seattle, home base for Boeing and the
US aircraft industry, was suffering from
mass starvation. Seattle has the highest
unemployment rate in the US, and the
supply of cash for unemployment
benefits has almost run out. But Seattle
is lucky enough to be in touch with its
“sister city” , the Japanese port o f Kobe.
Last week, just before the Azores
summit, news reached Kobe about
Seattle’s troubles. The Kobe community
immediately dispatched a planeload of
tinned food and rice noodles, which was
distributed to the unemployed of
Seattle. Further supplies of food and
money will be sent from Japan at
Christmas: a Seattle clergyman who
helped to hand out the food described
the trans-Pacific aid as very useful, and a
“symbolic expression of concern by the
Japanese people for the people here
who are hurting and hungry.”
dollar has been played for the almost
exclusive benefit o f the currency
market, with the electorates of the ten
richest capitalist democracies as a sub­
No Change in the Crisis
In Seattle, and in the other depressed sidiary audience. The finance ministers
cities o f the US, the dollar crisis has of the ten countries have flown con­
been a useless game. N ixon’s military tinually round the world, pausing every
analogies, t h e August presidential ad­ couple o f weeks in ritualised huddles.
dress to the nation, the four months of Each national press follows the fortunes
international bankers’ conferences, the of its own principal boy, the humble
but devious Barber, the aloof Giscard
Azores communique, have in no way
altered the situation of the US d’Estaing and the accommodating
econom y: it is not clear that the Mazuta, the untiring John Connally. As
confrontations
become
more
histrionics o f financial reorganisation the
have even altered the situation of the familiar, the prose o f international
financial columnists achieves new
international m oney market.
When he delivered the first oration of triumphs of metaphorical elaboration.
the present display, Nixon expressed his Connally, for example, has appeared as
pious disapproval o f currency specu­ almost every variety o f sporting figure:
lators. Since then, the drama of the a rodeo rider or a baseball heavy,
according to the cultural chauvinism of
his European audience. He is particu­
larly recognisable as a poker player,
with a talent for prize-fighting and, in
the last weeks of the crisis, a surprising
agility at ju-jitsu.
fluctuations in the value of the dollar — done rather worse than previously
only a small part of the US economy expected. The Azores communique was
involves foreign trade, and many of the a faked victory at the end of a fantastic
most important corporations operate on war: after similar tableaux with Heath,
all sides of any currency barriers. Even Brandt and Sato, Nixon’s dollar drama
Connally’s demands for inter-imperialist will be resolved.
burdening are independent of currency
Still Bad
More Show than Blow
speculation.
The four month crisis has made
The financial crisis was much more
almost no impression on the world
important as a spectacle than for its Almanach de Rota
monetary substance. Nixon needed a
After four months, the rhetorical economy. It has provided no rice
new drama this summer: the US was in force of the dollar crisis has dis­ noodles for the unemployed aerospace
a situation of domestic economic appeared. Nixon’s last act consists of workers of Seattle, and it has certainly
disaster, with an increasingly unpopular four more conferences, no longer Con­ not ended the disorganisation of inter­
commitment to the subsidy of foreign nally against the foreign financiers, but national financial relations. One of the
anti-communism. The US government head of state to head o f state. The major advantages of currency confron­
had no way to escape these con­ conferences are arranged according to a tations is that they can be reactivated at
tradictions, except at the level of strict diplomatic and geographical hier­ any convenient moment. America’s
patriotic fantasy. The depression o f US archy. Nixon will meet Brandt in dominance in the capitalist world has
business has been scarcely affected by Florida and Sato in California: as loyal not yet been affected by the mis­
allies Germany and Japan are invited to fortunes of the dollar: the crisis has
the American mainland. For Europe’s shown the present impossibility of a
contemporary Gaullists (as for Kosygin unified Japanese/European, or intraEuropean anti-American bloc. Both
and Chou En Lai), Nixon is prepared to
Germany and Japan have eagerly ac­
leave home. Heath’s appointment will
cepted the role of junior partner in the
take place in Bermuda, not far off the
The m essage of C h ris tm as is universal. W herever
defence of the free world, Germany
coast of Georgia, but a British de­
C h ris tia n s com m e m orate the birth of C h rist with carols,
with cash for NATO, and Japan with
pendency.
The
Azores,
although
nativity plays and relig ious services, it is often the rich
subsidies in South East Asia.
Portuguese, are nearer to Paris than to
im agination, sp ontaneity and clarity of young child ren's
Even Lord Carrington, defence
Washington (some official photographs
vision whic h cause adults to gain new aw areness and
minister of the rhetorically Gaullist
of
the Nixon/Pompidou
meeting
Heath cabinet, last week announced an
in spiratio n from the story of C hristm as.
featured President Gaetano of Portugal
increase in the European defence budget
In the Bantu t o w n s h ip of A tte rid geville near Pretoria, an
as an obsequious mid-ocean host, his
with
the
observation
that “the
annual C h ris tm as fu n ctio n is held by the f o u r local creches.
role possibly being as an inter-locum to
Americans ought to be very pleased
Each of the creches, Nkhensani, Boikanyong, Mina Soga,
South Africa).
and Jabulani, pro du ce items w h ic h in clu de a nativity play.
The Azores meeting was a public with what we have done”. The crisis is
In a manner cha racteristic to the Bantu, the wide eyed
triumph for Pompidou. Nixon peered over partly because of Nixon’s theatrical
enviously at the Concorde, and con­ instincts for an early finale, and partly
Bantu yo u n g s te rs bring s im p licity and devotion to their
ceded the devaluation o f the dollar. At for a much more serious reason: the
perfo rm ance of the nativity play. Few w o rd s are spoken,
the level of monetary bargaining, financial year for American corporate
and in the backgro und pure yet untrained voices are raised
Pompidou was probably less successful. accountants ends on December 31; once
in carols of joy.
Nixon and Connally may even have exchange rate fluctuations are threat­
Flights of little'angels, clad all in white, flu tte r around,
outwitted the old fox and retired ening the efficiency o f multinational
stretchin g out the ir hands in adoration and chantin g their
banker. Dollar devaluation had been book-keeping, US capital has no more
homage. Expressing t h e i r fee lin gs of joy the wise men and the
agreed upon in principle throughout the tolerance for political drama.
she ph erds com e fo rw a rd to jo in in the praise.
four month crisis. In his first August
The pattern o f jo you s excitem ent and de lig h t at a costumed
speech, Nixon implied that he had
NEW LEFT REVIEW EDITIONS
presentation of the nativity play is the same wherever it is
already decided to reduce the value of
found. T he m essage is a jo you s one; it is a tim e of
the dollar: “Let me lay to rest the
a political book club offering
A n g e ls bring glad tid in g s of the birth of C hrist.
celebration.
Ibuggaboo of devaluation . . . if you are
____
at reduced prices
among the overwhelming majority who Debray: Conversations with Allende. 70p.
THE latest issue o f R epo rt fro m S outh A fric a has a photo-feature on Bantu children perform ing a nativity play in a township
buy
American-made
products
in
Lukacs: Lenin. £1.00
outside Pretoria. The photos, captions and te x t are a sickening piece o f racism.
America your dollar will be worth as
The real c o n d itio n o f the A fric a n po p u la tio n is qu ite d ifferent. Education fo r whites is compulsory and free; fo r Africans it
Reiche: Sexuality and the Class
much
tomorrow
as
it
is
today.
The
is neither. Under 30 per cent get beyond the lower primary grades.
Struggle £ 1.35
effect of this action will be to stabilize
O fficia l statistics show tw o A fric a n children dying o f m alnutrition every 35 minutes and a m illion children chronically
and others
the dollar.” The technical arrangements
undernourished A rtic le 15 o f the ru lin g party's programme states: "T h e w hite South African duty to the native is to
for the present agreement have been
Christianise him and help him on c u ltu ra lly . Native education should be based on the principles of trusteeship, non-equality
New Left Review Editions
well-known since September, and in
and segregation. Its aim should be to inculcate the w h ite man's view o f life " . Get them to perform their Christmas play roles
exchange rate percentages France has
7 Carlisle St. London W.1.
SOUTH AFRICA:Seasona l Lies in Pretoria
"c a lm ly and p u rp o s e fu lly " and the rest w ill fo llo w .
8
7 Days
22 December 1971
INTERNATIONAL
Down Under where
the Sun is Shining
Aussies Ask:
Is M cM ahon
the M an?
HE G LU M L A D that poked
into the gnarled face of the
Leader of the Opposition a
double barrelled shotgun, pulled
the trigger at point blank range
and missed;
T
— the gliding sharks and crawling
sea-lice that ingested the eighteenth
Prime Minister;
— the proud flagship that mistakenly
rammed and sank an
Australian
battleship one moonless night in 1964,
and then mistakenly rammed and sank a
U.S. battleship one moonless night in
1968;
— the Labour Party that in the space
of six weeks expelled from its
membership not only the Prime Minister
but all of the Premiers of all of the
states;
awarded government contracts and said
it was nobody’s business but his own;
— the fat Prime Minister that on
nationwide television warbled to the
Queen of England, “I did but see her
passing by, And yet I’ll love her till I
die”;
— the lean Prime Minister that on
nationwide television vowed to Richard
Nixon, “We’ll come a-waltzing Matilda
with yo u ” ;
— and the chubby Prime Minister’s
widow that now writes an Advice to the
Lovelorn column in a Sydney evening
paper;
. . . are only a few of the ingredients
of the long Australian political tradition
of hayseed farce that the present Prime
Minister, Mr Billy MacMahon, is doing
his brittle best to keep up.
Anti-Climax
Or is it more a tradition of
swashbuckling anti-climax? Maybe the
country that can boast before the world
no better revolution than the ballsup at
the Eureka Stockade, no better battle
than the shemozzle at Anzac Cove; no
better invasion than the stealthy arrival
in Sydney Harbour of two midget
— the forthright state politician that submarines that fired off a dozen or so
one day in the Legislative Assembly shells and were promptly sunk; no
forthrightly urinated on the Speaker of better assassination than the attempt in
1867 on the then Duke of Edinburgh,
the House;
— the Speaker of the House that so that resulted in a flattened bullet, a
frequently flashed his old feller at his frayed pair of braces and an injured
ageing amanuensis that she finally called royal buttock; no better war plane than
the F i l l and no better statesman than.
the cops;
— the Minister for Immigration that Sir Robert Menzies is not particularly
offered assisted passages only to those program m ed for heroism and noble
aliens whose qualifications were below a sacrifice and national tragedy and all
those other things that are said to add
given educational standard;
— the Prime Minister that publicly spirit and stature to a maturing nation.
accused the two private secretaries of
the Leader of the Opposition o f being Billy's Rise
Russian spies, called an election, won
The rise of Billy MacMahon would
the election by two seats, and then seem to suggest this. A former amateur
announced with some relief that they boxer and professional solicitor and
natty dresser and gay young man about
weren’t Russian spies at all;
— the State Premier that bought town until his legendary bachelorhood
shares in a company to whom he then came to a sensational end at the age of
Libya's Kaddafi says,
fifty-eight when to everyone’s utter
amazement ‘ he suddenly married a
pretty thirtyish former debutante called
Sonia, he is also, it must be admitted, a
tireless office worker and an efficient
economist, but a less charismatic leader
you could hardly hope to meet.
His
small
stature
(5'7"
or
thereabouts), big ears, close-set eyes,
broken nose, bald head and wheedling
sanctimonious tone of voice, and his
loving vengefulness in the party room
(he sacked former Prime Minister John
Gorton from his cabinet for serialising
his memoirs in a Sunday newspaper
without even giving him the option of
discontinuing publication), all render
him an unlikely choice even for
caretaker president of a bowling club.
The kind of stories he tells about
himself (on the night he proposed to
Sonia, he recently confided to President
Nixon, she at first said no, but then he
sang “It was fascination I know” to her
ten times, and that made her change her
mind) display an eye for public relations
that is to say the least unique. The kind
of stories that are told about him (A
Time correspondent asked him what
were his ideas on Australia’s future. He
looked in his file under F, couldn’t find
anything, and told him he’d have to call
him back on that one) suggest a man
whose vision lacks a certain breadth.
by Bob Ellis
And yet few will doubt his craftiness.
His decision to use Royal Australian
Aircraft Bombers to fly the unionboycotted South African rugby players
into the country (in order, he said, to
keep politics out of sport) was, in
a rugbyloving country, an electorally
sound one. His master plan was to do
the same in November to the South
African Cricketers, and when the
Anti-Apartheid demonstrations reached
their peak, to call a snap election asking
for wider powers to deal with public
unrest, and to sweep in with seventy
percent o f the votes.
To sugar the pill he brought down in
August a politically generous but
financially disastrous annual budget. It
was timed to blow up in everyone’s
faces, amid galloping inflation and
catastrophic unemployment, in January
1972, or one month after he had won
the snap election. What happened,
however, was that his coalition partner
the
Country
Party
refused
to
countenance an early election in which
they would almost certainly lose seats,
and so he had to call the whole thing
off, and conscript Sir Donald Bradman
himself to cancel on the grounds of
Australia’s
deep
abhorrence
of
apartheid.
But he has been guilty of a gaffe or
two. He roundly attacked the Leader of
the Opposition Gough Whitlam for
going to Red China and seeking an
audience with Chou En-lai only two
days before President Nixon announced
that he was going to do the same. He
roundly denied the wild rumours that
America would cease the bombing of
North Vietnam two days before
America ceased the bombing of North
Vietnam. He refused, when he returned
from his honeymoon, to cuddle his wife
for the cameras on the dubious grounds
that the
honeymoon
was over.
Altogether a mixed blessing as a
political leader.
Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
Whether he will last is uncertain. The
Labour opposition’s kamikaze instinct is
considerable. They will always contrive
to lose, it is said, if it’s at all possible.
But it’s just conceivable that Billy won’t
let them this time. His popularity when
last measured stood at the unprece­
dentedly abysmal 38%, a plunge of fully
16% in only six weeks. It might plunge
lower yet. Many Australians, bored to
sobs with twenty-two years of leaden
conservative rule, are fervently hoping it
will.
"Read and Reread the Koran"
Rex
O LO N E L
KADDAFI
has
shocked the world since
coming to power in 1969.
When the Moroccan army tried to
gun the king down at his birthday
party this July, Kaddafi got on the
radio to congratulate them and
urge them to try it again. Last
week when the British government
were congratulating themselves on
their manoeuvres with Iran in the
Gulf
Kaddafi infuriated them by
seizing BP's installations.
C
But those who have hoped Kaddafi
will lead the left in the Arab world have
been equally disappointed. Soon after
the Moroccan venture, he handed over
to the Sudanese counter-revolution two
left-wing leaders whom he had removed
from a BOAC plane forced to land over
Libya. Kaddafi has also violently
attacked communists in the MiddleEast.
Despite verbal attacks on imperialism
and occasional active flourishes like the
BP nationalisation, he has passively
accepted the entry into the Arab League
of four Gulf states that are still de facto
British colonies.
Read the Koran
His basic tenet is strict adherence to
Islam, nationalist i.e. anti-communist as
well as anti-imperialist. He recently told
one visitor:
“ Read, or re-read, the Koran. You
Colonel Kaddafi invokes the Koran,
will find the answer to all your
questions. Arab unity, socialism, often-repeated thesis in the Middle East
rights o f succession, the place woman where religion retains a vitality long
ought to have in society, the since lost, if it ever existed, in Europe.
inevitable fall o f the Roman empire, It is of course based wholly on historical
the destiny of our planet after the reading into seventh-century Arab
of theses only recently
creation o f the atom ic bomb. It is all thought
there for he who knows how to read developed but it is a logical step for the
weak left in the Arab world.
the holy b ook .”
Recently an eminent Saudi exile and
In reply t o his Islamic anti-Communism,
som e Arab left-wing thinkers have oil expert, Sheikh Abdullah al-Tariqi,
argued that Islam is in fact close to addressed an open letter to Kaddafi in
Socialism.
This is an which he urged him to visit the People’s
10
his constant source o f nourishment
Democratic Republic of Yemen and see
for himself what socialism involved.
Mohammad and Mao
“You will know that Mohammad
(may the peace of God be upon him)
was the first left-wing Arab who
pursued radicalism and advocated social
justice and human rights. Mohammad,
as you all know, called for many of the
principles which Marx, Lenin and Mao
Tse-tung also called for.
If some religion-peddlers have shown
Islam to the world with an image of
repression, under which rulers have
everything and the people have nothing
they are deviationists and not Muslims”.
He urged Kaddafi to give south Yemen
the aid which it needed and which he
was rich enough to provide: “The words
of the Arab poet do not apply to you:
You have neither horses nor m oney to
give, B u t let the speech be happy, even
if the situation is n o t happy. ”
Kaddafi’s response to this letter,
printed in Tariqi’s paper Naft al-Arab
(The Arabs’ Petrol) was to put pressure
on the Lebanese government to cancel
Tariqi’s residence permit. He was
expelled from Beirut, where he had
lived and worked for over a decade. The
latest report has it that Tariqi is in
Algiers. Kaddafi may not like BP, but
he clearly doesn’t like left-wing critics
either.