CEYLON TROTSKYIST STATEMENT ON DEVALUATION OF RUPEE
{The following statement was issued by the Political Bureau of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary) on November 25, 1967.]
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The government's devaluation of the Ceylon rupee has already had the effect of:
(1) Boosting rupee profits of tea and rubber exporters in Ceylon.
(2) Raising the price of flour, sugar and petrol directly and of various other commodities of mass consumption indirectly, thus striking a severe blow at the already lowered consumption levels of the masses of the people.
It is clear that the government's decision was taken on the instructions of imperialist finance-capital, such as the U.S.-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The prime minister's statement reveals that the government considered that it had no other alternative but to devalue the rupee if it was to receive further loans and aid from these imperialist sources.
Furthermore, the government's own statement on the devaluation makes it clear that the fact that the export trade and the import trade are largely in the hands of British and Indian capital makes it doubtful even whether the increased rupee profits of these vested interests will be invested for development in Ceylon without being taken abroad in various ways.
In the circumstances, the govern-
ment's decision to devalue the Ceylon
rupee must be denounced as an act which
is against the interests of the Ceylonese
people and in the interests of imperial-
ist finance-capital as well as foreign
and local capitalist vested interests in
the export trade in Ceylon.
What is involved in the current
crisis is the question whether Ceylon's
people should continue to submit to blow
after blow upon them by a government
serving the alliance of imperialist and
Ceylonese capital or should unite to re-
sist these blows and to fight for the
overthrow of this alliance.
What the LSSP(R) considers neces-
sary is not to make appeals to the govern-
ment to resign but to mobilise the masses
for action against the government and to
demand and fight for the state take-over
of the export trade as well as of the im-
port trade and wholesale distribution of
all major consumption items of the popu-
lation.
The LSSP(R) calls upon all mass
organisations in the country which wish
to strike a blow in defence of the peo-
ple and for the freedom of Ceylon from
imperialist domination of its relations
with the rest of the world to get to-
gether for common action against the
government now on this issue.
The people will undoubtedly re-
spond massively and enthusiastically
for such action.
CEYLON UNION