CALLS FOR STRUGGLE AGAINST DEVALUATION
[The powerful Ceylon Mercantile Union is waging a campaign against the devaluation of the rupee decreed by the Ceylonese government upon devaluation of the British pound. Under the signature of its general secretary, B.P.Tampoe, the CMU is circulating a resolution passed at a general membership meeting December 5, 1967. The text of the resolution is as follows. ]
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This General Membership Meeting of the Ceylon Mercantile Union ~
(1) Condemns the devaluation of the Ceylon Rupee whereby Imperialist and Capitalist profits from the Ceylon economy have been increased whilst the econonic hardships of the masses of the people
have been made much greater by the sharp
rise in living costs that has resulted
from the devaluation and the all-round
increase of the prices of food and other
consumer commodities;
(2) Draws attention to the fact
that the Government's own Ministers have
admitted that one of the main reasons for
the adverse balance of Ceylon's trade was
the flourishing Black Market in foreign
exchange, by the under-valuing of exports
and the over-valuing of imports, by im-
port and export traders, and calls upon
the Government immediately to take over
the import-export trade and the wholesale
distribution of all essential consumer
commodities and to bring the prices of
consumer commodities down to levels which
are within the reach of the masses of the
people;
(3) Protests against the Government's direct encouragement of all-round price increases of consumer commodities and services by its own increase of the prices of flour, sugar and fuel oils, and calls for the immediate cancellation of these increases;
(4) Declares that the limited wage increases promised to workers in the public sector and sections of workers in the private sector, and the increase in the guaranteed price of paddy by Rs.2/- per bushel will not enable the workers who receive the increases adequately to cope with their increased living costs and, in any case, will bring no relief to the vast masses of workers who work in small or poorly organised undertakings and to the vast mass of unemployed and underemployed poor in urban and rural areas;
(5) Authorises the General Council and the Executive Committee to take all appropriate steps to bring about an all-Island conference of trade unions for the purpose of formulating and presenting