'Paper gold' illusion hits the

dust RUNAWAY inflation is undermining any prospect of international agreement to tackle the monetary and trade crisis of the capitalist world.

This is sharply demonstrated by the dispute which has broken out on the International Monetary Fund over the issue of special drawing rights for 1973.

The basic reason for the disagreement is that the wealthy metropolitan capitalist countries have more paper money than they can cope with, while former colonies and semi-colonies are virtually bankrupt.

The big powers want no more SDRs issued for at least two years, while the poor countries want a full quota of $3,000mworth issued on January 1. They need them to pay their debts to the imperialist powers.

The imperialists, however, are against the creation of new inflationary paper credits simply to allow their debtors to pay off some of their obligations.

Like Nixon in Vietnam they want to extract their debts in blood from the colonial workers and peasants. The savage and barbaric bombing of North Vietnam is an indication of the fate awaiting any people which dares to defy imperialism.

The failure to agree on the issue of new SDRs is a crippling blow to this new monetary unit. SDRs are less than five years old. They were conceived only in 1968 in the aftermath of the sterling devaluation and the run on the US gold reserves.

They were supposed to replace gold, which was regarded by liberal pundits as a relic of barbarism which could only cause crises and conflict and ought to be phased out.

The geniuses who organized this inflationary scheme, however, were unable to foresee what would happen to their new According to the 'Financial Times', the authors of the SDR scheme provided for various contingencies, allowing membercountries to opt for fresh creation of SDRS, zero creation or even cancellation of some of the units they had issued.

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PAGE 2-Workers Press, Friday December we HOWARD HUGHES, the multi-millionaire hermit, has taken up residence in Park Lane. His own suite is costing £49 a night. That is more than gas workers earn in two weeks. It's peanuts to Mr Hughes—he's estimated to be worth between £800m to £1,000m.

r Hughes is a most unimpressive individual. His attempt at a political career was a shambles, his efforts at film direction were laughable and the majority of his business interventions ended in misfortune. it Mr Hughes surrounded himself with men who had finer financial brains than his own. Whenever Hughes boobed, they were there to pick up the pieces. True Mr Hughes became a billionaire and his closest advisers became humble millionaires.

ice 1956 the eccentric Mr Hughes has been living in complete seclusion while the money has continued to roll in. Today, whenever he travels, he takes his circus of armed security men and medical and scientific advisers. (Hughes is terrified of germs-'They're everywhere' (1) and he also believes the world is under the constant threat of an Armageddon.) lortly after midnight on Tuesday this individual arrived at Gatwick Airport. It is normal custom that overseas visitors pass through the health and immigration procedures. (Health seemed particularly important as Hughes had flown from Nicaragua where the earthquake had presented the possibility of a typhoid outbreak.) st so for Mr Hughes. His visit here has been marked by the most obscene bowing and scraping by all the agencies of the state. The Special Branch met him at the airport and chaperoned him to his hotel. The stiff immigration ritual—which hours earlier had detained Hughes's compatriot Tom Hayden for almost three hours-was waived. Hayden had a US passport, Hughes doesn't possess any passport at all. It was then revealed that the Home Office and immigration authorities had been forewarned of Hughes's arrival and had 'agreed to co-operate in giving maximum secrecy. le capitalist Press began flocking to the Inn on the Park to worship the Great Man living on the ninth floor. The fire brigade rushed to the scene to make sure that all the safety equipment was in good operational order. le merchant bankers, N. M. Rothschild and Sons, who handle Hughes's British affairs made the bookings and asked the hotel staff for the utmost co-operation in looking after their client. When a cleaning woman went to the vicinity of Suite 901 she found herself being accompanied up and down the carpet by two well-heeled security men. (These Hughes 'heavies' also appear to have entered Britain without It is not a racial simply watching what money can society. normal immigration procedure followed.)

The vast security arrangements and the gigantic fawning to Hughes are nothing more than an obscene exhibition of worship of wealth. When Hughes moves from one secret destination to the next one sees the power of this wealth expressing itselt. Government departments make special exemptions, the police offer extra precautions, the banking fraternity make all their facilities available. le liberals are bleating in the Press that if Hughes can enter the country so freely, why can't coloured citizens. They've missed the point. If Hughes was black he would get precisely the same armchair service he got two days ago.

question. We are on a grand scale buy in a capitalist