Aid as Imperialism: Teresa Hayter, Penguin Books, 1971. 30p. Pp. 222, index.
Between 1963 and 1968 Teresa Hayter was employed by the Overseas Development Institute Ltd., which describes itself as "an independent non-government body aiming to ensure wise action in the field of overseas development" (such is the motto which appears on all its publications). In fact, ODI is financed by the Ford Foundation, by British firms with stakes in underdeveloped countries, and, on occasions, by the World Bank and Foundations like Nuffield and Rockefeller. ODI's "independence" obviously has limits, defined by the aims and interests of those who finance it. A slightly pink tinge here and there, a few tame liberals, do not matter-add, indeed, to the fiction of "independence". But any substantial betrayal of those aims and interests is altogether different. Sensible recruiting minimises the possibility of such betrayal. Teresa Hayter's book shows, happily, that recruiting can never be perfect and that "false consciousness" can give way to a truer perception of reality. But can one really expect betrayal to be tolerated when it takes place? Certainly not. Teresa Hayter's experienice revealed the hard, angry face of the paymaster behind the liberal facade.
During her employment at ODI Teresa Hayter wrote a book on French Aid, which displayed a suitable adherence to ODi principles. ODI duly published it. She subsequently embarked upon a study of the World Bank's role in Latin America, financed by the World Bank. The stage seemed set for a repeat performance. One does not, after all, finance a biography which will make one seem nasty. Imagine the horror at ODE and in Washington, when the expected public relations exercise turned out to be something very different. The king, it was unequivocally stated, wears no clothes. "Wise action in the field of overseas development" is not to be ensured, apparently, by the revelation of unsavoury truths, even if the central truth is. that present action is stunting rather than promoting development. After pressure from the World Bank and unsuccessful attempts by the Director of ODI, Mr. Anthony Tasker, by ODI's Director of Studies, De. Tom Soper, and by various other ODI officers to persuade Teresa Hayter to play the game and reclothe the king. ODI refused to publish, The present book consists of a brief but effective Foreword by R. B. Sutcliffe, in which the book is placed in its general context; a Preface by Teresa Hayter, in which one can see that her demystification has proceeded rapidly since she wrote ber study for the last decade or so. Aid is one of the mechanODI, the text, which was rejected by ODI; and an Appendix entitled The Birth and Death of an ODI Study", in which is documented, from communications and memos written by the people involved, the sordid business of the book's rejection by ODI of a cause celebre. The exchanges over the book continue. In the most recent letter publiched in The Times (28 April 1971), Donald Tyorman, "a member of the Executive Committee of the Overseas Development Institute since it was founded" (his own words), denies the charge. of prejudice and dishonesty. As a "former editor: of an independent newspaper" (The Economist, as it happens) he would, he tells us, have respon ded to World Bank pressure by publishing, whatever the cost-"provided the copy was worth publishing". One trembles at the farce, not to say reckless, integrity of Donald Tyerman and his fellow members of the Executive Committee. Alas, it could not be seen in full, seismic operation. For Teresa Hayter's manuscript did not measure up to rigorous ODI standards:
"But we could not [publish it], for simple reasons which have nothing to do with politics or pressure. Its judgements, we had reluctantly to decide, were not derived from the evidence adduced; its findings were not findings for the most part, but assertions."
And the final sting:
'"That may very well do for a readable and successful Penguin book; it would not do for an ODI study."
How humble must be the shade of Sir Allen Lane before such Olympian fastidiousness.
Certainly, few of the many ODi studies published so far bave been readable, and none, to my knowledge, has been successful. To that extent Teresa Hayter has broken with a well. established ODi tradition. However, to give as a reason for not publishing that the book's "Tindings were not findings.. but assertions", is surprising, since this, I would have thought, is the differentia specifica of ODI publications If It were a valid representation the book would be very much in the ODI tradition, with the difference that it said extremely embarrassing things about the World Bank. But it is not valid The book is well-argued and convincing. To say that there was no yielding to World Bank pres sure is, on the hard evidence adduced in Teresa Hayter's Appendix, plain nonsense. Of course, its non-publication by ODI had everything to do with "politics and pressure" and with ideology. The Appendix is the more effective for the calm, almost clinical way in which the episode is chronicled. The World Bank emerges as a ruthless and determined organisation, and ODI with its liberal posturings and conscience-salving double-talk as a pathetic satellite.
But what must be our objective assessment of Teresa Hayter's book? It would be foolish to react to statements such as Donald Tyerman's by claiming that the book is definitive and beyond eriticism. Teresa Hayter herself does not do so. That it is worthy of publication, in an ODI series or anywhere clio, is beyond doubt. For it to have languisbed under the ODI imprint, Indeed, would have been most unfortunate. Its honesty shines out. Teresa Hayter does not, however, tall us anything that is substantially new. She is the first to set out in extenso and systematically truths about the nature of foreign ald which have become gradually more clear in isms of neo-colonialism; it is used, pervasively. to influence the economic policies of recipients; it is a means of supporting particular kinds of political regimes. "Leverage" has attempted to secure financial stability at the cost of development; has subordinated recipients' interests to The whole matter has now become something those of donors (mainly those of the USA); has tried to prevent far-reaching changes in the economics, politics and social structures of a wide range of societies. All of this Teresa Hayter shows through ber account of the acti vities in Latin America of three organisations involved in the aid-giving process: IMF, the World Bank and AID. It is invaluable to bave ber orderly study and her fascinating Appendix. The story is, however, well known. Like Oliver Twist, one wants more: more information, more analysis, more political economy.
Teresa Hayter tells us, in her Preface:
"The study is basically a liberal critique of aid policies. It developed into an attempt to expose the inconsistencies and conflicting motivations of these policies. But, at the time when I wrote it, I was far from demystified. " (p.11)
The Preface, indeed, could have been written by an altogether different Teresa Hayter from the one who wrote the text. What, then, are the weaknesses of the liberal critique? Teresa Hayter herself identifies one: "the assumption that the well-being of the peoples of the Third World was, or at least could become, the primary consideration in aid policies " (p. 11) Thisis, surely, valid self-criticism. Such an assumption, as Teresa Hayter is well aware, must lend a particular bias to any analysis. In one sense she transcended this, in choosing to focus upon "leverage". But the stigmata are there for us to see. The book's title is something of a misnomer, since nowhere in the text is explicit account taken of the nature, the roots, and the modus operandi of contemporary imperialism (or neo-colonialism, as it is alternatively called), Indeed, imperialism is not, I think, mentioned in the text itself. Equally, the study would have gained breadth and power from some awareness of the contradictions of moder advanced capitalism, from thoroughgoing use of the concapts of exploitation and economic surplus, from some consideration of incipient capitalism in the countries of Latin America, and from a more rigorous account of the relationship between aid and the other mechanisms of neo-colonialism (Le. trade and private foreign investment) It is not that the admitted assumption leads to the exclusion of such concepts, but rather that innocence of the concepts, in the first place, permits the assumption to be made.
In his admirably lucid, succinet and forceful Introduction R. B. Sutcliffe stresses the need "searching and sensitive inquiry, supported by a sophisticated analysis of the political mechaniens at work " (p.6) in any analysis of the nature, impact and operation of foreig ald. Absolutely so. He then argues that Teresa Hayter has supplied this. I do not think that she has, and her own self-criticism admits as much. To be sure, she comes far nearer than do most writers on aid. There are throughout the book numerous hints. Hence the annoyance of the World Bank and IMF, the pressure on ODI, and the suppression of the study. One misses, however, a searching analysis of the motives of and conflicts among the aid. givers, of the classes which are supported by and benetit from aid, of the relationship between such classes and their governments, of the pressures within and the internal working of the three organisations studied.
This is not the place to go into detail on these issues. What one would welcome, however is a text from the new, demystified Teresa Hayter: as self-oonfident, as hard and as much to the point as the is in her very short Preface Let us hope that it will not be long in coming. Lat Teresa Hayter's present book be the beginning.
The Red Mole, 15th June 1971, Page 5