Tanzania and the World Bank Group: socialism and self-reliance?

Abstract

Foreign aid plays an important role in the extension and expansion of the world capitalist market. Multilateral aid in particular reflects the progression toward the centralisation and concentration of capital on an international level. The World Bank Group is now the key foreign aid agency. It is a capital fund rather than a hank, providing funds for development projects. Since 1968 the Bank Group has altered its strategies. Its lending for infrastructural projects has decreased and its lending for agricultural projects has increased dramatically. The Group's concern here is to develop export crop production. A double process is at work. First, the Group seeks to develop capitalist enterprise. Second, it is experimenting with various schemes to increase production and productivity. Tanzania is one of the testing grounds. An apparent paradox exists: Tanzania's political leaders claim to be initiating socialist policies for development, yet the so-called radical initiatives have been deflected by local kulaks and a bureaucratic structure which seeks to draw state power to the bureaucrats. These bureaucrats collude with Bank Group staff to increase agricultural production, especially export cash crops. Notwithstanding this collusion, a class struggle continues, but the degree of Bank Group manipulation can he gauged by the fact that the experiments continue. The Bank Group controls the purse strings and despite Nyerere's claim to seek self-reliance, Tanzania is heavily dependent on the World Bank Group.