26 SOCIAL SCIENTIST made it impossible for many consumers to lift their allotment. The steel plants had accumulated stocks amounting to 3.5 lakh tonnes. Hindustan Steel alone had piled up one lakh tonnes against allocations. Left and Democratic Unity These are indications of a full-fledged crisis maturing in the wake.of inflation and official attempts to curb it. The so-called anti-inflationary measures of the government in the shape of credit squeeze and other steps are only exacerbating the crisis and throwing its burden on the common man through increased closures and loss of employment. These are just the beginnings before a full-fledged crisis has broken out in the West. With the shortage of food and enforced grain imports, India will be more closely linked witli the western economies, importing more inflation in the bargain. The indications are quite clear that the indigenous crisis is going to be ten times compounded by this economic dependence. A desperate effort is therefore under way to solve it at the expense of the masses and working people. The instrument of this solution is a direct attack on the living standards of the people, enforced starvation, barbaric terror as against the railway workers and erosion of every norm of democracy. The dangers to the democratic rights of the people under the stress of the crisis are real and cannot be ignored. Broad-based democratic unity—unity of the left and democratic parties—is essential to meet the menacing political and economic effects of the world crisis. 1 Karl Marx, Capital, Vol III, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1966, p 249. 2 Ibid., p 250. a Ibid., p 244-245. 4 Annual Report of tlie International Monetary Fund, Washington, D C. s Ibid. 6 National City Bank, Monthly Lstfer, March 1960, quoted by E Varga in Politico-Economic Problems of Capitalism, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1968, p 236. 7 Victor Perlo, "Economic Problems of the United States", International Ajfaris 4 April 1974 p 17. a "An Indictment of Impel lalism", Problems of Peace and Socialism 5, May 1974 p 162. 9 J M Keynes, General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Macmillan, London 1967 p264. I ® Ibid., pp 267-268. II lona Andronov, "Wall Street, Inflation and the White House" New Times 36, September 1974, p 8. 3 2 K Vetrova, "Capitalist Countries: Exploitation by Taxation15, International Affairs 8, August 1974, p 154. ^ Newsweek, September 23, 1974. 3 4 Commence, August 24, 1974.