MECHANIES OF EXPLOITATION 85
terms of a different social order, which eliminates inequality and its profit calculus. According to Hartmann and Boyce only a far-reaching social reconstruction can break the fundamental barriers to increase production and at the same time ensure that the poor majority shares the fruits of development. The last section, "Us and Them", is directed to readers in the rich western world (with whom the authors identify themselves). It shows that the object of foreign aid is not to help the poor people but to keep them in a state of helplessness and poverty. This section argues further that in this exploitative process the rulers in the rich countries work hand-in-glove with the rich elite of Bangladesh so that by keeping the vast majority in a state close to starvation, the rulers in both areas can enjoy their own high standard of living. The book makes a pica to the well intentioned but ill informed silent majority of the rich capitalist countries to re-examine their own policies and try to help in at least three ways— 1) halt military and economic assistance to local elites; 2) assist as many people as possible in the Third World to mobilize the poor for development and social change; 3) educate themselves and others about ^the needless hunger of millions of people throughout the world". The book ends with the sentence that in this struggle, the poor of Bangladesh are "our" allies.
Since this book is primarily a political document, it would not be correct to dismiss its brief discussion of the economic history of Bangladesh as simplistic. It is not meant as a scholarly contribution, but as a pointer to a reader who is normally deliberately misinformed about other points of view about some general facts and their [implications. The argument of the book is not that hunger is needless, but that the hunger of the poor is an essential need of the parasitic rich in an exploitative capitalistic system. One must not be misguided by the technical possibilities and get deflected into false directions where it is argued that "more" of modern science and technology can improve the situation on the food front. Basic to this entire argument is the fact that it is the control of resources through ownership, inheritence, patronage and so on by a few that causes hunger for the many. Hunger and poverty are man-made, not nature-based. In this system hunger is an essential product of the social order; it can only be eliminated when this inequitable control over resources is eliminated and a new social order established.
The book has certain important functions to perform for a western audience. It would however be a mistake to accept it as