The war in the Congo

The Socialist Party has always explained war as having its root cause within the capitalist system . It is our contention that war has always been fundamentally economic .

The blood-bath that has been taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo is no exception . Our case is supported by this article .

"The conflict in eastern Congo is being fueled and funded by a tussle for mineral resources that end up in cell phones, laptops and other electronics... Rebel militias and Congolese army troops are fighting each other for control of mineral-rich land.

"In some ways (mineral exploitation) has become the means and the ends of the conflict," said Jennifer Cooke, the director of the Africa program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in New York."There's virtually no government control over the eastern Congo and much of the conflict there is a scramble at the local level and at the regional level for access to land and the minerals underneath them."

Colin Thomas-Jensen of Enough Project, a Washington-based human rights organization stated "Basically, the rebels control the mines. They are selling them to middlemen who sell them to the next buyer and it goes up the chain. There have been instances where minerals are simply backpacked ... taken to a small airstrip and taken out of the country by a small plane and presumably sold to a small dealer across the border."

The international value of Congo's raw materials is demonstrated by a $9 billion deal between Congo's state-owned mining company and a consortium of Chinese companies to extract 10.6 million tons of copper and 626,000 tons of cobalt in return for improving infrastructure. During the 1998-2002 war, current President Joseph Kabila and his father Laurent, who was then president, sold off copper and diamond mining rights to Zimbabwe and Angola in exchange for their support.

Global Witness undertook research in the eastern area of Congo — in north and south Kivu which includes Goma — in July and August.The group said it uncovered substantial evidence of armed militias opposed to Nkunda working side by side with units and commanders of the Congolese national army, know by its acronym FARDC, in the exploitation and trade of minerals there. Global Witness found they were involved in trade as well as exploring and mining the ore.
"They have really consolidated their economic business .They have systems entrenched for doing business."

Workers to-day has nothing to fight for ( except the class war and for socialism ).

The interests of his masters are not his interests.They has no reason for fighting in his master’s interests against those with whom he has no personal quarrel. When we are robbed and the robbers fight over the booty, that fight is none of our business.

It is time the working class struggled for its own interests.