Bulletins and News Discussion from April 22nd to April 28th, 2024 - The Scramble For Africa: Green Edition - COTW: Democratic Republic of the Congo
Image is from this Washington Post article, which shows the Shabara artisanal mine, where cobalt and copper are dug out by hand.
This preamble got much of its information from this article in ROAPE, and this article in People's World.
Countries in the imperial core have increasingly advocated for Green New Deals, whose primary goal is to re-attract manufacturing capability to somewhat counter deindustrialization, and then export some of this renewable energy generation to other countries to gain profit. Just as the initial wave of industrialization was built on massive resource exploitation of coal and iron and then oil, this wave is being built on exploiting metals like lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements. The DRC is one of the best case studies on the planet for understanding the new dynamic.
The DRC is, to your average Western country, a resource bonanza. It is the 11th largest country by land area, and contains lithium, copper, and cobalt in massive quantities, famously containing two thirds of the world's known cobalt supplies. The Western world and their institutions swarmed the DRC like piranhas, dismantling the Congo's sovereignty over its natural resources. China was not terribly involved in the privatisation process, but has stepped in to benefit from the West's work - Chinese corporations account for 40% of the production of major Congo cobalt projects (and 15 out of 19 cobalt mines), with Switzerland at 30% via Glencore, and Kazakhstan at 22%. The US, for whatever reason, withdrew from majority ownership of some projects in the mid-2010s, but is now anxious about China's position in the cobalt markets. Western countries in general have spent their time lately drawing up critical minerals strategies both to keep capitalism chugging along in their own countries, and attempt to weaken China, which invariably involves the Congo.
The Congo has attempted to resist imperialist encroachment. In 2018, the Kaliba administration asserted a new Mining Code which raised tax and royalty rates and increased state ownership in mining firms from 5% to 10%, and these changes were bitterly resisted by the West right to the end. Since 2019, under the Tshisekedi administration, the government established the state-owned EGC, which sought to take control over the processing and export of artisanal and small-scale cobalt production, which comprises 5-15% of cobalt production in the Congo. More recently, Tshisekedi is planning to move up the manufacturing chain - instead of merely mining cobalt, they want to refine it there and then make electric vehicle batteries and other such products with it, which would be an industry worth trillions of dollars. But so far, there hasn't been much movement away from having mining exports as the backbone of the economy, and it's doubtful that plans to just keep doing this until they get rich enough to build refineries and factories will work. The profits mostly go to Western countries and have failed to produce significant benefits for Congolese workers, nor resulted in the emergence of domestic industries so far. Reforms will help a little, but only a little, and they remain fundamentally constrained by the markets and the whims of the West.
Meanwhile, war and mass displacements have put immense stress on the country. There are 7.1 million displaced people in the DRC due to various conflicts and mass displacements - most recently, the war between the Congolese army and M23. Hundreds of thousands of people continue to be displaced every few months, and across the whole country, over 26 million require humanitarian aid. 6 million people have died in the eastern DRC in the last three decades, with hundreds of armed groups, both domestic and foreign, battling for resources and territory.
The COTW (Country of the Week) label is designed to spur discussion and debate about a specific country every week in order to help the community gain greater understanding of the domestic situation of often-understudied nations. If you've wanted to talk about the country or share your experiences, but have never found a relevant place to do so, now is your chance! However, don't worry - this is still a general news megathread where you can post about ongoing events from any country.
The Country of the Week is the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Feel free to chime in with books, essays, longform articles, even stories and anecdotes or rants. More detail here.
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section. Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war. Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language. https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one. https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts. https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel. https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator. https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps. https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language. https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language. https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses. https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Right-wing extremism signifies a setback for democracy, as it represents an advancement of racism and xenophobia, said the Brazilian President.
On Tuesday, Brazilian President Lula da Silva said that he wishes to promote a meeting of progressive leaders within the framework of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to discuss a joint "confrontation" to the rise of the far right in the world.
Lula has already proposed his idea to the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and the French President Emmanuel Macron. He will discuss it with other progressive leaders before the UNGA meeting scheduled for September in New York.
The Brazilian president ensured that the phenomenon of the far right "is global" and signifies "a setback for democracy," as it represents an advancement "of racism, xenophobia, and a 'culture agenda' that targets minorities."
Lula particularly highlighted the rise of the far right in Europe and the United States, a country he said was "a symbol of democracy" and which in January 2022 suffered a violent attack on the Capitol, promoted by activists aligned with the ideas of former President Donald Trump.
He compared the events at the Capitol with the assault on the headquarters of the three branches of government in Brazil in January 2023, carried out by followers of the far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, who did not accept his defeat in the elections.
Democratic leaders "cannot allow the denial of all institutions that were created to uphold democracy" to prevail and must unite against an extremist movement for which "what matters most is falsehood," Lula pointed out.
In this context, he framed his proposal for a meeting of progressive leaders during the UNGA, where he believes "how to collectively confront" the growth of the far right should be discussed.
Strange as it may seem. Macron is a close ally of Lula in the West, and is more reliable than Scholz (I think he sanctioned selling guns to Brazil because Lula was mean to Zelensky or whatever) and Biden (Biden is a horrible president but he does have an interesting relation with Brazil, he was the person to give the CIA documents proving that the US was behind the 1960's coup in Brazil to Lula's sucessor, President Dilma. And he refused to support any coup attempt by Bolsonaro). I guess Spain and Portugal are pretty close too, but these are also socdem goverments. Macron hates Bolsonaro, especially after Bolsonaro called Macron's wife ugly and other rude things.
Macron invited Lula as soon as he got out of prison for a meeting in France. Lula received the treatment of a head of state, basically isolating Bolsonaro.
In addition, during Lula's government (2003 - 2010), France became a close military and political ally of Brazil. France has helped Brazil develop its nuclear submarine, and France has interests in Brazil's uranium. And France has always been a strong advocate of Brazil gaining a seat on the UN Security Council.
And they share a border and Macron was invited to the meeting to discuss how to preserve the Amazon with other South American countries.
Critical suport to Lula da Silva for being a socdem and other things. But you can't deny his enormous influence in Brazil and the Global South. It's practically a miracle that he was elected president when everything and everyone was against him, with the exception of the left and some older liberals and conservatives.
Bolsonaro rigged the election and still lost, his coup attempts failed and his party's attempts to shut down the government failed, despite being the largest party in Congress due to vote fraud and intimidation. As Lula da Silva himself said: “If they kill me, I will become a martyr. If they release me from prison, I will become president”.
It's practically a miracle that he was elected president when everything and everyone was against him
he was just the figurehead of the liberal side of the bourgeoisie, which at that time was fighting the more openly fash wing for hegemony
i'm ok with it, i'm just saying... the fascists were against him. the liberals were not, and were, in fact, in their majority, helping him out
i think sometimes we equate liberals to fascists too easily. liberals don't like fascism. it's disorganized, unpredictable, it has a distorted "popular movement" tinge to it that makes it way too volatile. it's a weapon they might use, and usually do use, but when facing serious threats. but lula was an open ally, not a threat, and proved to be the only electoral option for the bourgeoisie (which they happily used, or the fascists would eat them up)
edit: it's funny, but lula had always tried to be accepted by brazilian capitalists, and yet they were always going after him, to the point of putting the guy in jail and shit. then it took bolsonaro for lula to get the embrace that he'd always wanted
wasn't trying to gotcha so much as keep things straight. I am shocked that it was two years between USA's Jan 6th and Brazil's Jan 8th, really thought it was the following year
I believe it's because Bolsonaro tried many coups during 2022. Just before Lula's victory, there was an event where Bolsonaro tried to hold a rally in Brazil's main Catholic cathedral to get support from the Catholic church. But the archbishop refused to let him in and gave a speech during the sermon in which he practically attacked Bolsonaro and his government, calling it a government of misery and hunger. Bolsonaro's supporters were furious and tried to break in and throw beer in the church. Lula has high approval ratings among Catholics (and religious syncretist groups) in Brazil, as do members of his government.
And after Lula's victory, there was an attempted invasion of the Brazilian Federal Police in 2022. I don't remember why, but I think the Bolsonaro supporters were angry because the Federal Police had arrested some people close to Bolsonaro or something. They burned buses and were repressed by the police.
Oh he didn't just propose it, they created one. It seems more like it has become an event aimed at preventing historical revisionism of ww2 rather than addressing fascism in the here and now.
I know like half of my posts are just grievance about shit happening on Reddit but it is very something to see an actual head of state of a large nation outright say "international fascism is real and we need to stop it". Tired of being yelled when i state something so appallingly obvious.