Activists march from Philadelphia City Hall to an Apple store in solidarity with the movement to free Congo

Over a century of imperialist exploitation of Congo’s natural resources and labor has left the people in poverty and experiencing human rights violations, while billionaires have reaped huge profits.

A group of international lawyers, on behalf of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), sent a letter in April to Apple’s CEO, charging that minerals used to make its products are mined illegally in the country under abusive conditions and then smuggled out by armed groups.

The letter includes this charge: “The iPhones, Mac computers and accessories that Apple sells to its customers around the world rely on supply chains that are too opaque and that are tainted by the blood of the Congolese people.” (2024.04.25-AP-DRC-Blood-Minerals.pdf)

Over the past three years, a war of aggression has been waged for economic gain by the March 23 Movement (M23), whose members have killed hundreds of civilians and forced more than 1 million people to abandon their homes. The term “genocost,” meaning genocide for economic gain, has been used to describe what is happening in Congo. Reinforcements from the Rwandan Defense Forces have aided M23, and Rwanda has managed to launder vast quantities of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold from the DRC.

In a speech at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City in 1964, Malcolm X made the connection between conditions in Congo and those that Black people face in the United States: “As long as we think that we should get Mississippi straightened out before we worry about the Congo, you’ll never get Mississippi straightened out — not until you start realizing your connection with the Congo.” (friendsofthecongo.org)