BY MEGAN ARNEY
As rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaire continued their advance, the Zairian capital of Kinshasa was brought to a halt by a general strike April 14-15. The strike and victories of the rebel forces -who have captured over half the country - highlight the weakening of the despised dictatorship of Zairian president Mobutu Sese Seko. Meanwhile, imperialist forces are camped just miles away in the Congo capital of Brazzaville, looking for a chance to intervene and stabilize the situation to protect big-business interests in Zaire.

The strike on April 14 closed shops, offices, schools, and street markets throughout Kinshasa. The action was built as a ville morte, or dead city, protest. Few pedestrians were on the streets and taxis, buses, and cars were scarce, according to reports in the Washington Post. The two-day work stoppage was called by the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDSP), an opposition party headed by Étienne Tshisekedi. The opposition forces also called for an April 16 antigovernment demonstration.

The strike action by hundreds of thousands of workers and students in this city of more than 4 million reflects the widespread opposition to the Mobutu regime. According to Associated Press, many people in Kinshasa say they would welcome the arrival of rebel troops. There is strong support in the capital for the Alliance leader, Laurent Kabila, and for bringing down the dictatorship. "We want change. We're willing to accept anyone... if it will bring change," Willy Kashama, who participated in the strike, told an AP reporter.

After a special Mobutu cabinet meeting on April 14, Information Minister Kin-Kiey Mulumba said authorities had been instructed to enforce the law "scrupulously" and with "full force." Forces loyal to Mobutu cracked down on the second day of the strike. Truckloads of government soldiers patrolled the streets and set up barricades around the university, enforcing the state of emergency imposed by Mobutu in early April. A planned demonstration by students who oppose the regime did not take place due to the stepped-up army presence.

Government opposition in Kinshasa
Leaders of the government opposition, angling for a position in the new government to come, said the actions sent a message that the UDSP has a strong base in the city. "It is to show the political class that it is not in communion with the people. And it is to show Kabila and anyone else that we are here and we have waged a struggle," said Marcel Mbayo, a top aide of Tshisekedi. The New York Times quoted an unnamed Western diplomat as saying, "Tshisekedi knows that unless he acts decisively, he risks irrelevance."

Tshisekedi, who has served as prime minister under Mobutu three times, was dismissed in early April after only a week in office. Ten thousand people protested his removal, in a demonstration that was attacked by government troops. Mobutu then implemented a state of emergency.

Tshisekedi is often touted in the press as a long-time opponent of Mobutu. In fact, few people have been so central to the current regime in Zaire. He was an important architect of the Mobutu dictatorship, only to later split to form an opposition party in 1980. As a senior government official, Tshisekedi helped in the removal of revolutionary leader Patrice Lumumba from office in 1961. Lumumba was elected prime minister after Zaire won independence from Belgium in 1960. He was assassinated after Mobutu - then the army chief of staff and a paid CIA operative - waged a coup d'état and took over the government.

Much has been made in the big-business press of the possible power struggle between Tshisekedi and rebel leader Kabila. On April 3, Tshisekedi offered a coalition government with the rebels, earning his dismissal by Mobutu. The Alliance, however, rejected the offer. After Tshisekedi was removed from his office, Mawampanga Mwana, the Alliance's economic minister commented, "He never had any power anyway."

The strikes and demonstrations underscore the desire of the overwhelming majority of Zairian people for Mobutu to go. Whereas antigovernment demonstrations last October called for stepped up war moves against the rebels - who were then presented by UDSP leaders as Rwandan invaders - the sentiment now seems to be in favor of the Alliance. Reporting for the Washington Post in Kinshasa, Lynne Duke writes, "Over the past few months, the tide of opinion has turned, and Kabila is now widely viewed as a liberator capable of ending Mobutu's rule."

Economics of imperialist intervention
Alarmed at the momentum of the rebel advance and the political space it has opened even in Kinshasa, the imperialist powers are contemplating whether and how to intervene in the situation. Thousands of U.S., French, and Belgian troops are positioned in Brazzaville, while the USS Nassau, with over 1,300 U.S. marines, is just off the Atlantic coast. For decades, Washington backed and funded the Mobutu dictatorship until his imminent downfall became clear.

The bourgeois press often describes the situation in Kinshasa now as a "calm before the storm." This underlines the not so thinly-veiled threats of military intervention, and "inevitable conflict." The Christian Science Monitor has headlined several articles along this line, including one from April 11 titled, "Zaire's Zero Hour - Will America Be Ready?"

The big-business press has also continued its propaganda campaign to win acceptance for the idea that intervention is needed. Pictures and articles about the suffering of Rwandan refugees in eastern Zaire abound. These are used to bolster the imperialists' argument for intervention in the name of "humanitarian aid."

There are huge economic stakes in Zaire, and some capitalists have openly begun dealing with the rebels as the new power in large parts of the country. De Beers mining company of South Africa and the state-run diamond company, Société Miniere de Bakwanga, have recognized the Alliance. The recently conquered Shaba province is the world's leading cobalt producer, with 65 percent of the total reserves. The latest Alliance victories in Kasai province give it control over the second-largest industrial diamond producing area after Australia. Zaire also has an estimated $1.48 billion in gold reserves.

International mining companies have maneuvered to make deals with the Alliance - some publicly stating that they have met with Kabila himself. These include Penke Mining Corp. of Vancouver and London; American Mineral Fields of Hope, Arkansas; the International Panorama Resource Corp. of Vancouver; and Swedish capitalist Adolf Lundin, who owns 55 percent of Tenke Fungurume, one of the world's largest and richest deposits of copper and cobalt.

Washington and Brussels - both long-time backers of Mobutu - have now publicly washed their hands of the dictator, acknowledging his inescapable departure. On April 9, White House press secretary Michael McCurry said, "Mobutuism is about to become a creature of history." The next day Belgian foreign minister Erik Derycke stated that Zaire was "a military dictatorship revisited."

The Washington Post editors hollered for "Burying Mobutuism," on April 13, and called for Washington to "give a chance to the democratic opposition movement that has been led for more than a decade by Étienne Tshisekedi."

Even in Zaire younger members of the Popular Movement for the Revolution, Mobutu's party, are calling for him to resign.

On April 14, a former French foreign aid minister called Mobutu "a dinosaur who should leave." But the French government, which has come into increasing conflict with Washington over who will be the dominant imperialist power in the region, has not been so hasty to totally dump the Zairian dictator. French prime minister Alain Juppé suggested that "Rather than try to find someone to blame" for the situation in Zaire, "it would be better to sit down at a table and try to stabilize things." In addition to its forces at Brazzaville, Paris has 9,000 troops regularly stationed in Africa.

Rebels take second-largest city
So far Mobutu's response to the Alliance's request negotiate or to step down has been condescending. On April 12 -just days after the rebels took over Lubumbashi, the second largest city in the country - Mobutu called Kabila a "gang leader," and declared he would only begin discussions with the Alliance if the rebel leader "asks me politely." This comes from the man who once defined the post-Mobutu era as "apres moi, le déluge" (after me, it's ancient history).

The Alliance forces marched into Lubumbashi, the southeastern regional capital and a mining center, on April 9. Rebel leader Kabila appointed an Alliance governor instead of calling for elections, in contrast to previous provinces where the Alliance has taken over.

Opposition leaders whined about the appointment, but according to news reports most of the thousands of Lubumbashi residents who met Kabila as he entered the city did not mind the move. "We don't care who the governor is, provided they bring peace and security," Charles Nshimba, an English teacher, told the New York Times. Matthew Ilunga, also a teacher, said, "Everyone is waiting to change. And that change must be radical."

The Alliance reports that some of its forces are just 160 miles northeast of Kinshasa, after taking the city of Kananga. According to the New York Times, the rebels are also about to capture the city of Kikwit, which is approximately 250 miles southeast of the capital.

Meanwhile, the Mobutu regime is seeking to blame the embarrassing military losses to the rebels by accusing former prime minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo, along with several other finance, budget, and economy ministers, of pilfering millions dollars from state funds.

The United Nations also announced that it will begin airlifting the first of 100,000 Rwandan refugees back home on April 18. Various imperialist powers have been probing, since late last year, the possibility of using a UN "rescue mission" as a pretext to intervene.  
 
 
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