The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.61/No.23           June 9, 1997 
 
 
No Imperialist 'Advice' Needed  
Who are Madeleine Albright and William Richardson - to talk about democracy and human rights in the Congo? They're leading spokespersons for the world's biggest imperial bully. That's the point South African president Nelson Mandela was getting at when he said, "What is most strange is that some Western countries that have supported the most vicious dictators for decades are now.. taking it upon themselves to lecture him [Kabila] upon democracy."

Washington has a long history of murder and mayhem in the region. In August of 1964, U.S.-backed mercenaries bombed and pillaged Stanleyville and every nearby village in order to crush Congolese freedom fighters. They murdered every man, woman, and child in sight. Washington and Paris then bankrolled the dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko for more than 30 years. Mobutu in return kept Congo safe for capitalist exploitation, and used his well-funded army to advance imperialist interests in the region. And the imperialist banks use the country's $14 billion "debt" as a tool to extract greater surplus from the toilers there.

The same blood suckers who are vying for mineral contracts today have usurped the wealth of the Congo since the turn of the century.

Belgian king Leopold's personal rule of the colony of what was then called the Belgian Congo was marked by plunder and brutalization. By 1960, U.S. imperialists like David Rockefeller owned plantations and bauxite metal industry in the Congo. Today, American Mineral Fields, from Hope, Arkansas, is among the enterprises making sure they have a piece of the pie.

Working people around the world should celebrate the fall of the Mobutu dictatorship, long a pillar for imperialist control in the region.

The new regime is led by a successful businessman, Laurent Kabila, and others like him who are eager to work with big-time exploiters in the United States, Canada, Belgium, and elsewhere to maintain capitalist rule. But many workers and peasants in the Democratic Republic of Congo now have expectations that there will be more democratic rights, employment, and a rise in the standard of living. This is a factor that has Washington and its allies worried. That's why they are full of advice for Kabila on "democracy," "human rights," and the value of the market system, and why they're keeping 3,000 troops just a stone's throw away in Brazzaville, Congo.

The best way to support workers, peasants, and youth in Congo is to demand that Washington and Co. keep their hands off.

All U.S., French, Canadian, and other imperialist troops out of Africa!

Cancel the Third World debt!  
 
 
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