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.
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The bulletins site is here!
The RSS feed is here.
Last week's thread is here.
Israel-Palestine Conflict
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
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.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
I just noticed that Wikipedia has finally renamed the “Uyghur genocide” article to “Persecution of Uyghurs in China”. It’s still full of bullshit, including “that is often characterized as persecution or as genocide”, but the title change from something blatantly counterfactual is nice to see.
Edit: lmao it stems from my move request, I did it (sort of)
China has revised its company law which goes into effect on July 1st and it seems VERY important to us. I can't include all of this article here so I will put snippets instead.
https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/insights-and-events/insights/2024/01/employees-participation-in-corporate-governance-under-the-revised-chinese-company-law
Article 17(2) of the Revised Company Law now stipulates that the assembly of employee representatives shall be the basic form of the democratic corporate governance system and that this shall apply to all companies. That means, regardless of whether a company is private or state-owned, whether it is a limited liability or a stock corporation. This is a notable development, as democratic corporate governance as a requirement for all companies is set out in national law for the first time.
A new organ is required in all companies called the Employee Assembly. It is democratic in nature.
An enterprise shall decide whether to convene an assembly of employee representatives or an assembly of all employees according to the Provisions on Democratic Governance of Enterprises, relevant local regulations, and subject to the number of its employees. In general, an enterprise with 100 or more employees shall convene an assembly of employee representatives; an enterprise with fewer than 100 employees should convene an assembly of all employees. An assembly of employee representatives (or an assembly of all employees, the “Employee Assembly”) is an organ for employees to exercise their power of democratic governance of the enterprise.
It is made up of all employees in companies below 100 members, or representatives are elected in companies above 100 members.
The trade union of an enterprise is the executive organ of its Employee Assembly and is responsible for the daily work of the Employee Assembly.
Cool
An Employee Assembly shall be convened at least once a year, and more than two-thirds of the employee representatives must be present at the plenary session of an Employee Assembly. Elections and votes on relevant matters at an Employee Assembly require a majority of all employee representatives.
Very cool
an Employee Assembly shall usually exercise the following powers and functions:
(I) Listening to the reports from the main persons responsible for the enterprise on the enterprise’s development planning, annual production and operation management, enterprise reform and formulation of major rules and regulations, employment issues, conclusion and implementation of labor contracts and collective contracts, production safety, and payment of social insurance premiums and housing provident funds; and making comments and suggestions thereon;
(II) Deliberating the rules and regulations or major proposals formulated, amended or adopted by the enterprise which may directly affect the immediate interests of its employees, such as remuneration, working hours, rest and vacation, occupational safety and health, insurance and welfare, employee training, labor discipline, and the management of labor quotas; and making comments and suggestions thereon;
(III) Deliberating and adopting the draft collective contracts, the plan for the use of the employees’ welfare fund drawn down in accordance with the relevant national regulations, the plan for adjusting the rate and timing of the payment of housing provident funds and social insurance premiums, the recommendation of candidates for model employees and other important matters;
(IV) Electing or dismissing employee directors and employee supervisors, electing employee representatives to meetings of creditors and creditors’ committees of the enterprise subject to bankruptcy proceedings in accordance with the law, and recommending or electing management personnel of the enterprise as authorized;
(V) Reviewing and monitoring the implementation of labor laws and regulations and labor rules by the enterprise, democratically evaluating the leaders of the enterprise, and making recommendations on rewards and punishments; and
(VI) Such other powers and functions as may be provided by laws or regulations.
Powers = Having access to all information of the company at every level, which is very important to worker benefits and ensuring labour law is being followed. Also the dismissing of directors, supervisors, managers, and electing representatives to meetings of creditors. In companies over 300 employees elected-members of the employee assembly must be elected to the board of directors.
China has made all companies worker-controlled. I would show this article to anyone that claims otherwise. This is worker democracy.
China is still a dictatorship of the proletariat.
The images that will appear in future textbooks are flowing endlessly today
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Overheard coworker talking about their upcoming vacation to Spain and Morocco when another asks: "With all the Iran and Iraq wars going on will that be safe?"
Most geographically/current event literate American
Biden said weapons would flow to Ukraine within hours and declared "it's a good day for world peace"
Literal
Now seems like a good time to remind everyone that, in between TV interviews whining about feeling unsafe, Zionist students at Columbia continue to verbally harass and physically assault protestors
I'm sure you all have seen the video of that absolute dork who PURPOSELY sent his wife with a shirt that says "Jew" in the front and has the Start of David and says "ISRAEL" in the back to walk around some pro-Palestinian protest to see if she would get beaten to death by the rabid pro-Hamas genocidal crowd.
And, shocking I know, nothing happens. The lady just walks around, tries to irritate the people camping and nothing happens. They're all just chilling, talking to one another, doing their stuff and completely ignoring this lady. Whatever interaction that happens is minor and the anti-semitism they always complain about completely fails to materialize to harass her, yet she insists that they, the zionists, are actually the oppressed peoples.
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Also we get this awesome shot from the video.
Also I'd like to dedicate a few words for his husband. The man planned this, he thought his wife would get harassed or even beaten but he went forwards with it. He puts his wife in a "dangerous situation" and that was his choice, all to score some points and ultimately claim "it is us who are actually being genocided" or some shit. Of course, nothing happens because their image of us is just a projection of themselves, because after all, the liar thinks everyone is just like him. What a piece of shit.
Here's the video in case you haven't watched (and cringed) it
I have been informed by very serious PoliSci people that China has had no real GDP growth in 25 years, their entire economy is based on real estate that doesn't exist, and they will collapse in the next five years. Also, they have less growth than the US or Europe.
Political Science is a serious field of study and people should take it seriously.
Per Columbia SJP, the university has threatened to sicc the National Guard on students
Edit: Purportedly, the president (of Columbia) personally threatened this during “negotiations”. Supposedly they will “call” the National Guard (not sure how a private entity does that) if an agreement is not reached by midnight Eastern Time,
which is 8 minutes away at time of writing.now passedEdit 2: heard through the grapevine and through claims reposted by Columbia SJP on Instagram
Edit 3: Apparently the deadline has been extended to 8am. However, “Columbia Public Safety” (lol), the campus rent-a-cops, have begun identifying student journalists specifically denying them access to the campus. Intense speculation that they are trying to disrupt coverage for whatever it is they’re going to do next.
Edit 4: CPS has “corrected the error” and some student journalists have been let back in. The new deadline has passed but no word from the admin on whether they’ve begged the Guard to kill students yet. Also @SeventyTwoTrillion@hexbear.net pin maybe? Seems at least marginally important. There’s a non-zero chance of not-summary executions of protestors happening after the bodycams mysteriously all fail simultaneously, should Columbia give the not-kill order.
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Joe Biden just read the “Pause” off the teleprompter after saying “Four More Years”
Useless libs: Nooooo, you can't support Hamas in your chants! You need to touch grass and not alienate people. Learn from Vietnam War protest chants.
Vietnam War protest chants:
https://spectatorarchive.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19721011-01.1.4&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------Madame Binh, Ho Chi Minh
NLF is gonna winJail the Rich, Free the Poor
Power to the People!Work, Study, Get Ahead, KILL
One side's right, one side's wrong,
We're on the side of the Viet Cong!Save Hanoi, Lose Saigon,
Victory to the Viet Cong!Right on! Take Saigon!
Victory to the Viet Cong!Put down the bassinet,
Pick up the bayonet,
Give up detergent,
Become an insurgent!Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein got arrested at Washington University a few hours ago.
https://streamable.com/ws1iat
