Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 11:21:11 +0200 (MET DST)
To: marxism-general-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
From: rolf.martens-AT-mailbox.swipnet.se (Rolf Martens)
Subject: M-G: Congo: "Demo(butu)cracy we want!", say US, France


Congo: "Demo(butu)cracy we want!", say US, France
[Posted: 31.05.97]

Last week, there were consultations by two imperialist
powers, one very big and one smaller, the USA and France,
on a third country, Congo (ex-Zaire). Their leaders
were quite in agreement, a communique said: They were
both and jointly going to "work towards" their "being
instituted democracy" in that third country.

How thoughtful of them!

And how can it be that they've hit on that great idea
precisely now? Up until some seven months ago, there
had been no consultations by those powers, for instance,
on any such theme.

The reason is no big secret of course. The difference is
that today, the former regime in ex-Zaire has been
toppled by a popular uprising led by Laurent Kabila's
AFDL. It was precisely that regime which they themselves,
the USA and France, and some other allies (and semi-
competitors) of theirs had put into power in the first
place and then massively supported, against the people,
for more than 30 years, as long as that was at all
possible, the more and more "kleptocratic", disastrous
regime of Mobutu.

So, judging by the past record with respect to Congo of
those now consulting with each other, brazenly
stating it as their intention to continue interfering
concerning the social order in that country, what kind
of regime is it that they now want there and are
calling, distinguishing it from the present one,
"democracy"?

It's another Mobutu regime that they want, obviously.

And so, at the same time as their leaders had their
talk on this, they're organising - or at least helping
organise - demonstrations in Kinshasa. Well, this
they haven't said in public, and these demonstrations
may well in part be caused by some genuinely popular
grievances too, in that country with so many different
ethnic etc groups and so many problems left over from
the former, catastrophic, regime, but everyone but the
very most naive must clearly see the hands of the
imperialists to be involved in this.

Take the picture of a Kinshasa placard covering half
the front page of one of the US and generally superpower
muppet dailies published here in Malm=F6, Sweden, the
Arbetet Nyheterna, last Thursday, 29.05, for instance.
Whenever did you see that paper or a similar one here
featuring, on any occasion whatsoever, and with as much
as a tenth of that present space devoted to it, what
some "people in the streets" of some city or other in
a country in distant Africa were saying?

But here we could read, in 20-mm-high letters in that
Swedish paper, the placard's text in French: "PEUPLE
CONGOLAIS ATTENTION! DESIRE KABILA EGAL DESIRE MOBUTU."
("Watch out, Congolese people! Desiré Kabila equals
Desiré Mobutu." - It "cautiously" didn't say "Zairian
people" either.)

Where has this placard's "theory" - which by no means is
true, of course, which events so far at least precisely
contradict - been seen or heard before?

Actually, repeatedly since last November, on the
Marxism-General mailing list managed by the Spoon
Collective, a discussion forum which is one of the
places to which I intend to post this. There was "no
reason" for people abroad to support the uprising
against the Mobutu regime, this theory maintained,
since the AFDL led by Kabila was "basically of the
same sort as Mobutu anyway". Some of those embracing it
may well have been sincere and well-intentioned too.
But clearly, as I for instance repeatedly have pointed
out and have brought information to support, this
"theory" precisely *emanated and emanates from the
imperialists and their muppets*.

When recently in Congo, the new government has put a
temporary ban on political activity in the capital,
as reported in the media, is this justified or not?

In my opinion, considering the abovementioned facts,
it may well be entirely justified. On the basis of
the information received here in Sweden at least, there
is no reason to criticize it. Governments actually
representing the majority of people have done similar
things before, and with good reason. South African
president Nelson Mandela, for instance, in this case
has expressed his understanding of this action, saying
that in his judgement, the AFDL so far has been acting
democratically in those areas which have already for
some time been under its rule.

Friends abroad of the Congolese people should watch
further developments, with open eyes and minds, in
order to see whether the actions of the AFDL government
should be opposed or supported. So far, that governemt
to me absolutely seems to be a considerable improvement
over the former in Congo (ex-Zaire). Recent developments
in that country, the victory of the people's insur-
rection in only some seven months, most definitely are
a very hopeful fact concerning the entire present in-
ternational situation.

Rolf M.



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