Congo: mass rape courtesy of capitalism.

Women and children suffer devastating rapes and abuse in Congolese violence where capitalism uses the savage militias to loot the country of its wealth. See our suggested way to help.

In today's capitalist papers we read again of mass rapes in the Congo. But as usual they do not deal with the source of the problem and they give no solution. The problem is that the Congo has massive mineral wealth and the Congolese capitalist class, you cannot even really talk about them as such as it is so weak and fragmented, and the Congolese capitalist state, which is also extremely weak and fragmented and corrupt, cannot stabilize or take forward society. It is a classic case of the permanent revolution where the capitalist class in former colonial countries cannot carry out the tasks of the bourgeois revolution and take those countries forward to a stable modern society .

Then there is the related issue of the outside interventions. The advanced capitalist countries and also China do not want a centralized stable Congo. They are looting the country via the various militias which fight over the resources and ship them out at low prices. It is these militias, funded by the major corporations and capitalist powers of the world who are carrying out this mass rape. These militias also use mass rape and general destruction to increase their forces and try to get a stronger position to negotiate with what government there is. Another reason why the advanced capitalist countries do not want a wealthy stable Congo is that the Congo borders on nine other African countries and is situated in the center of the continent. A strong wealthy Congo would draw in these other countries and become a major power in the continent and the world. The advanced capitalist powers do not want this, better to have the Congo weak fragmented and lawless so they can loot it.

The women in the Congo are being sacrificed to the profits and power of the world's major corporations and powers. These powers try and cover this up by sending in UN troops who themselves take part in the atrocities. The situation in the Congo shows that our position that the UN is not able to solve problems when the major capitalist powers are the source of these problems is correct. After all, the UN is the stooge of the world's major capitalist powers.

How do people like myself, a socialist living in another country, try and help? We have to expose the corporations and capitalist powers who are funding and buying from the militias. We can use our power in the world's transport system to stop the shipping of materials from that country. But this is not enough. We can also link up with the different forces in the country who are trying to stand against the looting of the country and the mass rapes and atrocities. This means trying to assist in the building of armed anti rape defense organizations. These would initially be mainly composed of women but properly armed and with international working class support and help in the form of arms and training these would draw in the best of the working class and poor both men and women.. On this basis a movement could also be built that would stop the looting of the country and move towards a democratic socialist Congo reaching out to its neighbors and internationally and opening up the road to a socialist Africa.

The catastrophe in the Congo is mainly the result of what I explain above. But there is also the issue of racism. It is easier for the world's main capitalist powers to keep the crisis in the Congo from evoking an international outcry when they can hint that a factor is the so called particular features of the African people. In other words racist explanations. Divide and rule and paralyze the workers movement. Working people must not be fooled by this. The catastrophe in the Congo is caused by the same capitalist system, the same corporations, that are causing the crisis in the lives of working people all over the world.