As Chairman Mao Tse-tung taught, who are our friends and who are our enemies is a question of paramount importance for the revolutionaries. Mao also taught: "Whatever the enemy supports, we must oppose, and whatever he opposes we must support!" We must follow this principle before setting forth our position on any world event.In the worldwide revolutionary wave of the 60's, a great liberation struggle led by Patrice Lumumba was waged in the Republic of Congo. The imperialist forces, mainly the United States, French and Belgium saw at stake the end of their plunder of the natural resources of that country (uranium, diamonds, copper, gold and oil ). It did not take long for the imperialist powers to assassinate Lumumba and to crush the liberation movement. In 1965, they installed as President the head of a mercenary army, the corrupt dictator and U.S. puppet Mobuto Sese Seko. Under Mobuto while the people lived in extreme poverty for more than 32 years, the imperialist corporations and Mobutu's family ransacked the wealth of the country. The amount of money stolen by Mobutu is estimated to be $15 billion. He was the "useful tyrant" of the imperialist powers protected jealously from enemies at home and abroad. Mobutu allowed his territory to be used to supply arms to the CIA mercenary, Jonas Samimbi in Angola. At the end, once they become useless or a liability for their interests, it is customary for US imperialism to get rid of its dogs in the third world. Mobutu followed the same fate of Marcos in Asia, Somoza, Duvalier in Latin America and soon Fujimori in Peru.
The Alliance of Democratic Forces (AFDL) led by Laurent Kabila that overthrew Mobutu is not Marxist-Leninist-Maoist nor does a Communist Party lead it. However, the overthrow of Mobuto is an encouraging national liberation struggle which clearly shows that revolution is the main political tendency in today's world. Revolution is what the people want.
Despite its limitations, the Kabila forces showed the path for the African people: real power is conquered through an armed struggle.
Kabila has shown serious limitations in conducting this revolution. The first was when he negotiated with Mobuto on the takeover of the capital Kinshasa. This negotiation was brokered by Yankee UN Ambassador, Bill Richardson and the new U.S. point man in Africa, the slave traitor Nelson Mandela. The second weakness was when Kabila allowed U.S. military cargo planes to deliver weapons and military equipment to his forces (Newsweek, May 12, 1997.) The third weakness is that Kabila never had an army of his own. The leadership of the AFDL is a conglomerate of liberals and social democrats with strong influence from the Uganda and Rwanda rulers, who are close allies of U.S. imperialism in Central Africa.
U.S: "The Jury is Still Out on Kabila."
1) The new Congo offers imperialist investors more profits and they are already flocking into the mines of gold and diamonds. For instance, the Wall Street Journal reported that the American Mineral Fields of Arkansas will exploit the huge Kolwezi and Kapushi mining areas of cooper, cobalt and zinc. Also, South African, Canadian, French and Belgium companies are signing contracts with the Kabila government. So, it is the same old wine sold in a different bottle!
What does the U.S. gain from helping Kabila assume power? 2) The Congo can serve as an imperialist base in Africa to attack and subvert countries such as Sudan and Libya that today are the centers of anti-imperialist resistance in Africa. The imperialist pressure on Kabila is revealed by Richardson's own words: "The jury is still out on Kabila . . . he needs a lot of seasoning in the democratic process and human rights." In other words, Kabila needs to learn a lot to become a puppet fully accepted by US imperialism.
The people of Congo and most of Africa have been historically, victims of imperialist slavery and exploitation. For hundreds of years, the resistance of the African people and their firm opposition to surrendering their national sovereignty has been exemplary. For us, who follow the teachings of President Gonzalo, leader of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), this is, undoubtedly, an important component of the international front of the oppressed people against imperialism, especially now, when US imperialism leads arrogantly the imperialist camp worldwide.
Our Anti-imperialist Solidarity to the Congolese People What are the imperialists up to in Africa? They are up to bludgeoning these small third world nations into submission, disregarding international law and the principles of non-interference in other countries internal affairs. In the Congo they are demanding that the Congolese people surrender their own jurisdiction under the old disguise of "human rights" violations of Tutsis against Hutus or viceversa. They try to sell their own version of "democracy" that they fostered under Mobutu, thus, setting themselves as judge, jury and executioner. If these countries resist, Yankee imperialism and the European powers threaten and bully small countries in Africa, such as Sudan and Libya with military aggression and economic blockade. It is still fresh in our memories the air bombing against Lybia and the invasion to Somalia.
Today, the imperialist system is undergoing its deepest crisis. Since it is unable to regain its stability it is triggering an inevitable contradiction among imperialist powers competing for markets worldwide. At the same time, they fear the imminent upsurge of the world revolution. They are claiming for themselves, and principally for the chief imperialists, the USA, the right to exercise violence by manipulating the United Nations (UN). Nowadays, the UN has become so manipulated that US imperialism claims for itself the sole representation of the "international community."
The UN has become a tool of the US and the other big imperialist powers because many who used to claim being people's friends, even within the Security Council, have now gone over to the camp of imperialism. There are today governments, parties, movements, and people who claim to represent their people, even some who prepousterously claim to be socialists (e.g., China, Cuba, etc.), anti-imperialists and the like, but, however, they echo the imperialist's tune on many issues. They launch fierce condemnations of real liberation struggles to curry favor with this or other imperialists. Such a road can only lead to confusion within the people's camp and to capitulation before imperialism. We must always follow the principle of knowing well who are our friends and who are our enemies.
In this manner, US imperialism and other powers promote dictatorships in our countries that are not only completely subservient to their interests but also dismantle formal laws and democratic principles. These bloody dictatorships in the Third World are being legitimized under the thin disguise that they are a peculiar form of a "developing democracy." Nigeria, Algeria, and Kenya among others is this type of phony "democracy" we must denounce. In our country (Peru), imperialism has imposed the genocidal dictatorship of Fujimori that is tied to drug cartels, an illegitimate government that came into power through a military coup and a bogus election while attempting to suppress a powerful People's War led by the PCP. Fujimori obtained 18% of the vote in which the great elector was the armed forces. We are absolutely convinced that our people as they are being led by the PCP will destroy the fascist monster Fujimori and defeat its murderous master, US imperialism, just as well.
Our strength lies in standing together and developing a great united front against imperialism and its puppets in the third world and in industrialized countries. We must refute the thesis of our enemies by unmasking and combating their lies and propaganda against all revolutionary people. We must stand firm against all those revisionists and hypocrites who condemn and badmouth the revolutionary violence of the slave who rises in rebellion calling it "terrorism," but are ready to bless the violence of the master who seeks to force him or her back into chains.
We the revolutionaries, progressive and democratic forces, must stand united and lend all our support to the African people in rejecting any imperialist interference with their national rights. We must understand that their rights are also ours.
In the name of the revolutionary people of Peru, the most advanced struggle in today's world against US imperialism, we salute the firm and courageous stand of the African people. We also encourage them to persevere upon this road of defiance, without flinching for a single moment.
People of the world, unite to defeat US imperialism and all its running dogs! Proletarians of the world, unite, be courageous and defy all difficulties, dare to struggle and dare to win, and advance wave upon wave. The world will then belong to us and monsters of all kinds will be destroyed!
The people of Latin America, Africa, and Asia along with the people of the United States and the people all over the world, are real brothers in this struggle. Despite all difficulties, we will win!