October | 2008 | Liberal Conspiracy

DR Congo: what is to be done?

by Dave Osler October 30, 2008 at 5:00 am

T LOOKS as if the world is watching the opening days of the third civil war to devastate the Democratic Republic of Congo in little more than a decade. And just as was the case on the previous two occasions, there do not seem to be any realistic resolutions on offer.

Situations of this complexity somehow seem to defy the capacity of the standard toolbox of concepts employed in international relations analysis. Simplistic socialist appeals to class politics and the organisations of the working class simply have no purchase on the realities on the ground in a part of the world where alignment largely flows from tribal identity. Trade unions and quasi-Maoist currents are known to have existed in the past, but as far as I am aware, do so no longer.

Even for those sections of the left that buy into the framework of humanitarian intervention – something that should surely be acceptable to socialists only in the most extreme circumstances – will be mindful that the DRC already hosts 17,000 UN troops, the largest such deployment anywhere in the world. Yet even two or three times that number of soldiers could not feasibly be expected meaningfully to maintain peace in a country the size of western Europe.

Perhaps the most practical immediate step would be for Britain – in its capacity as the main bilateral donor to neighbouring Rwanda – to make it plain to Kinshasa that its inflammatory if clandestine intervention in support of Rwandan business interests is not acceptable. Other countries with diplomatic leverage in the region should likewise warn off any other governments that might be considering entering the fray. However, what good such efforts will do is another matter.

Yet to spell out how we got to where we are now is considerably easier than coming up with any answers; while in normal circumstances it would be gratuitously offensive to compare a country with a woman who has been the victim of repeated brutal gang rapes, that seems to be about the only fitting simile for the experience of DRC since the Congress of Berlin.

Almost all African nations were, by the end of the nineteenth century, formally speaking colonies of one European power or another. But what was then known as the Congo Free State was unique in being the de jure personal fiefdom of Belgium’s King Leopold II, under whose reign over 10 million Congolese were to perish from disease and exploitation. So horrifying was his rule that international pressure forced the state of Belgium to regularise the situation in 1908.

Five years after independence in 1960 – which itself led to civil war with Belgian intervention to topple Moscow-aligned Patrice Lumumba – the country fell into the clutches of a man called Mobutu Sese Seko. As it turned out, he proved to be no run of the mill African dictator.

Sponsored by the US on account of his impeccable anti-communism, he proceeded to built a viciously repressive regime largely geared almost entirely to his personal enrichment. There have even been claims that the word ‘kleptocracy’ was coined expressly in his honour. By 1984, Mobutu was sitting on a $4bn fortune in his personal Swiss bank account, a huge sum at the time and an amount of the same order as the country’s national debt.

It took the civil war of 1996-97 to force him to flee the country. But peace was not established; in a spillover from the Rwanda genocide, a second outbreak of fighting soon sucked in half a dozen regional powers.

The main attraction was not ideological support for any of the contending forces, but rather the prospect of getting a slice of DRC’s vast natural resources, which include gold, diamonds, copper and coltan, a key raw material for mobile phones of the type you probably have sitting in your pocket. The result was a conflict that claimed 5.4m lives, making it the most bloody since the second world war.

History now looks set to repeat itself the first time as tragedy, the second time as tragedy and the third time live on CNN.

No Comments ¦ 30th October

Wrong outrage, wrong target

by John B October 29, 2008 at 2:45 pm

There’s been an enormous tabloid fuss about Recorder Shaun Smith’s comments on namby-pamby sentencing guidelines, which he says prevented him from sending a burglar to jail.

[Dominic] Wong had admitted battering his way into [seven months pregnant] Safa Moustafa’s home and stealing cash while she cowered upstairs with her two-year-old daughter… [She said] ‘I’m now very nervous and anxious in my own home. I’m forever checking doors and windows and keep looking outside to see who’s around. I can’t even go into the garden unless my husband is here. I can’t be alone in the house and have friends to sleep over.’

Said Judge Smith:

This is sentencing by numbers. I want to send you to prison.The public want to see you go to prison. But I can’t send you to prison because of the guidelines I have been given.’

Indeed, this is an outrage. But the outrage is that the judge doesn’t appear to know the guidelines that he’s working from.
continue reading… »

17 Comments ¦ 29th October

Why the Democrats need aggression

by Sunny Hundal October 29, 2008 at 9:35 am

I’ve written a short-ish article for CIF arguing that while Barack Obama has done much to close the gap on traditional short-comings amongst Democrats, the Democrats are still not aggressive enough. I argued this earlier and Sunder Katwala has been the major dissenter among others.

I think Obama still has a chance of losing this election – especially if McCain flips Pennsylvania red while hanging on to Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Colorado. I made calls to Ohio this week to Democrat supporters and to be honest it was brutal.
People would shout down the phone that Obama “kills babies” (McCain’s anti-abortion ad has been getting big rotation) and others completely confused and paranoid about the Acorn episode – as if it symbolised how America was going down the tubes. Others were so confused about financial issues that one woman, while obviously glad she was going to get a tax cut from Obama, was worried that it would be offset by a tax increase on her boss and therefore might put her job in jeopardy (I had to explain the difference between corporation tax and income tax). Others just said he was a socialist and put the phone down. Oh, and then there residents who thought he was being funded by Middle East money (only American citizens can donate to a maximum of $2,300) or that he was palling around with “domestic terrorists”. If you think Obama is going to take Ohio, think again. The right-wing machine has become exceptionally good in recent decades at scare-mongering and there are continued attempts even now.
continue reading… »

24 Comments ¦ 29th October

Watchdog not interested in Osborne probe

by Aaron Murin-Heath October 28, 2008 at 5:27 pm

The BBC is reporting that the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner will not investigate ~~Gideon~~ George Osborne over his dealings with a Russian oligarch.

Following a widely reported series of events that have also landed Peter Mandleson in hot water, the Shadow Chancellor has been fighting for his political life after it was said that he had attempted to solicit a £50,000 donation from billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Now it seems Osborne will survive. Shame.

Sorry, but is it me or is there something fundamentally smarmy about Osborne? Seriously, I really can’t stand the guy. I don’t want to come across all class-warrior and all that (I’m really not the type), but there is something about him that really gets under my skin. Have you seen the Bullingdon photos?

He reminds me of those people at school who always hung around the big kids and caused trouble.

A paragraph in last week’s Guardian suggests the smug self-importance isn’t just an unfortunate appearance ::

One Osborne tactic which has irritated colleagues is his tendency to send out text messages to junior frontbenchers, often late in the evening, with mildly critical remarks. When the hapless MPs reply they receive no response because Osborne has switched off his phone. The following day he will joke that he meant no harm and that he was sending group texts.

Nice.

Of course truth is that, had Osborne continued to deny the allegations, his old friend Nat Rothschild had enough evidence to “finish” him. It’s pretty clear that Mr. Osborne has been naughty, but the establishment is protecting its own as usual.

20 Comments ¦ 28th October

BP posts massive profits

by Newswire October 28, 2008 at 3:43 pm

Today BP posted profits of £6.2bn for its most recent quarter – more than doubling its earnings.

This hefty spike is due to the rocketing prices the oil market experienced over the summer, with oil trading at a record $147-per-barrel. The price of oil has since slumped to around $62, prompting the cartel OPEC to slash production in a move to stabilise prices.

BP’s chief executive Tony Hayward has warned that more difficult times lie ahead but that the company is well prepared, The BBC reports ::

BP chief executive Tony Hayward said that oil prices could decline further as the world enters a recession.

“I believe that BP is well-positioned to cope with such volatility,” he said.

“We think the current turmoil may in fact create opportunities for us and we will look at those very closely.”

2 Comments ¦ 28th October

The audacity of hate

by Neil Robertson October 28, 2008 at 9:49 am

WASHINGTON (AP) – Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.

After we’ve gotten over the horror that comes from reading it for the first time, we would do well to remember that this is fantastic news. This isn’t the first time someone has plotted to rob us of Senator Obama’s life, nor will it be the last, and the security services are owed a tremendous debt gratitude for their commitment, skill and bravery in breaking these plots before they break America.

But a plot uncovered is still a plot that’s failed, and when you remember that there’s only a smattering of psychopaths who’d dream of committing such a crime, and even fewer who would act on it, I think it’s fair to say that the cause of violent white supremacy has been dealt a heavy blow.

continue reading… »

2 Comments ¦ 28th October

Osborne steps down as Tory fundraiser

by Newswire October 27, 2008 at 11:51 pm

Following stories that have linked the Conservative shadow chancellor, George Osborne, with an inappropriate relationship with a Russian Oligargh Oleg Deripaska, the Tory MP has stepped down as a Tory fundraiser…

From the BBC ::

Mr Osborne has strongly denied allegations he tried to solicit a £50,000 donation for the Conservative Party from Oleg Deripaska.

But he told the BBC: “To be honest this didn’t look very good and that’s something I regret.”

Mr Osborne has said he will no longer carry out fundraising for the Tories.

More…

No Comments ¦ 27th October

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