Click here to access article by Shamus Cooke from Worker's Action.
Once again we see surface manifestations of deeper economic activities that are playing out in central Africa over its rich supply of minerals. Obama, often described as an African-American president, is, of course, only the public relations officer hired by capitalist decision-makers well-hidden in our shadow government. And his African-Americanism is only literally skin deep. He was mostly raised by his white banker grandmother and further socialized in US elite private schools.
Cooke uncovers the deeper forces at work here--and, guess what? Capitalist corporations in the West and China are competing for access to valuable metals existing in this area.
The electronics industry is one of the main destinations for these metals, which end up in mobile phones, laptops, and other consumer products. Tin is used as a solder in circuit boards; colton goes into capacitors, small components used to store electricity; tungsten is used in the vibrating function of mobile phones; gold is also used by the electronics industry as a coating for wires.
World prices for each of these metals have been rising over the past year, giving armed groups in the eastern Congo all the more incentive to target or keep hold of the mines.
See also this and this.
