I received these two translated articles; notes are from the translator.
I think the BBC reported earlier today that the Rwandan-backed rebels in DR Congo are in the process of capturing another major city (Bukavu?) and have cut off the region around Lake Kivu (?) on the border with Rwanda. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M23_campaign_(2022–present)
A reference to Rwanda regarding countries with reserves of the tungsten and other rare metals at stake in the new US-China trade war; note that it has been suggested that some of Rwanda's exports are actual 'laundered' Congolese resources; other major tungsten-producers apparently include Russia, DPR Korea, Vietnam, Bolivia, Australia, Austria, Spain, and Portugal etc.: sonar21.com/ceasefire-with-palestine-holds-china-creates-big-problem-for-us-defense-industry/ I was surprised to read that the island of Cuba is a large nickel producer, though it has placer gold, so why not other metals.
A report from Newsweek about a campaign organized by the People's Union to protest the attacks on DEI with a 24-hour consumer spending boycott February 28th, especially targeting Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, but asking people to refrain from making any purchases, in-person or online, for the entire day; if spending is necessary, people are urged to go to "small, local businesses:" portside.org/2025-02-15/nationwide-economic-blackout-february-28
The unionization campaign at the Amazon warehouse in or near Raleigh, NC failed February 15th?
On Wikipedia: February 16th is the Day of the Shining Star in DPR Korea, marking the anniversary of the birth of Kim Jong Il.
The BBC claimed February 16th that support is actually growing for the deposed Yoon in the ROK, and the "opposition" is accused of being anti-woman. A few weeks ago the BBC was focusing on misogyny in the ROK, a line of criticism they also use against Japan and China (there might have been an example of that today, too).
The February 15th post has been censored, possibly because a Google algorithm 'thinks' that the content is actually explicit (or rightist "conspiracy theorist??" [or doxxing or whatever?]), rather than because of the politics, and I don't think I can protest the decision. The content is still there, but I'm not getting the usual statistics about the post from them and this is like a big "Scarlet A," though maybe people will open it out of curiosity. This is what Facebook's allegedly non-censorious "fact checking" did? I was already thinking that I should take steps to safeguard against censorship or other problems with Blogger/Chrome. They reserve a very broad list of reasons to cancel users, seemingly amounting to the drop of a hat. Read while you can. The content could be better and much of it isn't original, but there is some value. This blog has been copied on the Wayback Machine ( web.archive.org ), but worryingly not since the end of 2023. There have been some technical and personal problems in recent years, and I had planned to take a break for a few days, or some time. 'They' might also be watching more carefully. I had intended to add to the February 15th post, and I still might, but there might be technical problems. If something happens to this blog I might post new content, somewhere, using or referencing the same title and email, so any interested readers can find search it out. There is also a problem with that account, and I didn't/won't get messages sent to it. I have some old content posted publicly elsewhere online and might use one of those outlets or go to WordPress, etc. An independent website seems like an obvious but more difficult solution, though those can be silenced as well, as with WikiLeaks, a well-known "conspiracy theorist," Canadian rightists, etc. Vice President Vance spoke about German, Swiss (?), etc. censorship, causing near EU 'rebellion' at the Munich Security Conference (do Trump and Vance really want to goad the EU into becoming an independent military power?), but left out the obvious examples regarding Palestine, mentioning only the right and "far right." There has been talk on the left about waging information war against imperialism online, but they don't explain how they propose to get around the control held by Google, banks, etc. Virality? Is the Internet more right than left, and frivolous? Well-known media and activist personalities must have more options in dealing with censorship, but then they can just be arrested or sued with "lawfare."
[Also regarding the February 15th post, I might have been wrong about Algonquin languages having been spoken in this area in Contact and Colonial times -- the Eno, Sissipahaw, Occaneechi, Shakori, etc. apparently spoke Siouan languages, like the Catawba, now based in and near York County, in northern South Carolina, near Rock Hill, SC, and Charlotte, NC. Algonquian groups lived near the North Carolina coast, such as the Chowanoke, Roanoke, Croatan, Secotan, Weapemeoc, Pamlico, and Hatteras (some of these names might be redundant), while the Powhatan and Pamunkey lived in coastal Virginia. Further north there were the Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusett, Patuxet, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Miꞌkmaq, Abenaki, Mahican, Mohican, Lenape, Shawnee, Peoria, Miami, Illinois, Kickapoo, Menominee, Potawatomi, Sauk, Ojibwe, Cree, Blackfoot, Gros Ventre, Arapaho, Cheyenne, etc. Some of these names might be redundant and not what they called themselves and of course many Native Americans or entire tribes still live in or near their traditional lands). Many of these Algonquin-speaking tribes are famous in US and Canadian history. I'm not sure what connections they had to the ancient Mississippian city of Cahokia in East St Louis and the mound building cultures known archaeologically in the Midwest. Some groups have moved great distances in recent centuries, and not always due to European or American colonization, or not directly. For more information see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakori , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catawba_people , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algonquian_peoples , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatteras_Indians , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamlico , and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture
It is a quite foggy and cloudy morning here February 16th. [Or maybe the window was just fogged up; later in the morning I realized that it was mild or warm, damp, cloudy, and windy. That morning I was wondering if I was hearing something like a squirrel or raccoon that had gotten inside, but it must have been the wind. Later in the morning a flock of red-winged blackbirds was singing nearby, I'm not sure now, but I might have heard hawk(s) and a sapsucker, etc. More of last year's sweetgum balls were blowing down for the spring.]
Originally posted February 14th at: piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/la-politica-di-trump-inasprisce-tutte-le-contraddizioni-del-sistema-imperialista/ and piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/unaltra-guerra-di-saccheggio-in-africa/
There are a number of interesting articles at: piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/scintilla-n-151-febbraio-2025/ On YM Sverdlov: piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/leminente-bolscevico-y-m-sverdlov/ ; February 2, 1943 in Stalingrad and the EU today piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/gloria-eterna-allarmata-rossa-e-ai-partigiani-vergogna-sul-parlamento-europeo/; On Iris2 versus Starlink, Amazon Kuiper, and One Web, etc.: piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/la-spocchia-dellimperialismo-italiano/ ; piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/compiti-permanenti-da-assolvere-con-il-giornale-comunista/; the APL and APK statement on Greenland: piattaformacomunista.com/index.php/solidarieta-con-il-popolo-della-groenlandia-contro-ogni-imperialismo/
Scintilla No. 151, February 2025
Published by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy
Trump's policy exacerbates all the contradictions of the imperialist system
The demagogic speech that Donald Trump delivered during his second inauguration and the measures he immediately implemented demonstrate the start of an ultra-reactionary policy that expresses the interests and privileges of a minority, of a handful of billionaires and monopolists present at the act: oil tycoons, owners of technology monopolies, of transnational communication companies, financial institutions, arms merchants.
It is the elite of the US imperialist bourgeoisie that supports Trump's policies aimed at putting the state at their exclusive service, dramatically worsening the lives of hundreds of millions of workers and entire peoples, without taking climate change into account.
From day one, Trump provocatively implemented protectionist measures, imposing tariffs and duties on numerous countries with which he has trade relations; he pardoned 1500 fascists who stormed the Capitol; he eliminated labor protections, such as those against discrimination or the right to unionize for federal employees; he deregulated oil drilling, eliminated the constitutional "ius soli" [birthright citizenship], declared a national emergency at the southern border, which means closing the borders and deporting migrants; he brutally attacked national and social minorities and women.
These measures were taken to support the US as a hegemonic superpower and to demonstrate that it is capable of sustaining a multi-level confrontation with other imperialist and capitalist countries, primarily with China.
Trump has already started this war, especially on the commercial level. The tariffs are already seeing retaliatory measures by some countries (China, Canada, Mexico).
The EU is also preparing to react to the tariffs established by Trump on steel and aluminum; it will do so to protect its monopolies, certainly not the workers.
Trade protectionism will have serious consequences for the world economy, such as a decrease in trade and production, high inflation, reduced investment, disruptions in supply chains, and other problems that arise from a confrontation of this magnitude.
But in the medium term, it will be the United States and the countries most closely linked to Washington, including Italy, that will be affected by this policy. Authoritative centers of analysis predict a 27% drop in exports and 20% in imports for the USA.
Production costs will increase, resulting in a decline in GDP. The majority of U.S. workers will not become richer, but poorer. Social conflict will also flare up in the U.S., rather than "Make America Great Again"!
Trump has also made it clear that he intends to implement a warmongering and colonialist policy, bringing the claws of US imperialism to countries such as Mexico, Panama, Greenland, planning the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank together with Zionism.
For Ukraine, he is preparing an imperialist peace, a prelude to new unjust wars, while he wants to rob its rare earths.
At the same time, he highlighted his authoritarian conception of power, threatening to send troops and bring hell to those places where the orders of the star-spangled superpower are not carried out.
The new political orientation of the United States translates into a complete reshaping of the state in order to eliminate all concessions to the public sphere, oriented to services for the working masses, while strengthening the mechanisms of support for capital and the war policies of the bourgeois state apparatus.
In the early days of the Trump administration, there have already been elements that make his proto-fascist character evident. Trump has begun a series of mass deportations, labeling undocumented immigrants as "criminal aliens" and treating them as military targets.
He is also instituting a policy of "white supremacy," in which monopolies can exploit and persecute non-white Americans (Latinos, blacks, and other ethnicities), who will be subjected to further discrimination and violence in all spheres of economic, political, and social life.
Not to be underestimated is the Trumpist narrative of an alleged international conspiracy to humiliate the United States, reminiscent of the Nazi German discourse of the 1930s, accompanied by the need to rebuild a U.S. identity based on economic and military supremacy, which the United States would have lost in the 1930s. Musk's fascist salute is a symbol of that program.
The second Trump administration promises to be an exploitative and robbing, chauvinist and warmongering, reactionary and fascist administration, with no respect for the rights of humans and nature.
As the representative of the most aggressive and militarist imperialism, Trump will deepen actions to benefit the industrial tycoons who support him.
The policies of his government will lead to an increase in violence both within the U.S. and internationally, undermining the agencies and institutions that the bourgeoisie has set up to maintain its liberal order.
Trump's second term is a desperate response to the unstoppable decline of the United States, to the loss of global power and influence that has its causes inside and not outside Yankee imperialism.
At the same time it represents the confirmation of a peculiarity of imperialism: that of being political reaction across the board; as well as expressing the sharpening of fundamental strife in every field.
The working class and the popular strata are faced with new conditions, which force them to abandon any illusion of peaceful development.
All the contradictions of imperialism will sharpen and affect the working class and the oppressed peoples.
Years of imperialist offensive and open and intense conflicts await us, to face them it is not enough to just show disgust and contempt for Trump, Musk and associates.
Faced with this scenario, we must not be deceived or impressed by the demagoguery, irrationalism and media power of US gangsters.
Nor can we rely on Trump's imperialist rivals acting for their own exclusive interests (China is openly aiming for a "new phase of mature and stable bilateral relations" to share the world with the US).
The enemies of our enemies are not our friends!
Aggressive imperialist plans require us to quickly unite and mobilize forces in defense of the economic, social and political interests and rights of the proletariat, to resist the proponents of austerity, authoritarianism, war and fascism.
In our country it is necessary to develop the policies of the united front and the popular front, to intensify the struggle against the government led by a Trumpist prime minister, to give life to a mass revolutionary political action to beat the bourgeois offensive, raising the flags of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism.
The problem of the economic crisis and growing misery, the threats of war, bourgeois violence and racism, and fascistization require a radical solution: the proletarian revolution led by the Leninist Party!
Scintilla #151, February 2025
Published by Communist Platform – for the Communist Party of the Proletariat of Italy
Another War of Plunder in Africa
The war in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been reignited.
The armed group M23, supported by Rwandan troops, seized Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, on January 26, taking advantage of the divisions and disintegration of the corrupt Congolese regime.
The population is facing a disastrous humanitarian situation. There have been 3,000 dead. Over 700,000 people have been displaced. The population of Goma is deprived of electricity and drinking water. Hospitals are overloaded. Even before this new escalation, more than 5 million people had been displaced in the area due to years of aggression and conflict. Currently, more than 21 million people across the DRC are in need of humanitarian aid, one of the highest figures in the world.
In this dramatic scenario, the Congolese masses took to the streets to protest. Some foreign embassies, notably those of France, Belgium, the United States, Kenya and Uganda, have been attacked by protesters, showing a clear understanding of who is behind the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame, which is benefiting from the aggression of M23.
The battle for Goma is much more than a simple military clash that has lasted for decades in its development.
Narratives about ethnic rivalries or claims of "self-defense" cannot hide the real stakes: the robbery of the DRC's resources and the devastating impact of imperialist interference and interference that maintain reactionary military regimes and clans in Africa, arm troops and gangs led by "warlords" who set up parallel governments, They foment and finance armed conflicts, send mercenaries, cause massacres of civilians, murder, torture and violence. And when these means are not enough, they intervene directly with military means, only to issue hypocritical declarations of "peace and development".
The region around Goma is rich in coltan, cobalt, gold, cassiterite and other precious resources that are subject to savage and irrational exploitation.
Near Goma is the strategic Rubaya mine, which produces 15% of the world's coltan. In the DRC, most of the materials used by the leading industries for mobile phones, computers, electric cars, etc., are extracted at bargain prices.
The country has huge mineral resources that are mined for profit, while its population suffers from extreme poverty.
It is not the only African country in this condition. Africa is a continent despoiled by imperialist powers that oppress the peoples, violate their independence and sovereignty, plunder their resources and exploit a huge reserve of labor power at bargain prices, compete with each other for power and geopolitical areas of influence, externalize borders to manage migratory flows.
This rivalry is accentuated even more by the "ecological transition" and the need to extract valuable minerals from the subsoil, essential for the production of the latest generation of electronic equipment.
The investments of the imperialist powers, the credits they grant, the plans drawn up by the IMF, World Bank and other imperialist institutions have only produced greater dependence, backwardness and a mountain of debt that suffocates the lives of the African peoples.
It is in this context that the projects of the European Union's 'Global Gateway' program are introduced, which are oriented towards prospecting, extracting and processing of critical raw materials, which are of strategic importance for the profits of the monopolies of the automotive, arms and aerospace industries.
These are projects subordinated to imperialist priorities, without any concern for workers' rights, environmental and social impact.
What is happening in Congo is not a bolt from the blue. It was widely denounced in October 2024 in a report entitled: "Who profits from the Global Gateway? The EU new strategy for development cooperation" where the agreement signed by the EU and the European Investment Bank with Rwanda was denounced.
It is an agreement, which had seen the clear opposition of the Congolese population, and which was part of the already highly destabilized area of North Kivu.
In July 2024, the magazine "Politico" headlined in one of its correspondences: "Blood minerals: the EU is accused of fueling the conflict in the area following the agreement with Rwanda" and accused the "Memorandum of Understanding" on value chains of critical raw materials signed in February 2024 by Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen and Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs Vincent Biruta.
The agreement was accused of "creating a smokescreen for blood minerals smuggled out of eastern Congo", with the support of the M23 militias backed by the Rwandan regime.
Here is a concrete example of the causes of the conflicts that develop in Africa, closely linked to the strategies and contradictions between the various imperialist powers and the financial monopolies that are fighting for the sources of raw materials and the territories of dependent countries, to the point of dismembering them.
But the most infamous exploitation, the bandit plundering of natural resources, the inhuman oppression of hundreds of millions of inhabitants of the immense African countries is awakening the consciousness of the proletarians and peoples of these countries.
The increase of the revolutionary movement in many African countries, the mass uprisings that have recently taken place in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, the growing protests against the presence of troops from the imperialist countries, for their immediate withdrawal, are demonstrations of this.
The African peoples can no longer bear to be plundered of their wealth, sweat and blood; they can no longer accept the criminal imperialist policies.
This is of great importance for the proletariat because it undermines the positions of the bourgeoisie at their roots, transforming the dependent countries from reserves of imperialism into the reserves of the proletarian revolution.
Stop the war of plunder in the DRC! We support the anti-imperialist and anti-neo-colonialist struggle of the African peoples!
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