U.N. plots with Belgian imperialism to strangle Congo

Editor’s note: Workers World is in its 50th year of publication. Throughout the year, we intend to share with our readers some of the paper’s content over the past half century. This article was originally published in Volume 2 on July 28, 1960. The accompanying article, on a New York solidarity demonstration, appeared on Aug. 25, 1960.

“It is racism to kick the white people out of the Congo!” So screams the racist capitalist press in the United States.

But who were the white people who were in the Congo?

Workers World Party founder Sam Marcy, second from left, at 1960 demonstration. WW photo

You can bet they were not copper mine workers, sweating half-naked as they dug up the fabulous copper wealth to be exported out of Africa. And you can bet they were not diamond miners, nor cobalt, nor uranium miners. They weren’t porters, janitors, mill workers, plantation workers or harbor workers, either.

As a matter of fact, the white people that were in the Congo were not working people at all. They were the overseers for the real slave masters back home in Belgium.

They were the middle class representatives of upper class capitalism. They were the higher-paid clerks, the engineers, the petty bosses, the merchants and technicians—most of them armed with pistols and whips—some of them weighted with a guilty conscience.

(These latter did not wait until “Independence Day” to leave the Congo. They got out weeks before, because they feared the vengeance of the long-suffering masses.)

This job monopoly for Belgians is a great help to the Belgian capitalists in bribing their middle class servants and keeping them satisfied and supporting the imperialist oppression of the Congo.

The white people in the Congo do not represent the white race, but the middle and upper class of exploiting capitalists. The Congolese are treating them not as whites, but as oppressors.

What about the horrific reports of mistreatment of white people, alleged rapings, and even the killing of several?

Actually, this is another example of the astonishing generosity of the oppressed to their oppressors. It is amazing there was not a real bloodbath against the Belgians.

The bloody horrors of Belgian misrule are burned into the memory of the Congolese. And they are infinitely worse than even the false claims of Congolese violence against the Belgians!

The accusations of “rape” and especially “rape of nuns” are always used during times of mass rebellion and revolution, in order to discredit the poor workers. This is especially true when an oppressed race is involved. And these tales should be dismissed as lies and slander.

But there have been tens of thousands of individual and real rapes by the Belgian oppressors. Of course, this is not even defined as rape in the dictionary of imperialism. The women of an oppressed race or nationality are automatically considered less than human by their oppressors.

The Congolese, however, are human beings. And they are ready to die to prove it. They consider that they and their whole country are being raped by the Belgians. And that is why they want to get the Belgians out.

Pickets demand U.N., Belgium, both get out of Congo

WW, Aug. 25, 1960

Demonstrating for Congo freedom with their feet—by picketing for many hours in the broiling hot sun before the U.N. last Sunday [Aug. 21, 1960]—about 75 people, black and white together, called for the ousting of Belgian and U.N. troops from the Congo.

Picket lines were organized by two separate groups—but within a short time, the two lines were united. Both groups set the protest demonstration to coincide with the Security Council meeting of the U.N., called to discuss the Congo.

The first picket line to start marching was organized (according to leaflets distributed there) under the auspices of the Committee For All Nationalities Struggling For Freedom & Independence. This is a broad committee embracing three organizations listed as Heart of Africa Committee, Eloise Moore, Chairman; 21st of March Movement (for Puerto Rican Independence), Luis Munoz, Chairman; and New York Committee in Defense of Oppressed Peoples, Dorothy Ballan, Chairman. In full support of the Committee’s action, and participating with a sizeable delegation was the 26th of July Movement (for Cuban independence).

The second picket was organized by several African Nationalist groups. It was difficult to determine exactly what were the names of the other organizations because they did not distribute any notices.

But it was a great triumph for oppressed peoples everywhere, and for everyone fighting for national independence, when the second picket line, organized by African Nationalists, agreed to have the first picket line join them, and all united in a solid demonstration for the Congolese people—and against imperialism.