The US. plot will fail A By IDRIS COX Council Th now bein of Ministers 8 convened by the se : tion retariat of the Organiza- Cusg peitcan Unity to dis- Ongo situation ; 4 day foe a ituation is not Indeeq Dectaq , CMe would have ex- ig . a much earlier, for what Beriggg ine in the Congo is a Africa, threat to the whole of of at month alone, hundreds Wondegca2s_ Were killed and Omelegg and thousands made shombe? This is the result of i &s return, and his mis- Slon of cr - National reconciliation.” ie 4“ Army» Congolese National @S no stomach for fur- they b Af, oa So American, South te tale and Rhodesian planes a8 in white “advisers” Tcenaries to attack the S€ liberation forces. Cutlawed The laveq by position parties, out- Y Adoula and Kasavubu ngole a year ago, formed a National Committee of Liberation in Oc- tober 1963. The overthrow of the reactionary Youlou Govern- ment in the ex-French Congo (now the Republic of Congo) across the river, in August last year, and the setting up of a progressive government there, gave the Committee a new base for operations. In January this year a full- scale revolt in the Kwilu prov- ince, led by Pierre Mulele (for- mer Education Minister in the 1960 Lumumba government), was successful. It spread to Kivu and Nort Katanga, and later the libera- tion forces captured Stanley- ville, capital of the Oriental province, which was Lumumba’s stronghold. The liberation struggle ad- vanced so rapidly that the American magazine Time on Aug. 14 had to admit: “Slowly but surely the country 1s slip- ping out of the government’s grasp. In the seven months since the current wave of re- volt began in Kwilu province, T n ues young Congolese fishermen (above) smile for the camera- ' Reto re setting out for a day's work on the Congo River (below). various rebel bands . have captured fully a third of the nation.” Alarming a situation that It was ‘caused alarm and desperation in United States ruling circles. Unable to rely any longer on their puppets Adoula and Kasa- vubu, they brought Tshombe back. With the decision to release Gizenga (Lumumba’s successor) and vague hints of new demo- cratic measures, it was hoped that Tshombe would succeed. This strategy was a failure. No responsible Congolese leader would trust Tshombe. Gizenga refused to cooperate, and has now organized a new political party—the United Lumumbists. The National Liberation Council is carrying on the struggle to free the whole of the Congo. What lies behind the new turn of events in the Congo is not only the situation existing there, but the desperate imperialist gamble to prevent the African national revolution moving fur- ther to the south. United States imperialism is the spearhead of this reaction- ary counter-offensive, but other imperialist powers are deeply involved — especially Britain, Belgium and Portugal, not to mention the apartheid rulers: in South Africa, and the ‘dominant white settlers in Southern Rho- ‘desia. Within the framework of this common imperialist aim the United States is striving to in- crease its economic and political domination at the expense of its “partners.” While Tshombe headed the Katanga breakaway he was act- ing for Belgian and British mon- opoly interests. This didn’t suit the Americans, so they used their dominant position in the machinery of the United Nations to get rid of him. They were banking on Adoula (Congo “Premier’) and Presi- dent Kasabuvu to carry out their orders. Edmund A. Gullion, the new U.S. Ambassador, became a kind of governor-general in the Congo.-Gizenga was arrested and imprisoned on a remote island. A new American-spon- sored constitution, splitting the six Congo provinces into 21 parts, was pushed through, while new repressive measures were put into force. No success The Americans were no more successful with these Congo puppets than they were with their stooges in South Vietnam. A scene in a Congolese village. Even after arresting many op- position leaders, Adoula couldn’t muster a majority in his Parlia- ment and was often shouted down.. The trade unions launched sharp attacks on the Govern- ment, and the Opposition parties were moving toward unity of action. President Kasavubu’s answer was to dissolve Parliament last September, and it has not met since! Adoula returned from a visit to the United States in time to carry out his orders to declare a state of emergency on Oct. 21. One of the first steps was to ban all the Opposition parties and arrest as many of their leaders as they could get hold of. This is the kind of situation which has existed in the Congo during the past year. Meanwhile the United States was steadily forcing Belgium (former imperi- alist ruler of Congo) into the position of junior partner, in both the economic and the poli- tical sphere. Until 1961, Belgium had taken 35 percent of Congo’s exports. Now the figure is less than 15 percent. In the past two years the U.S. has extended over $350 million in “economic aid” to the Congo. Belgian ruling circles have been forced to strike a political bargain with their stronger “partner,” but in return have been able to sell their former stooge, Tshombe, to the Ameri- cans. Joint move This new American venture was made possible only by the cooperation of the Portuguese imperialists, the apartheid rulers of South Africa, British ruling circles, and the dominant white settlers in Southern Rhodesia. Premier Salazar of Portugal gave refuge in Angola to Tshom- be’s defeated mercenary Katan- ga army, which has now re- emerged to attack the Congo- lese liberation forces. Well-paid mercenaries earning $450 to $600 a month, are open- ly recruited in South Africa, attracted by the lavish adver- tisements in the press***~ This is also the: sittiation in Salisbury, capital of Southern Rhodesia, whose premier, Jan Smith also visited Portugal to have talks with Salazar, on his way to London. White minority domination in Southern Rhodesia not only means suppression of the Afri- can majority there, but provides one of the pillars that props up Tshombe in the Congo. Which means that Congolese freedom and African liberation in Southern Rhodesia depend to a great extent also on defeating Sir Alec Douglas-Home at the next general election, and end- ing Tory rule in Britain. é A small hydro-electric power station on the Congo River. > September 25, 1964—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 7