the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
December 8, 2025
This article is translated from the November 20 issue, #192 of Das rote Tuch (The Red Flag), the monthly of the Trotskyist group Bund Revolutionaerer Arbeiter (Revolutionary Workers League) active in Germany.
Up to 100 people died on November 15 when a cobalt mine collapsed in Congo.
What triggered the disaster was that the army fired on miners. Many miners ran away as a temporary bridge saturated by heavy rains collapsed and caused a landslide.
Deadly collapses like this are not uncommon in Congo. Many mines are operated entirely without safety measures. Numbering as many as 10,000 in a single mine, miners extract cobalt under extremely dangerous conditions. They are forced to work at gunpoint, overseen by soldiers of the Congolese army and other militias financed for years by Western corporations.
Cobalt benefits electronics and automotive companies in Europe and the USA. These corporations like Apple and Volkswagen are the real culprits in the deaths of these workers and others who die in countless workplace accidents.