We've all been talking a fair bit about the Israeli conquest of Gaza, but relatively few people are talking about the Congolese situation. Right now, agents of the corporate feudal state, armed with American-made weapons, are abducting people from elsewhere in Africa and taking them to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to work as cobalt miners. That sounds like conspiracy theory, but it isn't. It's corporate feudalism 101, right here—as the big tech companies lust for greater and greater amounts of money, the rare-earth minerals involved in the manufacture of integrated circuits and microchips have to be mined at a faster and faster rate. Right now, Microsoft is desperate for you to buy a new laptop every time a new version of Windows 11 is released; Apple is desperate for you to buy a new laptop, too; Samsung and Apple are desperate for you to throw away your old phone and upgrade to an identical one with a different version of the operating system. Sony is desperate for you to buy a new television set for your new PS5. Uh-oh, you dropped one of your expensive bluetooth earphones into a storm drain; welp, time to get a new pair so you can lose one in the toilet this time. The fact is, we're being pressured from all angles into updating our technology; new phone, new computer, new TV, new car, new smartwatch, new this, new that; which leads to heaping great piles of electronic waste. Perfectly good electronic devices, cast aside because 3 months is the new 6 months, and the company responsible sent an over-the-air update that patched out support for it. All the raw materials required to build these devices have to come from somewhere, and a large part of it is cobalt, which is mined chiefly in Congo-Kishasa. As tech companies push you into getting a new phone every 3 months, they abduct more people from Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi, and make them slaves in the Kivu coltan mines.
While any effective change on an individual level in Gaza doesn't seem very likely, the solution to the Congolese situation is simple: hold onto your (relatively) old technology. Contrary to the corporate feudal propaganda machine, there is nothing magical or irreparable about technology, and as much as they lobby against the Right to Repair, it just isn't very effective. People still have tutorials on how to fix phones, people still make screwdrivers that are compatible with the company's proprietary screw-heads, people still find ways around updates that brick devices, and there's no amount of lobbying Samsung, or Apple, or Microsoft, or LG, or Sony, or Huawei, or Nintendo can do to change that.
I'm serious about this. Did you ever imagine that you could wield the power to stop slavery? Oh, sure, it's not a panacaea; it won't stop the corporate feudal machine overnight, but it's the weakest link in its drive chain. Right now, the US government is arming the Congolese militia groups under the assumption that this is the surest way to control the mining industry in Congo-Kinshasa. They're doing this because they need the largest American tech companies to have easy access to the supplies they need to make a ballooning supply of electronic devices. But, eventually, the company has to actually sell the product to someone in order to make any money. If the company can't sell the product, they don't see a return, their profits go down, shareholders sell their stock, and the US Federal Trade Commission investigates why. Just like with data analytics, it ultimately comes down to the end user—you. You personally can fight slavery in central Africa by just saving money and not buying a new phone. Or, buying a $200 refurbished Windows 10 laptop instead of a $2500 new Windows 11 one. Or—and here's the big one—using your computer to emulate console games instead of buying a Nintendo Switch and subscribing to 2 discrete services. Yessir, the very same rare-earths used in the manufacture of mobile phones are also used in videogame consoles. It'll save you a shitload of money while simultaneously wasting the money of the huge corporations. The money you save on a new phone alone can be donated to Congo Action or the Panzi Foundation to directly benefit victims of capitalism.
The corporate feudal state is counting on the consumer base to be ignorant and stupid. Don't be that. Be better than that.
--14 November 2023--