Hello everybody, welcome back to Rev Left Radio. Today we have a very important episode on today that we really wanted to share with people. And it's an issue that has been going on for quite some time, doesn't get as much coverage as it should. And that is the issue of what's going on in the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

specifically in the eastern Congo, around the coal bolt mines and other natural resources

and mineral mines.

The role that U.S. imperialism plays with the Comprador regimes in Rwanda and Uganda

and how they work together to destabilize and brutalize the Congolese people and the Congo in general.

This is a really important conversation and I really hope people listen to it.

We have two wonderful guests from the organization, Friends of the Congo.

We have Maurice from that organization,

and we also have Passy, who has actually grew up and is in, as we speak to him in this interview,

is in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So we get Passi's

sort of on the ground organizer perspective of the issue, and we get Marisa's deep knowledge of the

history of the area and the role that U.S. imperialism and Western neocolonialism plays.

And so throughout this conversation, it's just a really wonderful patchwork of perspectives

that help us understand what's going on.

And importantly, the most important

thing is, of course, how we can help. And at the very end, I asked that question. They both answer it.

But one of the main answers is going to freecongo.org. There, you can donate money to the cause to

help the people who are being brutalized by these rebel groups, by M23, etc.

You can sign a petition that they ask you to sign,

and you can even connect and join up with the organization,

Friends of the Congo, to help them in a more concrete and ongoing fashion.

I highly, highly encourage people to do that.

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