"Every where we have to establish committees of people's power"

At this occasion we want to talk about the mission of the 'committees of people's power'. The Alliance has to transform itself to committees of people's power. We established the Alliance to liberate our country of a state that had been aimed against the people, a state that only wanted to defend the foreign interests. The results were omnipresent misery, a ruined and looted economy.

The state in service of the foreign countries or in service of the people

The Mobutu-state had only one aim: to subordinate the national interests to the interests of the great powers. The oppressive character of this state was necessary to allow the foreign interests to flourish. The Alliance wants to make an end to this compradore-state (1), which was only a transmission belt for the orders of the foreign countries. This compradore-state was able to exist far too long. It brought around a certain culture, certain habits in the field of production, ideas and behaviour towards the people.

When we could take over state-power, our final objective was that the people itself could wield the government. But in order that the people would be able to govern, first we have to organise it. The people has to be organised so that it takes its responsibilities independently. The Alliance has to establish a people's state, a state that first of all looks at the interests of Congo.

Why this monstrous slander?

Those who established the old state and who fattened themselves up, are all over the world conducting a campaign to put the objectives of the Alliance in a bad daylight. It was their aim to oblige the new regime to take over the role of the government that just now had been send away. So we had to make a choice. Whether fearing that scandalous lie, to let it win and give in for fear and playing the same role as the previous state. Or to offer resistance to all those slander-campaigns and try to build a state that gives priority to the national interests.

The reactions all over the world in connection with the taking of power by the Alliance, weren't coincidental. The future of the Congolese people was at stake, a people that took possession of the most important instrument to build its material, social and cultural welfare.

We resolutely refused to become a compradore-state.

They want to get back the state

Long ago Leopold II possessed his Congo to take rubber out of it. When, in those days, you didn't come along to look for rubber, your arm was chopped of. Flogging was daily practice. They have looted a lot. Then they left and we obtained the right to have another state, with Congolese on the head of it, but who were foreign agents. The task of the state was to oppress always and every where.

We have taken power to establish a state of the people, to give the power to the people. We know that there will be many efforts to get their state back, especially by means of the political parties they demand. The people has to be watchful.

The power starting from the street and the village

From now on we have to organise the people so that it takes its future in its own hands.

Organising the people means to mobilise it continuously and to give it authorities which in other states only are given to the administration and the state, because they ostensible represent the interests of the people.

"The people has to govern", was the guideline in the struggle of the Alliance. So that the people would be able to govern it has to be organised and that takes place in the committees of people's power. They are indispensable in the life of the nation.

That power in the hands of the Congolese people, the power starting from the street and from the village has to be a real power. It has to manage the life in the community, the streets, the villages the neighbourhoods.

People's democracy or neo-colonial 'democracy'?

In the people's committees the population itself can discuss about all problems the country is confronted with. We need a national unity so that the people cannot get divided. Soon the bill that will legalise political activities is announced. Every possible group will try to spread its program. They will propose the people, that hasn't been organised enough yet, to vote for someone or other. In the old system there was a multitude of political parties which co-operated with the old state, while the people remained divided. Today we have to work at the unity of the people, at the domestic coherence. We have to resist against partition. The people have to organise itself and has to be aware of the risks of discord.

The alluring promises of the sorcerers

In this country the committees of people's power have a great future ahead of them. During a long period of time the Congolese people worked for foreign interests. Now the time has come that it works for its own interest. We have to exterminate poverty. But how can we succeed if we're not organised, if the people don't get any responsibility?

Some people think only of the people when they want to get a post as a representative! At the moment they are begging for their mandate, they make alluring promises. But when they have been elected they disappear and only the problems remain. The House of Representatives solves only a few problems.

There has to be a strong people's organisation that enables every one to take part in the work and especially in the decision making and the control at the carrying out. That's why we propose the committees of people's power.

The committees are the solution against a possible chaos at the moment of the liberalisation of the political parties. What will you be proposed? To leave the decision to others. It would be a capital mistake to give your power in the hands of someone who can make attractive propositions. He speaks to you as a sorcerer. You are voting for him. He says that he is going to repair your street. But you will never see him. Why didn't he do so the previous years? Those who are not satisfied about the present regime count on the political parties to be able to tear the unity of the people. A lot of countries which exploit us are afraid that the Congolese people is backing our government completely. They know when we remain unified, that we will perform miracles. With all its intelligence the people will be able to process, here on the spot, the wealth we have been sitting on for all these years. In this way we become a nation which is equal to all the others.

The only difference between you and the political parties is that you are an organised people, that you have the power in hand and that you wield that power. The political parties try to take the power that you have in hand. That difference is clearly noticeable. The politicians want to pull that power out of your hands. So it's to you to decide. When you're fed up with power, then give it to the politicians.

The lesson from the war of Kinshasa

Recently you have known situations in which the Congolese people has obtained a certain maturity. Despite the hostile campaign, the Congolese people kept on supporting the government of general welfare and M'Zee Kabila, firmly. The entire people, in all its variety, has been united behind M'Zee. Those millions of Congolese of all political parties chose to range on the side of the man who represents their interests.

Here, in Kinshasa, when the usurpers tried their coup d'Etat, the entire people stood up to crush the ones who wanted to colonise Congo again. We have to keep that unity. And to safeguard that solid coherence in difficult moments, we have to organise the people in order to let it take part in wielding power.

People's power to expand a national economy

We have taken measures that improve the life of the nation. Here I mention the decision to give the Congolese Frank a legal rate that is in force in the entire territory of the Democratic Republic Congo. That's a beneficial measure that enhances the power of the people. Every one knows that the currency is one of the elements of the sovereignty of a nation. The country is at the mercy of an unbridled speculation. The dollar, the dollar.... This country was almost a colony. It didn't have a currency of its own. No one in Congo controlled the circulation of the dollar. It took courage to put an end to that. The foreign pressure was enormous: "Look out, tell the president that it will turn out badly when he chases away the street-speculators." This decision, how favourable it is, wouldn't have been possible without the coherence of the people that supports the government. Now the Congolese people has a strong currency. So the committees of people's power, from the basis to the top, have to defend protect and apply the measures that are favourable for the country.

Govern your street, your municipality and your village

The committees of people's power in the streets are the governments of the streets. When there's a problem about the expansion of a village, the committee of people's power knows that there has to be a discussion about it with the higher level. It won't be any longer like it used to be, when the village was not involved in the making of priorities. The village is the nucleus of the nation. We give the people the chance to define the priorities in the development, to start with its street or its neighbourhood and to make propositions about how to tackle the problems, even more: to co-operate to achieve those solutions. So the committee of people's power isn't a committee of a political party, it's the people that wields power and that discovers its priorities on this or that field.

Control the dealers and the mayors

This is a city that always was at the mercy of speculation and increases in prices. But even the control of the prices is a matter for this basis-government. The Italian government gives nutrition to the Congolese State. The state gives that rice or flour to the merchants to sell it. Of course these aren't all saints, the people knows that very well. The people knows which merchants are greedy or honest! So we have to involve the committees of people's power with this matter. It's the street, the neighbourhood, the municipality and the city that has to say which merchants are real nationalists who will do what we expect them to. And the people from the street will watch over the prices.

Another part of the foreign help we give in return of labour. The committees of people's power are the ones who have to say: "Our neighbourhood has got bad streets, there's no school, no health-centre..." The municipality, that discusses about this matter with the committees on various levels, has to be able to define accurately: we're going to repair that street, and the people who are going to help with that job get this amount of rice in return. But what would happen when if we would do so with our old bureaucratic habits, without consulting the people? You are mayor and you take a decision without consulting anyone? We know what is going to happen: a part of the rice that was meant to reward the work ends up in the shops of the merchants. And for the work that has to be done we see people arriving in cars from elsewhere, they stop, make the machines run for a while and they're gone. And then all the rice appears to be disappeared. The committees of people's power give the people responsibility so that it is involved with all that concerns the life of the nation and it's own life.

Stop the loot of our diamonds

On provincial level the committee is an important organ of power, it knows the priorities of the province. It carries out the three-year plan for the reconstruction. We want to develop our country and to encourage the trade with other countries. But we prevent the barting away of our raw materials.

Measures have been taken, like the establishing of the exchange for precious raw materials. Foreigners have occupied, mostly completely illegal, entire regions in order to snatch away the diamond, gold etc. They bring it to the capital, they accumulate wealth but the state doesn't get a single part of it. When a committee of people's power comes across with such a foreigner, then the case is quiet clear: "Sir, what are you doing here? It's not the meaning that you're here. You're not a Congolese, what are you doing in our diamond mine. You have imported capitals to buy are diamonds, you have got to be on the exchange for precious raw materials with your dollars, not in the village."

Formerly the nepotism of the village-chief was law. Every chief had his Lebanese or other foreigner. But from now on they have to stop in Kinshasa and the Congolese are the ones who do the job interior. In the scope of the committees of peoples power there are economic departments, we will organise the villagers who can buy equipment to exploit the diamond, gold or emerald. They will be able to sell it in Kinshasa.

They have killed the initiatives

Your merchants have nothing to do with capitalism. They have no factories, lots of them are occupied with small business. They import chickens and fish. Do you think that Congo can persist on such an economy? You import mpiodi, you sell it here, you go and get dollars on the street and the circle starts again. But the Congolese people doesn't win anything with that. Absolutely nothing.

In a recent past the compradore-state prevented every development of national capitalists. It acted this way because such a national capitalist would mean competition for the multinationals. It did anything to kill initiatives and that's why we're having no industry. We import paper, pencils, pens, all products that we could be produced by ourself. We need more small-scale processing-industry.

A powerful industry to command respect

For our country we have to develop a new economy. That's the objective of our people's state. I want factories that produce shoes. I want large textile factories. We import cotton because we don't grow it ourselves. Do we have to import everything? No, I think that it's about time that we build a flourishing national economy. We have to make vehicles by ourselves. Spare parts for the imported vehicles, we have to produce them by ourselves. If we don't what is Congo going to be like? You have to buy everything and you think that with your economy you can maintain a war? Where is our heavy industry?

It's the task of the people's state, the task of this people organised in committees for people's power to build a strong economy to command respect. Because today it's hard to bear the burden of the war with an economy that only exists for the pleasure of the merchants. So we have the task to build a national industry. You want tanks and fighter vehicles? We can produce them by ourselves, in some factories some necessary machines are already there. When we have take power we did it with that objective.

Our victory is to give power to the people

The Alliance has to accept that turn about and transform itself in a committee of people's power. Not transforming means moving against the flow of history, then the Alliance would become reactionary and would disappear. The great victory of the Alliance is to give power to the people and therefore to establish committees of people's power. What is one afraid of? The Alliance isn't there for individual careers. The struggle is still very bitter. One has to take in hand one's own transformation, otherwise one will be overtaken by the events. One shouldn't try to stop such a revolution of which the final objective is known. We are very happy that the Congolese people in its entirety does recognise itself in the action that we have started. This is the action of the Congolese people. We have to organise the people so that it is responsible for what it is doing, that's the point of the committees of people's power. It really is a great revolution that occurs in our country, a great people's revolution that the people isn't the victim of. With the committees of people's power we will realise democracy materially. Be watchful, because one will tell you that we prevent the political parties from playing their role. When the old parties rear their heads again, we will never allow them to divide the people because then it will be difficult to defend the interests of the people.

We know are major ailments. The most important issue is the correct political leadership. The political leadership has to be the one of the people, the one of the committees of people's power. You have to defend your power because the others haven't yet buried the hatchet. You really are wielding power in your country. In the beginning there's a certain hesitation. But we're very glad that now the people understands that it has to take its responsibility alone, and I say loud and clear: alone. Our determination to continue till the end is irreversible. Soon we will have a congress of the committee of people's power of the city of Kinshasa and after that a great national congress.

Many Africans who feel very strongly about their people will follow you, because the Congolese are very brave. I thank you for that, we'll meet again on the congress of the committees of peoples power of the Kinshasa province!