More than 200 workers digging coltan in East Congo's Rubaya mine were killed in a landslide last Wednesday. Some are still buried in the mud. Many were children.

    This mine produces 15% of the world's coltan, which is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal in high demand by makers of cell phones, computers, aerospace components, gas turbines and... weapons.

    This type of "mining" is given the nice name of "artisanal", but what that means is a "free-for-all" - although "free" is really the wrong word - where anyone who can, digs for this ore with a spade and bare hands, in order to try and earn a few pennies.

    Given the importance of coltan ore, the whole region has been torn by wars between rival local militias. The latest victors are the M23 group, which continues to fight the official troops of the Democratic Republic of Congo. M23 is backed by Rwanda's President Paul Kagame, in power for the past 26 years, as the western-backed "winner" of Rwanda's own horrific {un)civil war, which ended in 1994.

    Kagame is notorious - known for sending assassins after those who oppose him. But for British government(s) (and royalty) he's a very good friend. They've always had extremely warm relations with him. Yes, because who controls the very dirty, but super- lucrative, trade in coltan, is what counts for the representatives of billionaire capitalism - who keep their own hands clean, of course.

    This metal ore is covered in human blood. It is today's "blood diamonds" - the diamonds, which in the 1990s, were the cause of civil war across West Africa and in Sierra Leone in particular. Maybe some will remember the recruitment of child soldiers, the drugging, and the practice of chopping off hands - and legs. After the war ended, some survivors became famous for their ability to play football on crutches....

    So why are we writing about this today? Because the wars across the poor countries, be it in the DRC, Sudan, Yemen, Myanmar, (not to mention Russia- Ukraine), are, behind the immediate actors, waged in the interests of feeding the rich world's ever-growing technology tycoons; those producing memory chips, cell phones, "green" energy, data centres, electric vehicles, guided missiles and drones - in fact almost all today's high-tech, good, or bad.

    The current distraction of scandals around individuals is timely for the politicians, whose job it is to maintain this ruthless system of exploitation and death - which also drives many of our fellow workers from the so-called "Global South" to seek refuge in the "Global North". But no workers tolerate such deadly super-exploitation for long. They will join hands and rebel - and we have good reason to help them to fight, in order to overthrow the system which harms us all.

After the shocking videos showing ICE "agents" in Minneapolis murdering protester Alex Pretti went viral - just weeks after the murder of Renee Good, also caught on camera - Trump withdrew some of his most rabid dogs from the city. But not all of them, which has led to growing protests in Minnesota and across the US.

    As Trump's approval ratings plummet (-15%), he doesn't want to be seen backing down on his government's anti-migrant policy. The swamping by ICE of Los Angeles, New York, Aurora {Colorado}, and Chicago continues, targeting anyone with darkish skin. This is a terror tactic aimed at the poorest sections of the working class - an "old" strategy of divide and rule.

    Trump's so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, passed in July, tripled the immigration enforcement budget to $170 billion. Over the past year alone, ICE has more than doubled in size, hiring 12,000 new deportation officers trained in just 42 days. Recruitment ads such as "Which way, American man?" - a reference to a white supremacist book and "Destroy the flood", borrowed from a video game about invasive alien parasites, are designed to attract trigger-happy, racist thugs.

    However, the US ruling class has a long history of recruiting such forces to terrorise the poorest layers of society. At the turn of the 20th century, industrial bosses hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to murder striking workers. For much of the 20th century, the Ku Klux Klan lynched and terrorised Black workers, especially the most militant. The London Met's Special Patrol Group played a similar role. In Southall in 1979 Blair Peach was killed during an anti-racist protest. In Brixton, black working class youth were targeted when they rose up against saturation policing. Today, Home Secretary Mahmood's proposal for a national police and counter-terrorism force, aspires to mimic US national enforcement agencies and relaunch local "SPGs".

    The targeting of immigrant workers is just the beginning of a renewed attack on the whole working class, which the capitalists require to preserve profits in the face of ever-worsening crisis.

    As they and their politicians turn nastier, the working class also needs to get nasty. And prepare to use one of its most effective weapons, namely, the "all- out", general strike, as a first defensive step.