Cyclical Imperialism: A Historicized Look at Tesla's Role in the Plunder of Congo

js57691
Oct 6, 2020
4 min read

Updated: Oct 6, 2020

Continuing a history of exploitative economic relationships, cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo extends a long tradition of western imperialism. Despite the demise of colonization and child labor, American companies still benefit from the material resources of countries and manual labor of underage workers in far-flung areas across the southern hemisphere. Key among these sites of extraction is Congo in Central Africa. Boasting the world’s largest deposits of cobalt and extensive stocks of other precious minerals, Congo, perhaps like no other place on the face of the earth, has been shaped by a painful history of resource conflicts due to demand that is generated from abroad. Much, if not all, of this demand has been stimulated – now and in the past – by transnational companies like Tesla, Inc.

Tesla enjoys the distinction of being part of a short roster of transnational companies that have been able to shape both the history and future of the global economy in fundamental ways. However, its prestige in the popular imagination notwithstanding, Tesla also joins the dubious list of American companies that, through their work and economic relationships in developing countries, have been found to be associating with companies that have either been accused of or otherwise sanctioned for corrupt and exploitative practices. Like many transnational companies before it, Tesla has been slow to accede to pressure to reform its practices in this regard. Whereas pressure for these large companies to act ethically has almost always emanated from the people that are most affected by their harmful practices, their pleas for reform have typically only found legitimacy when consumers in the west have taken note and amplified them. The situation that Tesla finds itself in today bears striking similarities to this past of inaction; as it has come under fire for supporting companies that flout child labor laws in Congo, Tesla has ultimately only changed course – much too late, after considerable handwringing, and without any real atonement for harm done – to save their bottom line.

As an archetypal transnational company that is operating in the twenty first century, Tesla’s entanglement with other large international conglomerates is reflective of the complex networks that characterize flows of people, capital, and goods in the modern era. These flows, far from being new, actually replicate webs that were initially woven during the early years of the transatlantic slave trade and European imperialism and have progressively intensified overtime. Indeed, as the intensification of global flows has accelerated and the nature of the flows has shifted in form, it has become increasingly difficult to disentangle the myriad connections that exist between entities. As exemplified by the case of Tesla's involvement with Glencore and other upstream mining operators in the Congo, large transnational companies today depend on other sprawling multinationals that are, in turn, connected to and reliant upon several other layers of local, regional, and global economic actors. This labyrinth of interconnectedness – one that Tesla is embedded in as a powerful actor – is a direct manifestation of a long history of globalization and globalism.

Though seemingly tangential to the core issues facing Tesla, its aforementioned entanglements in Congo also bring to the fore issues of weaponized interdependence. In a sense, weaponized interdependence – that is, the use of global network dependencies by hegemonic powers to exact costs on, extract concessions from, or otherwise issue rewards to other actors in the international system – is one of the most extreme expressions of the intensification of a global history that continues hurtling, almost uncontrollably and in some ways inevitably, towards forced connectedness. Indeed, according to some observers, weaponized interdependence – by exploiting deeply entrenched global networks and their concomitant codependencies – is the brand-new face of historical hegemonic imperialism. The activities of transnational companies such as Tesla – for example, by choosing to do business with unscrupulous government officials in places such as Congo and thereby leading to the country being blacklisted from foreign markets – enable the United States and other western powers to destroy entire economies and the livelihoods of citizens of countries in distant locales.

The continuation of extractive imperialism, entrenchment of transnational companies, intensification of globalism, and emergence of weaponized interdependence described above form the historical context through which Tesla’s relationship with Congo can be examined. The image that begins to form about how Tesla’s decision to expand into Europe through Berlin affects locals in Congo, though familiar in many ways and obscure and unknowable in some ways, offers a compelling site for more engaged research.

References

Cyclical Imperialism: A Historicized Look at Tesla's Role in the Plunder of Congo

Recent Posts

Comments