As part of our focus on Boycott Campaigns, we are joining the call for a Tech Boycott Campaign and we are asking all doulas and supporters of Doulas Decolonising in SCEE+OUK and worldwide to get involved.
The Western focus on consumerism through capitalism and colonialism leaves many of us unaware of how and where the tech that we buy is created. We buy into the capitalist cycles of needing the newest phone, of ‘upgrading’, of being constant consumers. But this consumption comes at a cost. And one of the countries that this cost is most deadly is in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Around 7 million people have been displaced in Congo due to violence, extreme poverty and mining expansion. The Congolese people have been exploited for minerals such as coltan that is commonly used within many tech items, but we are not hearing about this in the mainstream media. Adults and children alike are being ‘enslaved’ to these mining ventures, put at extreme risk daily and experiencing poor health effects, horrific working conditions and a capitalist Western supported genocide.
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple the largest tech company in the world, took home $99 million in compensation in 2022. Meanwhile the children mining the cobalt and other minerals used within phones, laptops and other Apple tech in Congo took home an average of $2 per day. The cost of an iPhone is higher than what these children would make in a year.
We are calling for a boycott from buying new technology – something which is a reasonable request. The technology that we already have and use we need to use until it is broken, not replace it before then. We cannot change the harm we have already participated in, but we can and should change how we move forward.
So we join the call for a boycott of all new tech, including but not limited to items from Apple, HP, Samsung, Microsoft, Sony, Intel, Dell, Tesla etc.
Alongside the Tech Boycott, we are also launching a Used Tech Bank, where we will be receiving your donations of excess tech items and donating them to doulas and community members who may need the items to help prevent them from needing to buy new tech. You can see more about that here.
We are following the guidance and education that groups such as Friends of Congo are sharing and we wish to uplift and prioritise the Congolese community in our Tech Boycott Campaign, so please do get in contact with us if you want to help shape our Campaign.