Most of the goods and “luxuries” we enjoy in the western world are based off the exploitation of the global south (particularly Africa) https://twitter.com/kamaufranklin/status/1353345172466266112

“In 1926, the Firestone Rubber Company of the U.S.A was able to acquire one million acres of forest land in Liberia at the cost of 6 cents per acre and 1 percent of the value of the exported rubber.

Firestone’s profits from Liberia’s land and labor carried them to 25th position among the giant companies of the U.S.A.”

“Copper was Africa’s chief mineral export. Being an excellent conductor of electricity, it became an indispensable part of the capitalist electrical industry. It is an essential component of generators, motors, electric locomotives, telephones, telegraphs, light and power lines,

motor cars, buildings, ammunition, radios, refrigerators, and a host of other things.”

“African minerals played a decisive role both with regard to conventional weapons and with regard to the breakthrough to atomic and nuclear weapons. It was from the Belgian Congo during the Second World War that they U.S.A began getting the uranium that was a prerequisite to the

making of the first atomic bomb.”