Under pressure from investors De Beers has given up its role as the buyer of last resort. It has stockpiled diamonds since 1934 as a result of the depression. The stockpile stood at $3.9 billion at the end of 1999.
The trouble for finance capital is that De Beers gets no interest on this sum of money.
Fortunately for them the price of diamonds has been buoyant and they plan to cut the stockpile to $2.5 billion during 2001.
They also want to promote brands as a more modern way of having monopoly control over a commodity.
This announcement was released earlier this week.
Yesterday a UN backed agreement was announced regulating diamond sales throughout the world and barring dealing in "blood-diamonds" from conflict areas such a Angola, Sierra Leone, and DR Congo.
De Beers has led the way in issuing guarantees that its stones do not originate in conflict zones. The announcements were clearly co-ordinated.
The UK and no doubt the US government have been behind this deal which shows an alliance between the forces of finance capital, and those wishing to organise the world on *slightly* more rational lines. It shows that Britain's military intervention in Sierra Leone earlier this year was not simple old-fashioned gun-boat diplomacy.
This international agreement no doubt could not have been achieved without computers.
The onward march of the influence of the means of production on the superstructure of human society.
Chris Burford
London