Stop the NATO Bombing of Libya- Victory to the Arab Revolution.
"But presumably, once Gaddafi's been dealt with, these dictators will back a UN resolution to bomb themselves, declaring, "The international community can no longer sit back and watch me trample on my own people, so I must be stopped. I give myself three days to recognise the opposition and call elections, otherwise I will assist Nato in bombing myself."
Socialist Mark Steele in the British Independent Newspaper
Western military intervention in Libya is being sold to us as “humanitarian intervention” to defend the revolution.
The uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal regime that began on 17 February remains an inspiration.
Gaddafi responded with attacks on civilians, the aerial bombardment of demonstrations, mass round-ups and executions.
This left many people in despair, and feeling that Western intervention was the only solution to save their lives.
But the West’s interests are not those of the Libyan revolution.
Western governments are not innocent or impartial. They are using this opportunity to reassert their influence in the region.
The ruling class has been rocked by the mass popular revolutions which brought down their allies—Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt.
If the West’s support for popular revolutions against violent dictators is genuine, then why are they not supporting all the revolutions?
Where is the challenge to the repression of protests in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen?
Hypocrisy
This week Israel launched yet more air attacks on Gaza—but the West has never threatened Israel with a no-fly zone.
The hypocrisy of imperialism is clear. These regimes are allies of the West, so it allows them to act with impunity. Ben Ali and Mubarak enjoyed Western support until it was clear that they were finished.
The Arab League’s support for the West’s actions has been used as a cover.
Yet the Arab League is made up of the very same dictators that the revolutions are trying to bring down.
They have proved to be solid allies of Western imperialism in the past and have shown no mercy to the popular movements in their own countries.
This alliance is already showing signs of fragmenting as the reality of the bombing becomes clear.
After the first day of the attack, Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, complained, “What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians.”
Western intervention is not about protecting innocent civilians or furthering the cause of the revolution.
It is aimed at guaranteeing the deals made with Gaddafi by the West in the past. Western powers have, from the beginning, made it difficult for the revolution to succeed on its own terms.
Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), the body that grew out of the revolution, made a series of simple demands in the first crucial days of the uprising. It asked for the recognition of the TNC, access to the billions in sequestrated regime funds in order to buy weapons and other crucial supplies, and an immediate halt to the “mercenary flights” that provided Gaddafi’s regime with its foot soldiers.
Western governments refused to accept even one of these demands. They even objected to weapons sales as they said these could fall into the hands of “Islamist terrorists.”
Objected
Instead, Western powers put a number of conditions on the revolution.
They demanded that any future Libyan government would honour all contracts signed by Gaddafi, including oil concessions.
They demanded that the strict repression of “Islamist” movements continue, and that any future government maintain Libya’s role as a guardian against African migration into southern Europe.
The West, in effect, blackmailed the revolution.
“Humanitarian intervention” has a bloody history. The case for humanitarian intervention made during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s became a cover for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
Troops still occupy both countries. The war in Afghanistan is in its tenth year.
The ruling class has been thrown into turmoil by the huge movements sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.
Now it is using its intervention as a way of regaining its foothold and rebuilding its credibility.
There is no guarantee that the West will leave Libya fast, and the danger of partition is real.
The Libyan revolution is not lost—but it has been forced to make compromises.
The demands for freedom, for an end to poverty and oppression still burn strongly.
The movements from below provide hope for any real long-term future for the people of the region.
The following should be read alongside this article:
Western intervention in Libya means devastation and war
There is an alternative to Western intervention
The 'precision' bombs that kill
Cameron's hands bloodied by arms sales
Disgraceful - only 13 MPs vote against war on Libya
The cost of Britain's war on Libya - £3 million a day
Nobody should believe that military intervention in Libya by Britain, France and the US will bring democracy and freedom.
12 reasons to oppose air strikes...
- David Cameron claims to be a friend of the uprisings against the dictators in the Middle East and North Africa. But his first response to the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt was to roam the region trying to peddle armaments and to sell more guns to the reactionary kings and emirs.
- The air war now will be about grabbing control of oil and entrenching Western power, not supporting democracy.
- The reactionary regimes of the Arab world were propped up for decades by the Western powers who now pose as friends of the Libyan people.
- Two years ago Hillary Clinton greeted Gaddafi’s son to the US State Department, and said, “We deeply value the relationship between the United States and Libya. We have many opportunities to deepen and broaden our cooperation and I am very much looking forward to building on this relationship.” The claims to be for liberation now are deeply hypocritical.
- The air war is supported by states such as Qatar and the UAE – who have sent their forces to take action alongside Saudi Arabia in crushing the resistance in Bahrain. The US fifth fleet is anchored in Bahrain – as the killing goes on.
- The US and Britain which now pose as a friend of democracy have been involved in mass murder in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Thursday a US drone slaughtered 38 people in Waziristan, Pakistan.
- The US and Britain makes much of the fact that the Arab League backs air attacks. But the Arab League is stuffed with regimes that are fighting their own people in the streets. They include Algeria, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. These are no friends of democracy.
- The French government that now threatens Libya supported Tunisia’s Ben Ali almost until the end. According to Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, President Sarkozy received election funding in 2007 from the Libyan regime!
- The air war will almost certainly lead to escalation. If air strikes don’t break Gadaffi, then the argument will grow for troops and an invasion. Intervention could lead to the partition of Libya and the creation of a NATO-backed enclave. It will be an outpost of imperialism and could be used to halt further developments of the revolutionary process in Egypt and elsewhere.
- Western military intervention will allow Gaddafi to pose as an antiimperialist. It can help to strengthen him.
- Imperialist intervention is never in the interest of the oppressed and exploited. It will strengthen those elements that seek to impose the power of capital across the Middle East and North Africa and across the globe. It will be throwing into reverse the process of revolution which has been an inspiration to us all.
- We want Gadaffi’s regime to go. But the only effective way to remove Gaddafi and to break the Libyan military in the interests of workers and the masses is the development of the process of revolution across the Arab world – in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. That is not an abstract idea. The glorious movements that tore down Ben Ali and Mubarak have continued to demand further political and social change. This is the hope for the region and the world.
No to military intervention!
Victory to the Arab Revolutions!
British Anti-War activist George Galloway on SKY TV
Video and Statement from MP Keith Locke of the NZ Green party opposing Western intervention in Libya- http://links.org.au/node/2
Comments
This is a man whose credentials are severely tarnished by his support for numerous Arab dictators.
It is well known that he addressed Saddam Hussein with the words: “Sir, I salute your courage, your strength, your indefatigability and I want you to know that we are with you, until victory, until Jerusalem”
But he also described Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship in Syria as “the last Arab country, the fortress of the remaining dignity of the Arabs,” praised its ruler as “the last Arab ruler,” and told the victims of the dictatorship that they were “a free people" saying" Syria is lucky to have Bashar Al-Assad as her president."(http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/770/re104.htm)
Galloway is a Stalinist relic whose politics has bee to support the Arab dictators of yesterday. Tomorrow belongs to the masses of the Arab street!