“Expressing grave concern
at the
deteriorating situation, the escalation of violence, and the heavy civilian casualties…
Condemning the gross and systematic violation of human rights, including arbitrary
detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and summary executions…
Considerin g that the widespread
and systematic
attacks currently taking place
in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya against
the civilian
population
may amount to crimes against humanity…
Expressing
its determination to ensure
the protection
of civilians ….
Authorizes Member
States that have
notified
the Secretary-General….to
take all necessary measures…. to protect civilian s and civilian populated areas under threat of attack”
Since 20
Obviously Gadd afi is a bloody dictat or. After several weeks of retreat in the face
of the rebellion, the self-proclai m ed ‘Guide’
of Liby a was able to reorganis e
his elite troops to make a counter-attack . Day after day, his for ce s
were able to gain
ground, crushing everything
in his path, ‘rebels’ as well the population in general. And without doubt, he was
preparing a bloodbath for the inhabit ant s of
Benghazi when
the Operation
Dawn Odyssey
was launched. The air
strikes by the coali tion took a
heavy toll of Gaddafi’s forces and
thus in effect
prevented the massacre .
Where was this coalition when Gaddafi
slaughtered over
1000 prisoners held at
Abu Salim jail in Tripoliin 1996? The fact is that for 40 years this regime has been jailing
people, terrorising them, making them disa ppear, executing them…with complete impunity.
Yesterday, where was the coali tion when Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt or Bouteflika in Algeria were shooting at crowds during the uprisings of January and February?
Sarkozy, Cameron, Obama and Co. can present themselves as savi ours, as defend er s of the widow and the
orphan, but for them the
suffering of the civilians of Benghazi is just an al i bi to intervene and defend their
sordid imperialist interests. All
these gangsters have a reason for launching this
imperialist crusade:
-
This time, unlike in
recent wars,
the USA has not been at the forefront of the military operation. Why?
Why is the American bourgeoisie playing a bal a n cing
act over Libya?
-
Brita in ’s part icipat ion
has a dual
objective. It is also
trying to polish up its tarnished image
in the Arab world following
its inter vention s
in Iraq and Afghanis tan. But it is also trying to get its own population used to the idea of for eign
military intent ion s which are bound to get more and more frequent. ‘Savi ng the Libyan people from Gadd afi’ is a perfect opportunity for that[3]
-
The cas e of France
is a bit
different. This is the only
big western country which still has a certai n
popularity in the Arab world, acquire d
under De
Gaulle and
amplified by its refusal to take
part
in the invasion
of Iraq in 2003.
Sarkozy has thus made up some of the ground lost by his government’s gaffes in Tunisia and Egypt (supporting the dictato rs that were even t ual ly
kicked out by
the social
revolts, allowing its ministers to stay too close to their regimes while
the struggles were in full
flow, even off er ing
to send its police force s to help with the repression in Tunisia….).
We can’t go in to all the details about the particular inter est s
of each stat e
in the coalition now at wor k in Libya, but one thing is sure: there ’s nothing humanitarian or philanthropic about
it! And the same goes for those who abstained from voting for the UN resolution or did so with great reluctance:
-
China, Russia and
Brazil are very hostile
to this
intervention, simply because
they have nothing to gain from Gaddafi’s departure;
-
Ita ly act ual ly
has a lot to lose from it. The present regime has, up till now, assure d it easy acc ess
to oil and a draconian control of its borders. The
destabilisat ion
of Libya could put all this into question;
-
Angel a
Merkel’s Germany
is still a milita ry dwarf. Al l
its forces
are tied up in
Afghanis tan. Part icipat ing in this operation would have
made its
weakness at this level
even more obvious. As the Spanish paper El Pai s put it on Marc h
21, “We are seeing a rerun of the constant
bala n cing act between Germany’s economic gianti sm, demonstrated during the euro crisis, and France’s political strength, which
is largely based on its military power”.
Why are the great powers
intervening now?
The revolt in Liby a thus to ok a diametrical l y
opposed turn to
what happened in
Tunisia and
Egypt. This was mai n ly
due to the
weakness of the working class
in this country. The main indu stry ,
oil, almost exclusively employs
workers from
Europe, the rest
of the Middle East ,
Asia and
Africa. From the beginn ing
these workers took no part in the movement of social protest. The result was that the local petty bourgeoisie stamped its mark on the revolt – hence the ubiquity of the nationa l
flag
for example . Worse, the ‘foreign ’ workers, who could not there fore identify with these
struggles, fled the country. There were even persecutions of black workers by ‘rebel’ force s ,
following numerous rumours about the regime’s use of mercenaries from black
Africa to repress
the demonstrations, casting
suspicion
on all black workers.
Workers’ struggles vs
imperialist wars
This turn-around in the situat ion
in Libya has
consequences which go
well beyond
its frontiers. First
Gadd afi’s
repression, then the inter vention
of the coal i tion, is a
blow agai n st
all the social movements in the
region. This has per mitted
other dictato ri al
regime s to embark on a course of bloody repression: in Bahrain
where the Saudi arm y has come to the assistance of the regime
in dealing
brutally with
the demonstrations[5]; in Yemen where on 18 Marc h
govern ment
forces fired on the crowd, killing 51 people; and now in Syria where scores have also been gunned down.
Havi ng
sai d this, it is
not at al l
certain that
this will be a fatal
blow. The Liby an situation is like a ball and chain on the wor ld proletaria t’s feet, but there is so much anger again st
the development
of poverty
that it will not paralyse it completely. In Egypt and Tunisia, where the
‘revolution’ is supposed to
have triumphed already , confrontations continue between demonstrators and
the now
‘democratic’ state
administer ed
by more
or less
the same forces who ran it under the ‘dictators’.
Demonstrations have also
continued in Morocco, despite
King Mohammed
VI declaring a constitutiona l monarc h y.
What ever happens, for
al l the populations facing the most terrible repression, or the
bombs of this or that international
coali tion, the
sky will not clear until the proletaria t of the central countries, part icularly western Europe,
develops its own
mas sive and determined struggles. Arm ed
by its
experience, especially with the
traps of trade
unionism and democracy, it would then be
able to show its capacities for self-organ isation and open up a genuinely revolutionary
perspective, the only
future for
the whole of humanity.
By – Students For
Society
[1] Britain, France, the USA in particular, but also
Italy, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Holland, the United Arab
Emirates and Qatar.
[2] If we are to believe the media, only Gaddafi’s
henchmen are dying under these bombs. But let’s recall that at the time of the
1991 Gulf War, the same media were telling us that this was a ‘clean war’. In
reality, in the name of protecting little Kuwait from the army of the butcher
Saddam Hussein, the war claimed hundreds of thousands of victims.
[3] We have to remember that in 2007, in Tripoli , former British PM Tony Blair threw
his arms around Colonel Gaddafi, thanking him for signing a contract with BP.
The current denunciations of the ‘mad dictator’ are pure cynicism and
hypocrisy.
[4] Let’s not forget that France is also changing its tune
here. It received Gaddafi with great ceremony in 207. The images of Gaddafi’s
tent in the middle of Paris
went round the world and made Sarkozy and his clique look a bit ridiculous. But
now we have a new movie: NATO, the Return.
[5] Here again the weakness of the working class
facilitates the repression. The movement in Bahrain
has been dominated by the Shia majority, supported by Iran .