Support Libya’s resistance; denounce StW treachery

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[pdf http://54.72.113.178/cpgb-ml/wp-content/medialibya_20110915.pdf 700 800]The Libyan people have put up a heroic resistance against Nato’s six-month-long blitzkrieg, remaining steadfast despite sustained attack from the best-equipped military forces on earth, all deployed in support of a rag-tag band of terrorists and agents seeking to undo the gains of the revolution.

Fidel Castro pointed out in April that the “[i]crude attacks against the Libyan people, which have taken on a Nazi-fascist character, may be used against any third-world nation … If Gaddafi resists … he will enter history as one of the great figures of the Arab nations. [/i]”

Having held out this long in the face of overwhelming odds, Gaddafi has already earned that place. Moreover, despite the false impression created by a barrage of government and media lies, the Libyans are resisting still.

[b]Anti-war movement’s treachery[/b]

Shamefully, it is at this hour of Libya’s greatest peril that Stop the War Coalition leaders have chosen to chime in with the mainstream media’s hysterical anti-Gaddafi propaganda. So eager are they to bury the Libyan revolution that they would dance on its grave while the outcome has yet to be decided.

A statement issued by StW in August airily informed us that “[i]The old rulers will not be missed if and when they depart. The decisive issues – genuinely democratic and popular regimes across the Arab world, the exclusion of great power interference in the region and justice for the Palestinian people – remain in the balance and require our solidarity. [/i]”

Ignoring the fact that Libya actually [i]had[/i] a democratic and popular regime, StW has chosen also to ignore the [i]real resistance that is actually being fought[/i] against British imperialist aggression.

Meanwhile, John Rees asserted that “nobody is going to shed a tear for the fall of this brutal dictator” and advised the quislings to gain credibility by “telling the major powers where to get off” – ie, to adopt his [i]own[/i] tactic of trying to hide a counter-revolutionary position behind a bit of bogus anti-Nato rhetoric.

Such treachery towards the Libyan resistance can only bring StW further into disrepute, weakening and dividing an anti-war movement whose ability to mobilise has already been weakened by 10 years of clinging to the Labour party’s tail.

[b]Reasons for Nato’s war on Libya[/b]

Rather than regurgitating Nato’s propaganda about the ‘dictator’ Gaddafi, StW leaders should acquaint themselves and their followers with the [i]real[/i] reasons for Nato’s aggression.

[b]1. Oil and water:[/b] Nato imperialists want to take control of Libya’s vast oil wealth and valuable water reserves.

[b]2. A bad example:[/b] In the 42 years since their revolution, Libya’s people have gone from being the poorest in the world to the richest in Africa. They have had universal access to decent, cheap housing; education, health care and electricity have been free; women were equal. The Great Man-made River project has brought water to the cities and allowed the desert to bloom using sophisticated, sustainable technology.

[b]3. African unity:[/b] Libya has been working to free Africa from colonialism by helping to fund infrastructure and development and by backing projects such as the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund and the African Union alliance.

[b]4. Anti-imperialism:[/b] Libya has supported liberation movements including the ANC in South Africa, Zanu in Zimbabwe, the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, the Irish republican movement, socialist Cuba, Chavez’s Venezuela and Morales’ Bolivia.

[b]5. Dollar supremacy:[/b] The Libyan government was planning to switch its reserve and trading currency from the dollar to the gold standard, further undermining the faltering US economy.

[b]6. Loot:[/b] Not content with the billions Libya invested in the West and the concessions it had already given to big oil companies, imperialist multinationals and governments want to get their hands on [i]all[/i] of Libya’s huge sovereign wealth funds.

[b]British imperialists: thieves and terrorists[/b]

Meanwhile, the hypocrisy of the British state forces and media knows no bounds. While branding participants in the recent youth uprisings as ‘thugs’, these free-market fundamentalists are attempting to steal the entire wealth of the Libyan people using the most blatant and outrageous terror tactics.

Nato planes have incinerated Libyan army units, and used depleted uranium in their bombing of Libyan houses, schools, hospitals, power stations and water facilities. Nato governments have stolen nearly $100bn worth of Libyan funds that were deposited in imperialist countries, using them to pay for their genocidal war and to prop up the Libyan puppet forces.

[b]Unite the resistance[/b]

Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Belarus, the DPRK, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Grenada … the list of countries singled out for US/British intervention in order to depose progressive regimes and prop up puppet rulers – and so preserve the flow of loot into imperialist coffers – is neverending.

It is time to stop British governments committing such crimes in our name by withdrawing our labour from every part of the war effort – serving in the forces, making munitions, shipping supplies, and writing and broadcasting war propaganda. We will advance faster on the road to freedom when we break the link with all those who would tie us to imperialism – ‘left’ or right – and when we start to give [i]real[/i] solidarity to those engaged in resistance against our own imperialist masters.

The struggle of the Libyan people is also our struggle. Whatever the immediate future may hold, we may be sure that history is on our side.

[b]Victory to Gaddafi and the Libyan resistance against Nato terrorism!

No cooperation with war crimes![/b]