02/24/2011

Defeat the murderous Gadaffi regime and his imperialist backers

Defend the liberated zones in Benghazi, Baida, etc and extend this to the entire country

The fight of the masses in Libya against the murderous Gadaffi regime unmasks the pacifist and nationalist policy of those who have hijacked (for now) the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions. When the masses are really attempting to end with the capitalist regime it fights back with all its might and in the final analysis it comes down to armed conflict in the streets, of the masses against armed forces of the regime that represents a handful of capitalist parasites. The pacifist policy of the petit bourgeois and bourgeois leaders of the masses in Tunisia and Egypt show that they want to maintain the repressive state structures that keep the majority of the masses in starvation while a small elite continues to benefit- they want to replace a ‘Ben Ali’ and ‘Mubarak’ with another version of ‘Ben Ali’ and ‘Mubarak’. The capitalist press talk of ‘revolution’ in Tunisia and Egypt as if it can be passive and that it is over without the regime being rooted out- in other words, they use the word ‘revolution’ to try and curb the revolutions that are just starting.

Secondly, the armed conflict between the masses and the capitalist regime in Libya demonstrates who is really in control, namely imperialism. When the capitalist regime is really threatened by the masses, imperialism uses every resource it can in order to defend its regime. That is why they sent French and Italian mercenaries to fight side by side with Gadaffi’s forces to crush the masses; that is why they are sending ships laden with weapons to Libya to take over the oil fields to prevent a workers expropriation of imperialist assets- the armed forces are not being sent to protect the masses nor to put down the murderous Gadaffi regime but to defend it (even if they have to dispense with Gadaffi but the capitalist regime of Libya is what is the main concern of imperialism). Of course imperialism would like to keep Gadaffi in place and drown the revolution in blood as this would serve as a warning to the world working class not to dare to overthrow any capitalist regime.

Thus for the revolutionary masses to defeat the Libyan regime they have to fight against world imperialism. For the masses in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere to defeat their own regimes (not just expelling the main leaders), they have to fight world imperialism. This is what the genocidal actions of the Libyan regime and its imperialist backers, show.

We remember that French imperialism did not hesitate to kill 1 million Algerians, that fascist Italy killed tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of Libyans, that imperialism has killed 6 million Congolese- all the while the UN (and before it the League of Nations), sat with folded arms while the masses were slaughtered and capitalist regimes installed and sustained. The middle class and capitalist leaders in Libya are signalling to world imperialism, by calling for armed UN intervention, that they are prepared to ride on the backs of the revolution, now that Gadaffi has been unmasked in front of the masses, they offer themselves to become a new ‘Gadaffi’.

Already in Bahrain, US imperialism realized that their policy of shoot-to-kill by their regime, could lead to another ‘Libya’ uprising and the US 5th fleet might have been forced to directly intervene to put down the masses. This is why US imperialism gave the order, for now, for the withdrawal of the army and police from the streets- they want to do a deal as in Egypt with the capitalist ‘opposition’.

We should not forget that the Gadaffi clique amassed a fortune of $100 bn while the Mubarak clique has a personal fortune of $70bn, the Ben Ali clique has billions of dollars of wealth. These fortunes are all held in French, UK, US, German, Spanish and Italian banks. These imperialists were fully complicit in the deliberate starvation of the masses while their puppet dictators amassed huge fortunes- small change for the hundreds of billions of dollars of wealth stolen by imperialism over the years over the bones of the working class, the oppression of the lower middle classes and the destruction of the poor peasantry- mass systematic starvation, homelessness and unemployment.

Immediate steps of a way forward

1. There should be immediate arming of the masses- disband the army and police; there should be workers committees set up to take over the oil installations, the banks and all other capitalist companies. The rank and file soldiers should break with Gadaffi and his regime, elect their own delegates and send them to the workers committees. From workers control of the oil fields the offensive should be strengthened to defeat the entire regime of the murderous Gadaffi;
2. watch out for the bourgeois forces and the ‘left’ who keep anti-imperialist slogans off the streets- they hide who really rules Libya, namely imperialism;
3. a call should be made to the working class in Italy, France, Spain, UK, US, Germany, Greece, to block any imperialist armed forces and their mercenaries from attacking the Libyan workers’ revolution. There should be workers brigades, with weapons, sent to fight on the side of the Libyan masses against the murderous Gadaffi regime. The revolutionary masses in Tunisia and Egypt should take every possible measure to defend the Libyan masses and to help defeat the Gadaffi regime- this means a direct fight against the same imperialism that keeps the masses in Tunisia and Egypt in chains. [The first step of the Egyptian military dictatorship was to send troops to the border with Libya, not to defend the revolution against imperialism, but to isolate it].
4. we call for preparation for a political general strike against the Italian and French regimes who are supplying mercenaries to Gadaffi; there should be a revolutionary general strike, uniting local and immigrant workers, across the imperialist centres who are part of the invasion forces that want to seize the oil wealth of Libya. For million worker marches in the USA, and all imperialist centres to start the process to defeat the enemy at home- their local imperialism- the same that keeps the Libyan and world masses in chains.
5. the immigrant workers and local workers in the entire Saudi peninsula, including Bahrain, Djibouti should unite against the imperialist puppet regimes and expel all the US (and other imperialist) military bases from the entire region.
6. the time has come for the working class masses to organise themselves to break down all the walls, including the Rafah border, that keep the Palestinians in concentration camps;
7. we call for mass protests, led by the working class, around the world against the imperialist genocide in Libya.
8. the time has come for the masses to do away with all capitalist regimes across the planet, from China to Terra del Fuego, from Cape Town to Vladivostok;
9. for an urgent conference of revolutionary workers organizations and internationalist Trotskyists to refound the Fourth International at the barricades in Libya.

Issued by Workers International Vanguard League

member of the International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction

Integrated by:

- Liga Trotskista Internacional from Bolivia
- Liga Trotskista Internacional from Peru
- Partido Obrero Internacionalista (CI) from Chile
- Liga Obrera Internacionalista (CI) from Argentina
- Fracción Trotskista - Vanguardia Proletaria from Brazil
- Workers International Vanguard League from South Africa
- Workers International League from Zimbabwe
- Committee for the refoundation of the 4th International from San Pablo