The Threat to Libyan Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity

The Threat to Libyan Sovereignty and Territorial IntegrityBy Antonia E. Paris is General Secretary of PKP-1930, The Philippines

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27615.htm

Extract

Virulent western media demands for UN and NATO actions against Gaddafi are reflections of covetous imperialist designs upon Libya. In this situation, the national sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Libyan people are threatened.


A US-NATO invasion of Libya is even imminent.


In defense of his position, Gaddafi has spoken over Libyan state TV and radio to stress that the present turmoil in Libya is not an extension of the democratic upsurge in the region, but an imperialist conspiracy to take away from the Libyan people their control of their own oil resources. Gaddafi claims that this is an armed counter-revolution participated in by outsiders and mercenaries, and which aims to bring about the imperialist occupation of Libya, similar to the present imperialist imposition of suffering and humiliation upon Afghanistan and Iraq.


Huge demonstrations in Tripoli in support of Gaddafi, in response to his call for the Libyan people to defend their sovereignty and oil wealth, have apparently disturbed the imperialist powers --- especially since the protesters in Libya, up to now, have not produced any credible organization or leader around which people could be rallied politically. The so-called “National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL)”, an exile group that has been interviewed constantly by western media as a leading opposition force, and which is loudly demanding a NATO attack against Gaddafi, has for decades served as a stooge of the CIA.


The other group usually seen in pro-“democracy” actions (assaults on police and military camps, and the burning of government buildings and facilities) is that which is backing the return of the monarchy which was deposed by Gaddafi in 1969. Pro-“democracy” protesters have hoisted Libya’s first national flag, that of the corrupt and US-subservient King Idris, over the areas they have seized. However, a return to a monarchy could only be considered a step backward for the Libyan people, and would stand opposed to those striving for democracy.


The Role of the Western Media


All efforts are therefore being made to “justify” an imperialist intervention in Libya. Thus the reports which make it appear that Gaddafi is using aircraft and artillery against “unarmed” and “defenseless” protesters. Efforts are also being made by imperialism to make every use of the former Gaddafi officials, diplomats and military officers who have defected during the past week, in order to use them as components of an acceptable and effective client regime to replace Gaddafi.


However, imperialism has to contend with the fact that there is apparently no widespread defection among the 50,000 to 70,000 hard core Gaddafi security forces, unlike in Egypt where the army joined the protesters on the streets. It is therefore the role of western media to propagate the message that the Gaddafi regime is fast collapsing ; that its control of Libyan territory and population is dwindling rapidly ; that Gaddafi’s last resort is genocide against his own people ; and that the international community (meaning again the NATO “coalition of the willing”) should strike to take out Gaddafi and pre-empt his use of “weapons of mass destruction” and his blowing up of the Libyan oil industry.


It is difficult to see how events will unfold, given the continuing stand-off between Gaddafi and his imperialist-backed opponents. But we have seen how the imperialists and their “embedded” mediamen fooled the world with blatant lies to attack Iraq and take out Saddam Hussein. In the Libyan case also, British foreign minister William Hague propagated the yarn that Gaddafi has fled to Venezuela. Considering imperialism's hatred towards Gaddafi, and its desire to take over control of Libyan oil resources (now producing 1.8-million barrels per day, and which has the greatest reserve in Africa), the present turmoil in Libya is being used to plot the overthrow of Gaddafi and the control of Libya.


Developments Brought About by the Al-Fatah Revolution


The Al-Fatah (September 1st, 1969) Revolution led by Gaddafi overthrew the corrupt and imperialist-subservient monarchy of King Idris. It was inspired by the ideas of Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, who earlier also overthrew a corrupt and imperialist-subservient monarchy in Egypt. King Idris earlier allowed the presence of the USA’s very large Wheelus Air Base in Libya, but the Al-Fatah Revolution promptly ended any US military presence in Libya. Before the revolution, the Libyan people were mostly illiterate and in dire poverty, while Libya’s oil resources fabulously enriched western oil companies and the Idris monarchy.


The revolution nationalized the Libyan oil industry, and used the oil riches to uplift the social conditions of the Libyan masses ; to eradicate widespread illiteracy ; to provide jobs and housing ; to develop free higher education ; and to ensure better nutrition through food subsidies. The monarchy used to own much of the habitable and arable land, until Gaddafi ordered the nationalization of land and the burning of all land titles in simultaneous bonfires nationwide in order to pave the way for radical changes in housing ownership and agrarian relations.


Under Gaddafi, Libya became the highest ranked among African countries in the Human Development Index — which includes such factors as living conditions, life expectancy (now at almost 75 years) and education. Gaddafi is also credited with the construction of a broad network of giant pipelines (the “Great Man-Made River”) bringing fresh water from an enormous lake beneath its large desert, in order to serve the needs of Libya’s 6 million population. Under Gaddafi, the Libyan government placed the country’s development within a radical and populist context, and promoted semi-socialist political and economic concepts. The Gaddafi government also provided significant aid to neighboring African states. However, Communist advocacy is suppressed, and the role of trade unions is marginalized inside Libya.

It was also under Gaddafi, and with oil money, that Libya attained the highest per capita income among African states. However, there is now a campaign in the western press to belie this, and to paint a picture of widespread unemployment, gaping social inequality and poverty among the Libyan people. Indeed, neo-liberal reforms ushered in recent years have resulted in inequality, with social programs and subsidies for the poor being cut, and the country’s oil wealth increasingly being given to foreign corporations. The CIA is now even trying to pass off alleged “studies” showing that most Libyans are surviving on less than USD$2.00 per day. However, such “studies” have no credibility, considering that Libya remains a favorite among expatriate workers in the Middle East, given the relatively higher pay and better working terms in Libyan work sites.


Gaddafi’s Propagation of his “Third Universal Theory”


When Gaddafi started to propagate his “Green Book” (or the “Third Universal Theory”) internationally, he tried to win over sections of national liberation and anti-imperialist movements with financial support, and this caused opportunist schisms within some national movements. His “Third Universal Theory” is a strange mix of utopian socialism and Islam --- of non-class anti-capitalism and virulent anti-Communism.


Libyan oil money fed Gaddafi’s megalomania, and he tried to play god by interfering in some parts of the developing world --- particularly in countries he considered economically inferior and with poor people ready to sacrifice as migrant workers with few rights just to retain jobs in Libya. He funded Islamic secessionist forces in southern Philippines and southern Thailand, claiming support for struggles against Christian or Buddhist domination of Moslem minorities.


In the largely Moslem country of Indonesia, Gaddafi dabbled in tribal conflicts by funding the secessionist forces of the Acehnese, in a show of support for the supposedly more fundamentalist Sumatrans as against the dominant Javanese. Gaddafi’s interference in the internal affairs of the Philippines in the 1970s cost the lives of thousands of Filipinos, mostly in Mindanao. His interference in the internal affairs of other Asian countries cost the lives of thousands more.


Gaddafi also tried to interfere in some parts of Southern Africa, casting aspersion upon the role of Communists, whites and women in the anti-apartheid struggle. For a time, he also dabbled in inter-Christian conflicts, and on this basis even supported the armed struggle of the Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland. He gave the impression of leading a great international anti-imperialist movement (the Mathaba or “center”), which in reality was mainly composed of anti-Communist ultra-left and fundamentalist Islamic groupings. While vociferous in his anti-imperialist rhetoric and antics --- which drew sanctions from imperialist countries --- he was objectively sowing divisions within anti-imperialist movements, as well as within the anti-zionist national liberation movement of the Palestinian people.


In 1986, Reagan and Thatcher cooperated in an attempt to assassinate Gaddafi by bombing his residences in Tripoli and Benghazi. Gaddafi survived, but his adopted infant daughter and many more were killed, with hundreds also maimed and wounded. Despite Gaddafi’s extremist and reactionary policies, the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP-1930), through its mass organizations, condemned the US-UK terrorist attack on Libya. Thereafter, imperialist sanctions were ratcheted up against Libya, and more assassination plots were prepared against Gaddafi, finally intimidating Gaddafi.


In 2000, a weary Gaddafi again played god in the Philippine south, this time for the purpose of mending fences with the imperialists. The Abu Sayyaf, a bandit break-away group from the Islamic secessionist movement in Mindanao had taken 21 hostages (including 10 European and other western tourists) from the Sipadan dive resort in Malaysia, and kept them captive in the southern Philippine island of Sulu. Gaddafi offered ransom of USD$1-Million for each hostage. The release of the European and other western hostages from the clutches of his former subalterns became his first offering to appease imperialism, never mind if the hefty ransom he gave only further emboldened these bandits to undertake more terrorist activities in our country.


Further cozying up to imperialism after the Bush-Blair invasion of Iraq, Gaddafi dismantled Libya’s nuclear program in 2003, which step however gave relief to the whole world. This was followed by the payment of compensation to the victims of the bombing of the Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie (Scotland), and the granting of privileges to US and UK companies in the Libyan oil and other business sectors. Reports then have it that Libya disclosed to US intelligence agencies information on all the sundry armed groups that it had previously supported. Gaddafi’s many concessions to imperialism over the past decade have further diminished his credibility among progressive and anti-imperialist forces, and understandably, not a few of these forces have declared their solidarity with the Libyan revolt.


Prospects


Some have characterized foreign interference in the Libyan conflict as poetic justice, considering Gaddafi’s earlier interference in the internal affairs of other countries. But what is at stake in Libya today is not just the future of Gaddafi and his family. What is at stake are Libya’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is a different matter to support steps toward democratic changes in Libya, and to support imperialist interference under the guise of assisting pro-“democracy” protesters.