Libya: A Preliminary Statement

It is too early to take a definitive position on the Libyan events because the situation is still fluid and we cannot be definite about anything. The Colonel’s days seem to be numbered but he is continuing with his strenuous defence despite the fact that the international capitalist community is putting into play all its juridical (International Criminal Court) and economic weapons including an embargo, economic sanctions and the freezing of assets held abroad.

This means that we can currently only make a couple of observations.

The first is that the revolt in Benghazi and the other cities in Cyrenica, as well as some small towns south of Tripoli have broken the strained relationship between Gaddafi, his tribe of origin and the other Libyan tribes who for more than 40 years have been forced to submit to the economic and political dictatorship of the Colonel.

At the bottom of all this are the demands for autonomy of the tribal bourgeoisie of Cyrenica and of the Fezzan who have never been appeased. Not least they saw the greedy chance to autonomously control the oil revenue which until a few weeks ago was the prerogative of the “Green” dictator. It is no accident that the first protests took place in the East of the country where a provisional government has already emerged which has the task of controlling the oilfields and of the guaranteeing their use and exploitation by international clients.

The previous stability was based on force. Gaddafi and his sons have absolute control of the army, the police and the air force. They also possess, or control, the oil wells through the management of the national gas and oil enterprises. They give to the allied, or submissive, tribal chiefs some crumbs of the above mentioned revenue according to either their political value, or their potential danger in terms of (non) alignment in any challenge to the power of the “rais” himself. This arrangement has now been broken. The bigger tribes, like the Warfalla, who control a vast territory south of Tripoli, have mobilised against it. They had already attempted a coup d’état in 1993, in the middle of the international embargo against the Tripoli Government following the Lockerbie bombing. Gaddafi brutally repressed it with dozens of public executions by firing squad and more than 200 arrested. The Zuwayya, who live in the central zone between Tripoli and Benghazi, the Misurata and the Abu Llail, who control the area of oil pipelines in the area east of Cyrenica took the initiative to ride the tiger of popular protest in an attempt to end a game that has lasted forty years. All the major tribes have small armies, and small arsenals of light weapons. In the initial period of the revolt they assaulted barracks and arms dumps. In the present state of things the Libyan crisis appears to be a civil war between tribes, or rather bourgeois factions, for the economic and political domination of the country, which is the second biggest oil exporter in the entire African continent behind Nigeria, and the twelfth largest in the world.

The second observation is on the possibility of a rupture in the present balance of power on the energy front in the Middle East with all the consequences which would flow from it. It is not for nothing that three US aircraft carriers are making their way towards the Gulf of Sirte, and the British Prime Minister Cameron is doing the same thing. The imperialist preoccupation of the Anglo–Saxons isn’t just about the future destiny of Libyan oil and gas. This is important but not decisive in the international energy equation. What they really worry about is the possible extension of the crisis to the Arabian peninsula. The wind of revolt is blowing through Yemen, Oman and Bahrain which surround the South West and South East of Saudi Arabia, the world’s greatest oil producer and chief supplier to the USA. If Riyadh also entered the eye of the storm it could lead to a change of position and to military manoeuvres no longer imposed by psychological deterrence and political pressure. You cannot mess about when it comes to getting oil supplies from the Middle East. US imperialism has already produced two unfinished wars and is strenuously fighting over the means to transport and trade the black gold from Central Asia to the coast of the Mediterranean. Faced with a similar critical situation in the Arabian ports it is already beginning to flaunt its military might. For the moment the USA has decided to wait and see … Even China which is already present in Niger, Nigeria, Sudan and Chad, won’t just stand and watch. All this is in the face of hundreds of thousands of refugees – victims of internal bourgeois quarrels, and the international games played by imperialists – about whom there is the is the usual litany of handwringing but up to now nothing concrete in terms of real humanitarian aid.

For the Libyan working masses there is no possibility of emancipation if they continue to be absorbed by tribalism, if they buy into the opportunist demands for freedom and democracy put forward by the bourgeois opposition against the tyranny. At most this freedom and democracy will be a new, better, political and ideological basis for carrying on the process of subjection and exploitation as it was before. The settling of accounts of tribal feuds – or the bourgeois struggles which arise from them – as well as the restless agitation of an increasingly greedy imperialism, are the result of something deeper. The real cause of this crisis is the economic system which goes under the name of capitalism.

FD

Comments

It appears the US government has thrown its support behind the Libyan uprisings.

Some thoughts on Libya and the new U.S. Imperialism It is interesting in this context to note the historical context. Libya has, at least since 2006, been one of the West "ally in the fight against terrorism". Numerous are the Islamists, but also political dissidents in general, which languished in Libyan prisons and victims of torture.

As late as 2008 visited the then Foreign Minister of the United States, Condoleezza Rice, Libya:

A trade and investment agreement May also be Signed and the two countries have been negotiating a military memorandum to co-operate on fighting terrorism.

This fight against terrorism, like I said already started, but a formalized cooperation was thus during processing. What we note is also the burgeoning interest in trade and investment, an interest in part of course is all about oil. Why the sudden interest for military intervention? - The strategic remapping of political and military relations of the U.S. with the existing regimes from the era of cold world war, for accessibility and operative control of regions oil, is the main reason behind a U.S. lead coming occupation of Libya. - The insurgency, which is supported, armed ( Egyptian regime is arming the Libyan resells) and financed by west or its Arabic allies has created a "window of opportunity" for the United States. There is now a chance for the U.S. to establish itself in North Africa that are characterized by their unrests ( if not directly or indirectly activated by U.S. or other major imperialists), and a military presence and close diplomatic ties with any new government, it is hoped, can influence the process in the whole region in the favorable direction for the new imperialist strategy of U.S. which actually started with Gorge Bush in white house by occupying Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover in a situation where the oil fields around the world may reach the point where resources are exploited so that extraction becomes unprofitable, i.e. that was too expensive to extract compared to the amounts of oil can be extracted and sell ("peek oil", etc.), it becomes all the oil deposits of interest. So far, in particular, Italy was the country that took part of the oil in Libya, but of course there are - in the capitalist and inter-imperialist competition name - every reason for the U.S. and other European small imperialists to advance their positions:

The single largest importing country is rather Italy, who daily import 376 000 barrels of oil from its former colony across the Mediterranean. This represents 22 percent of Italian oil imports.

A parallel to the situation has now arisen, in which Libya live under a threat of military intervention, can be drawn to Iraq. Although Saddam regime for long periods was a ally to the U.S. As regards for supporting repression, torture and political repression of dissidents is worth to mention the CIA's major interest to the pro Moscow dissidents, CIA gave Ba'ath regime detailed lists of names of Saddam's opposition in Iraq, which gave the regime the opportunity to carry out an extensive and bloody "cleansing" of dissidents.

The oil:

-The companies that signed contracts on Tuesday (24 juli 2003, SvD-Näringsliv), is ChevronTexaco, ConocoPhillips, BP and Shell. The contract runs from August until year-end. The negotiations with other buyers will continue, said the source.

- At the end of June, the oil ministry Threw open six Oilfield and two gas fields for international bidding by 41 companies. (2008-10-14, Middle East Online) -And in a Kurdish area, there has long been pure "oil bonanza". Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG, handing out contracts for dear life. In an earlier article mentioned the matter:

The KRG awarded 12 new Contracts to international firms over the past two weeks. On November 12, it said it Approved Five Production-Sharing Contract with Europcan, U.S., and Korean companies. The Contracts are for the exploration and development of fields in the region's Irbil, Al-Sulaymaniyah, and Dahuk Governorates. Only fools do not learn from history; When the U.S. and other imperialist powers planning to occupy a country, this time Libya, in the name of democracy and freedom, we should know by heart what is the implication of such intervention for the working class and other toilers in these places: poorification of the working class and other social stratums and a complete shattered socio-economic society.

We should also remember the immense suffering in the form of killing, bombing villages and cities, use of prohibited weapons and destruction as direct consequence of the U.S. occupation.

We should also remember the immense suffering in the form of killing, bombing villages and cities, use of prohibited weapons and destruction as direct consequence of the U.S. occupation.