North Africa & Middle East
Since the U.S.-NATO-engineered war began against Libya last March 19, a new
push has begun to recolonize Africa through the machinations of various
intelligence agencies, special forces and surrogate militias armed and trained
by the imperialists. Regional insecurity has grown rapidly....
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In March 2003, Dr. Siddiqui was kidnapped with her three young children in
Karachi, Pakistan, and held in secret detention by U.S. forces at Bagram Prison
in Afghanistan for five years....
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strong>The struggle for Syria isn't just about Syria--it's the
struggle for a free, democratic Middle East versus one that lives under the
yoke of American and Israeli hegemony....
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A series of attacks have been launched against the U.S.- and NATO-installed
National Transitional Council in Libya. The most significant events occurred on
Jan. 23 when local forces still loyal to the former government of slain leader
Col. Moammar Gadhafi retook the city of Bani Walid, located 120 miles southeast
of Tripoli....
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The following are three important anti-imperialist events scheduled for the coming months. The International Action Center is supporting and participating in each of them....
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In his speech assuming the rotating presidency of the United Nations
Security Council for the Republic of South Africa, President Jacob Zuma
criticized the U.N. for its stance that led to the eight-month war against
Libya....
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Feb 11th, 2011, the whole world witnessed millions of Egyptian protesters marching in the streets of Egypt and protesting in Tahrir Square, demanding their basic human rights: dignity, freedom, and social justice. After decades of patience and suffering, Egyptians finally spoke out loudly and peacefully demanding the fall of a police-based authoritarian regime, the end of Mubarak’s dictatorship, and the establishment of a civilian, democratic state. Under the maximal pressure exerted by Egyptians, Mubarak was toppled. The Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) took charge in leading the country through the transitional stage. At that time, SCAF members and military personnel were regarded as heroes...
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In Their quest for Dignity, Freedom, Justice, and Democracy, Egyptian &
Egyptian Solidarity Groups are calling upon people from all nations, races,
colors, and religions as well as human rights and peace groups and
organizations to join Egyptians abroad in their rallies to support the Egyptian
revolution....
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In their quest for dignity, Freedom, Justice, and
Democracy, Egyptian Americans & Egyptian Solidarity
Groups are calling upon people from all nations, races, colors, and
religions as well as human rights and peace groups and organizations to join
Egyptians abroad in their rallies to support the Egyptian revolution....
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Some 10,000 women of all classes and walks of life took to the streets of
Cairo on Dec. 20 to protest the military’s misogynistic, violent assaults
on Egyptian women. Many demanded that the military step down immediately....
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While the military government now says the turnout at the polls was 52 percent, lower than its earlier figure of 70 percent, many voters waited in line for hours to participate in the first of three elections for parliament. They saw the vote as a right won by the revolutionary movement....
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The U.S.-NATO forces, using the United Nations and the Arab League as a cover, are positioning themselves for a military intervention in Syria. At the same time, they have upped their economic war on the government led by Bashir al-Assad....
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Dec. 17 marks the anniversary of a year of uprisings, strikes, government
resignations and regime change on the African continent. A resource-rich and
strategically located geopolitical region, Africa has experienced numerous mass
demonstrations, general strikes, rebellions and full-scale military assaults as
part of a heightening global class struggle for control of the
continent’s economic and political future....
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Record numbers of Egyptian voters of all ages and classes, women and men,
cast ballots for a new parliament Nov. 28 and 29. Some waited in line for hours
to vote in the first election of its kind in 50 years....
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The masses have opened a new chapter in the Egyptian
revolution. They have stood strong in Tahrir Square for nearly four days
against bullets and gas demanding that the military regime, which succeeded
President Hosni Mubarak last Feb. 12, step down....
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The brutal lynching of Moammar Gadhafi, the leader of Libya, is the latest
criminal act in NATO's seven-month war of regime change and conquest....
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Occupy Boston and the United National Antiwar Committee
rocked the city’s business district as 5,000 protesters marched on Oct.
15 with cries of “Whose streets? Our streets!” A contingent from
Steelworkers Local 8751 representing Boston school bus drivers led the march
from a union sound truck festooned with placards declaring “Wall Street =
War Street.” The truck was ringed by a steadfast security contingent from
Vets for Peace/Smedley Butler Brigade....
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It was called as a global Day of Rage that also focused on the 10th
anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. This
convergence of events on Oct. 15 put tens of thousands of people in motion here
in New York and in other cities across the country, reinforcing their anger at
imperialist wars....
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News spread around the world on Oct. 20-21 that NATO planes had struck a car
caravan leaving Sirte in Libya, wounding Moammar Gadhafi, and that the Libyan
leader was captured alive and subsequently killed. The details of his death are
sketchy and may be purposely distorted or obscured by his killers. This main
fact stands out: It took the intervention of the imperialist air forces —
including a U.S. Predator drone and a French warplane — to end the life
of this African leader....
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, formerly director of the CIA, said
at a news conference at NATO headquarters on Oct. 6 that the nearly
nine-month-old war against the North African state of Libya would continue
until all vestiges of resistance on the part of the people were eliminated....
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Despite the Sept. 15 visit to Libya of British Prime Minister David Cameron
and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the struggle for control of the oil-
producing North African state of Libya is far from complete. Battles for
control of Bani Walid and Sirte illustrate that supporters of Muammar
Gadhafi’s government still represent a disciplined fighting force against
the U.S./NATO fighter jets and military operatives backing the National
Transitional Council “rebels.”...
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Below is the text of a recent interview John Catalinotto did with Junge Welt about his experience at the World Trade Center 10 years ago and the political consequences of the attack. The jW article is an edited and shorter version of the original comments in English....
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U.S. imperialism is once again maneuvering to counter growing world support for the Palestinian struggle. Its primary motive is to protect the interests of U.S. capital in the Middle East, which center around, but are not restricted to, exploitation of the fabulous oil wealth in the area....
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After nearly seven months of war against the North African state of Libya,
the combined forces of NATO and its National Transitional Council
“rebel” units are tightening their noose around the areas of the
country where armed resistance has prevented the counterrevolution from taking
over. Those millions of Libyans who remain loyal to the government and are
opposing the efforts to loot the national wealth of this oil-producing nation
are being pressured to lay down their arms and surrender....
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By directing their enormous joint military and economic power against a
poorly armed, nonindustrialized country of 6 million people, the imperialist
states of North America and Western Europe have imposed a criminal regime on
the Libyan people....
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We, the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), condemn in the strongest terms the US, NATO and their puppet forces for their barbaric military campaign against the people in the whole of Libya since several months ago and in Tripoli currently. The combination of escalated NATO air bombardments and ground movement of Libyan puppet forces and NATO special forces against Tripoli since 20 August aims to deliver the final blow on the Gaddafi regime....
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Under the most incredibly difficult conditions – including NATO bombing, mercenary landings, Special Forces operations and the destruction of civilian infrastructure – the heroic resistance to imperialist conquest in Libya has continued....
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A six-month-old war against the government of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya has reached a new stage as NATO escalated its intervention with air power, naval power, strategy and intelligence to push the Transitional National Council’s armed units into the capital, Tripoli....
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The NATO powers of Europe and the U.S. are declaring victory after having pounded the small country of Libya for five brutal months. They are claiming that the “rebel” forces they command, whose road to Tripoli was paved by NATO air strikes that knocked out much of Libya’s civil and military capability, now control the capital....
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On August 20, the African community of the world will register our condemnation of and resistance to the wars being made against our people and our freedom everywhere.We will oppose the heinous bombing of Libya and the violent attempt to overthrow that government....
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President Barack Obama on Aug. 18 demanded that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down, saying that the Syrian leader’s days are numbered. The governments of Britain, France and Germany joined in this demand. This statement is a blatant imperialist interference in Syria’s internal affairs. More than that, it is an open threat to intervene militarily in another country in that region, just as the U.S. and its European allies have done already in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Somalia, with rockets and bombs. It is a threat against the Syrian people of something like the last five months of slaughter of the Libyan people....
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Collective punishment of civilian populations, including denial of water and food, is prohibited under the Geneva Conventions:...
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Wednesday's (Aug. 10) first Planning Meeting of the Emergency Mobilization Against
Racism, War and Anti-Muslem Bigotry to counter the racist, right-wing forces on
Sunday, September 11 was a tremendous step forward. We discussed plans for a
Rally, March and Cultural Exhibition....
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Extreme right wing racist forces, who last year whipped up an ugly climate
of hate against the Islamic Prayer Center at 51 Park Place, have announced new
plans for Sunday, September 11 this year at the same location....
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Join the International Action Center at the August 13 Millions
March in Harlem!...
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For 18 days the people of Egypt gathered in the streets in the millions and brought down the 30-year reign of U.S. client Hosni Mubarak. This January 25 Revolution, named for its first day of protest, was led by youth and students....
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June 18 — The Egyptian Socialist Party was founded here today before a packed auditorium of more than 400 Egyptians and international guests. What made such an assembly possible was the enormous mass revolution of last Jan. 25 that removed the U.S.-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak and made the name “Tahrir Square” an inspiration for popular revolt worldwide....
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More than 85 percent of Egypt’s poor live in rural areas. Like all
Egyptians, they are participating in the protests held throughout the country,
and are expecting that a new Egyptian government will meet their urgent
needs....
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In addition to the mass protests in Egypt, another arena for demanding
rights and fighting corruption has been Egypt’s independent trade union
movement. This movement expressed its solidarity with the demonstrators, and
added its clout to the struggle to bring down Hosni Mubarak five months
ago....
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Thousands of angry Egyptians took to the streets of Cairo and Alexandria at
the end of June, battling the Central Security forces for hours before
successfully pushing the riot police back. These were the most intense clashes
in five months, since Egypt’s 18-day revolution in January that ousted
U.S.-client Hosni Mubarak....
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The destructive bombing attacks on Libya by the Pentagon and NATO are highly
unpopular in the United States, although you wouldn’t know it from
corporate media coverage....
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For almost five months, the combined military forces of the United States and NATO have pounded Libyan cities, towns, villages and ports in an effort to overthrow the government of Moammar Gadhafi....
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NATO planes bombed Libya’s capital city of Tripoli on July 17 for more than two hours. From 60 to 75 ordinances hit targets in the Tajura and Seraj suburbs....
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If you went to a shopping center, a street corner or a graduate school of a top university in the U.S. and conducted a pop quiz asking who are the kings or crown princes of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Morocco and Bahrain; the emir of Kuwait, Qatar or Dubai; and the sultan of Oman, most people would not be able to name any of them....
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Hear former U.S. Congressperson Cynthia McKinney, recently returned from leading a delegation to Libya during the U.S. bombing and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Akbar Muhammad & other leading opponents of the U.S. war on Libya along with VIDEO footage. ...
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Hear former U.S. Congressperson Cynthia McKinney, who recently returned from leading a delegation to Libya in opposition to the U.S. criminal destruction of Libya.
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As the U.S./NATO war against the North African state of Libya entered its
fourth month, the House of Representatives voted on June 24 to withhold
authorization for the bombing campaign. In a resolution to support the war,
members of Congress turned down the Obama administration’s military
strategy by a vote of 295 against and 123 in favor....
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Two NATO airstrikes on June 19 and 20 exposed even further the criminal
nature of the imperialist war against the North African state of Libya. On June
19 NATO forces struck a civilian residential area in Tripoli, the capital,
killing nine people in a household, including two children....
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South African President Jacob Zuma paid a state visit to Libya on May 30 that proved to be a fruitless effort to bring about a ceasefire in the war launched by Western-backed rebels and NATO forces, which have intensified their bombing of the capital of Tripoli and other areas of the country. Zuma was acting on behalf of the African Union, which held an extraordinary meeting on May 25 aimed at bringing an end to the war against Libya....
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fter nearly three months of U.S./NATO bombing operations over Libya, the North African state has remained defiant in the face of one of the most intense military operations in recent months by the imperialist countries of North America and Western Europe. Official NATO sources say that more than 10,000 sorties have been flown over the oil-rich nation resulting in large-scale destruction of the country’s infrastructure and the reported deaths of 10,000 to 15,000 people....
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On direct orders from the Italian government, headed by Silvio Berlusconi (who himself faces many investigations), three Libyans were arrested in Perugia, including Ahusain Nouri, president of the League of Libyan students in Italy...
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The International Action Center - IACenter.org urges full support for 2 events to oppose US/NATO War on Libya on Saturday & Monday...
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Congressional opposition to the president regarding the
authorization of U.S. military attacks against Libya has opened up a path for a
more popular participation in the struggle to end U.S. aggression in North
Africa. An IAC petition opened a light on this issue: violation of the War
Powers Act. The mass unhappiness with the war on Libya -- 70 percent of the
population opposing that war in polls -- is reflected in the act of Congress
challenging the administration, whatever the motivation of the individuals.
This mass displeasure is also reflected in the actions of political figures
like Cynthia McKinney in traveling to Libya to bring back the
truth....
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Plaintiffs Dennis Kucinich, Walter B. Jones, John Conyers, Jr., Roscoe
Bartlett, Michael E. Capuano, Dan Burton, Howard Coble, John J. Duncan, Jr.,
Timothy V. Johnson, and Ron Paul (hereinafter “the Plaintiffs”),
all members of Congress, bring this Complaint in their official capacities and
as taxpayers and allege as follows:...
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he U.S. has now intervened militarily in Libya for almost 90 days. As we wrote last month (see petition), this is a violation of the War Powers Act. For the first time, the Congress has challenged the president regarding the War Powers Act. First the House voted to raise the question with President Barack Obama at the 60-day limit since the March 19 initial bombing raids. Then Republican Rep. John Boehner sent a message warning President Obama that he would have to justify the intervention....
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A historic vote on the application of the 1973 War Powers Resolution has
upheld the Obama administration’s continuation of large-scale bombings
aimed at overthrowing the government of Libya....
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Before dawn broke June 5, as the news spread that Yemen’s President
Ali Abdullah Saleh had left for medical treatment in Saudi Arabia, fireworks
filled the sky. As one Yemeni blogger put it, the party started at 6 a.m. To
celebrate, people sacrificed cows and goats in “Change Square,” the
site of the large encampment that had been peacefully pressuring Saleh to leave
for the last four months....
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Without presenting a shred of reliable evidence, NATO and International
Criminal Court conspirators are charging the Libyan government with conspiracy
to rape -- not only rape as the "collateral damage" of war, but rape
as a political weapon....
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It is now 1:10 in the afternoon and as the daily life in Tripoli unfolds that
includes teachers, staff, and children at school, shopkeepers working in their
businesses, streetsweepers sweeping the streets, people moving to and fro in
the cars, on bicycles, and on foot, Tripoli has thus far since around 11:00 up
to now, received at least 29 bombs....
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ declared on March 25, 2011
– that there are 3 repressive regimes in the Middle East that must be
condemned – Syria, Libya and Iran. Why is the U.S. targeting these
particular countries?...
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Speaking on Libyan TV May 21, former U.S. Congressperson Cynthia McKinney condemned the brutal war against the government and the people of that country. McKinney, an African American and a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy in Africa and the Middle East, traveled to Libya as part of a fact-finding mission to expose the criminal nature of the war....
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Founded in 1945 at the end of World War II, NATO was founded by the United States in response to the Soviet Union’s survival as a communist state. NATO was the U.S. insurance policy that capitalist ownership and domination of European, Asian and African economies would continue....
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Hundreds of thousands of people, predominantly youth, took to the streets
throughout Yemen on May 28 to demand President Ali Abdullah Saleh leave.
Earlier, there had been heavy fighting between government forces and tribally
based militias, joined by dissident factions of the army. (Miami Herald, May
28)...
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NATO has announced it will continue the criminal bombing of Libya for another 90 days. The U.S. Congress has postponed any vote on President Obama’s obvious violation of the War Powers Act. In the face of this, Cynthia McKinney has returned to Libya with a fact finding delegation to meet with Libyans under attack by NATO’s bombs. She plans to bring back to the U.S. documented evidence of NATO war crimes....
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President Barack Obama delivered a foreign policy address related to
developments in the Middle East on May 19. The speech — which avoided
addressing the uprisings throughout North Africa, the Palestinian question and
the U.S./NATO war against Libya — created even more hostility toward his
administration domestically and internationally....
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On May 19 the war against Libya will reach its 60-day mark. On that date this criminal war will be in explicit violation of the War Powers Act. The War Powers Act is a U.S. law that grew out of the struggle against the war in Vietnam. It requires a president involved in a military conflict lasting longer than 60 days to come before Congress for authorization to continue the war. Knowing that this war is immoral, illegal and based on lies, the Obama administration has refused to address the reasons behind initiating yet another war after years of death and destruction in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. In the past 57 days of a war that was promoted as a "humanitarian
intervention" to enforce a "no-fly zone," the U.S. and NATO have conducted more than 2,500 bombing missions.
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People in the U.S. and around the world have broad sympathy for the popular
demonstrations taking place in the Middle East. All the uprisings, however, are
not necessarily the same....
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President Barack Obama has praised the targeted assassination of Osama bin
Laden as a turning point and “one of the greatest military and
intelligence operations in U.S. history.”...
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NATO airstrikes carried out April 30 against the home of the son of Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi killed three of Gadhafi’s grandchildren as well as
his youngest son, Saif al-Arab Gadhafi. The attacks took place amid a dramatic
escalation in fighting between Libyan government forces and the Western-backed
rebels in various parts of the North African state....
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Despite what is being reported, the invasion of Libya has already begun. Units operating on Libyan territory for a long time have prepared the war and are carrying out the assault: they are the powerful oil companies and U.S. and European investment banks....
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When U.S. imperialism engages in an attack on any government or
movement, it is essential that the workers’ and progressive political
movements for change gather as much information as is available and take a
stand....
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Very little is known about the top-secret U.S. operation that executed Osama bin Laden, except what President Barack Obama chose to announce: that U.S. secret forces found bin Laden, killed him May 1 and disposed of his body at sea on May 2....
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U.S., British and French imperialism have escalated their military intervention
in Libya beyond the criminal bombardment of Libya, begun on March 19. The one
dominant imperialist power and the two former colonial rulers of the world
jointly stated their intentions in a open letter published on April 15 in the
Washington Post and other media. U.S. President Barack Obama, British Prime
Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy wrote that their
goal was to remove Moammar Gadhafi, the leader of Libya. for good. That’s
what they call “regime change.” This is even in violation of the
resolution rammed through the UN Security Council. It is international
lawlessness on a grand scale....
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The wave of confrontation churning though the Arab world came late to Morocco.
It was only on February 20 that the first demonstrations against the regime took place. Announced in advance, they attracted some 8,000 people in Casablanca and Rabat. Police dispersed them with brutal force....
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The objective of the war against Libya is not just its oil reserves (now estimated at 60 billion barrels), which are the greatest in Africa and whose extraction costs are among the lowest in the world, nor the natural gas reserves of which are estimated at about 1,500 billion cubic meters. In the crosshairs of "willing" of the operation “Unified Protector” there are sovereign wealth funds, capital that the Libyan state has invested abroad....
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The U.S./NATO war against Libya’s people and government reveals every day that there is no such thing as a humanitarian war carried out by imperialist states against post-colonial countries....
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The antiwar movement is back on the streets. Thousands marched on April 9 in
New York and April 10 in San Francisco. These demonstrations represented an important step forward for the United National Antiwar Committee and the antiwar movement as a whole. The new antiwar movement needs to oppose the US foreign wars but also defend the domestic victims of the "war on terror," the Muslims who are being attacked. It must connect the dots between the money spent on war and the attacks on unions and cuts to education and needed programs. This is what these demonstrations on April 9 and 10 did....
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Manik Mukherjee, General Secretary, International Anti-imperilist and
People’s Solidarity Coordinating Committee (IAPSCC) has issued the
following statement on the imperialist attack on Libya :...
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U.S., U.N. and NATO military forces have intensified the implementation of
policies aimed at total economic domination and regime change for states that
resist interference in their internal affairs. As Africa becomes more of a
major source for exploiting oil, strategic minerals and agricultural
commodities, the continent will be under increasing pressure from Western
capitalist countries....
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Three thousand activists demonstrated against U.S. wars abroad on April 10 in San Francisco. Protesters rallied in Dolores Park in the city’s Mission district both before and after a march through the community. The United National Antiwar Committee sponsored the actions. Those who attended were buoyed by what they described as “the renewal of the anti-war movement....
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Thousands of people from virtually all sectors of U.S. workers, the oppressed and youths gathered in Union Square in New York City April 9 and marched, shouted and drummed their anti-war slogans for two miles to Foley Square in downtown Manhattan. As this largest anti-war march in New York in years stretched for 20 blocks down Broadway, it passed by thousands of New Yorkers busy shopping, who smiled, cheered and waved at what can only be described as the new face of a vibrant movement to confront the war-makers....
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The new war in Libya has given rise to a new movement, as the largest anti-war demonstration New York has seen in years took to the streets of Manhattan....
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WE are the vast majority of humanity who want peace, a healthy planet and a society that prioritizes human needs, democracy and civil liberties for all....
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The New York Times, the Washington Post and other corporate news sources are
now openly admitting that the opposition forces fighting the Libyan government
are supported and coordinated by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and
Britain’s MI6 with in-country special forces....
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Now is a good time to watch, either again or for the first time, the
powerful 1981 film “Lion of the Desert.” It tells the story of Omar
Mukhtar, a legendary leader of the armed resistance to Italy’s colonial
conquest of Libya....
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he Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has drawn an important
conclusion from the unprovoked bombing of Libya by U.S. and NATO forces:
Developing countries should never let down their guard and believe promises
made by the imperialists....
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The following news release was put out by the Central News Agency of the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea....
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The right-wing, imperialist Italian government headed by Silvio Berlusconi
has joined France, Qatar and Kuwait in recognizing the so-called
“rebel” Libyan National Transitional Council. The recognition comes after chief executive officer Paolo Scaroni of
Italy’s giant oil monopoly, Eni, met with council members to discuss
reviving the company’s access to oil production now in
“rebel” territory. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, referring to Scaroni, said:
“He had important meetings on restarting cooperation about energy....
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The historical tsunami that continues to shake the Middle East and Southwest
Asia has the apologists and strategists of imperialism scrambling to catch up
with events. “We have no permanent allies, only permanent
interests” seems to be their slogan, but this “pragmatic”
approach is fraught with unexpected dangers and contradictions....
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The response has been overwhelming. This will be the largest Rally against endless wars and cutbacks in NYC in years....
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President Barack Obama’s speech of March 28 was largely devoted to justifying U.S. military intervention in Libya on humanitarian grounds, as being necessary to prevent a “massacre.” It was meant to obscure the fundamental fact that Washington is leading an effort, joined by the British and French imperialists, to destroy a sovereign government and recolonize Libya....
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Even before the first U.S. bombs rained down on Libya, protesters across the
U.S. stood up to voice their opposition to yet another U.S. war for oil. These
protests continue....
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However the rebellion in Libya began, it was both inevitable and entirely
predictable that it would quickly become an opening for imperialist
intervention and counterrevolution in the oil-rich North African country....
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The bombing of Libya, which began on March 19, has aroused world opposition
to this new aggression by the U.S. and European imperialist powers....
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he major national Antiwar Rallies in NYC
at Union Square, on Saturday, April 9 and in San Francisco on Sunday, April 10
are just 2 weeks away. Momentum is building based on the urgency of
responding to the new attacks in Libya, no end to the U.S. wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, more attacks and threats to Gaza, ugly attacks on
Muslims, new attacks on unions and collective bargaining and a new rounds of
cutbacks of every possible social program, particularly hitting the Black and
immigrant communities and the unemployed....
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The ferocious storm of uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East continues to stymie the efforts of the U.S. and other Western powers to suppress or contain them. There are ongoing significant protests in Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq, all places with a substantial U.S. military presence....
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On March 17, 2011, Washington showed its true intentions by pushing through a U.N. Security Council resolution that amounts to a declaration of war on the government and people of Libya. A U.S. attack is the worst possible thing that could happen to the people of Libya. It also puts the unfolding Arab revolutions, which have inspired people across North Africa and Western Asia, in the gravest danger. The resolution goes beyond a no-fly zone. It includes language saying U.N. member states could "take all necessary measures" ... "by halting attacks by air, land and sea forces under the control of the Gadhafi regime."(CNN.com, Mar 17)...
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U.S. and French cruise missiles and bombs are raining down on the African state of Libya. This is not a "humanitarian' intervention....
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The International Action Center calls on all anti-war and
social justice activists to call Emergency Response STOP THE
U.S. WAR AGAINST LIBYA AND BAHRAIN actions in their areas on
Friday, March 18 or Saturday, Marcy 19, or to mobilize support
for any already existing anti-war demonstrations called to
mark the anniversary of the Iraq War, with this statement and
signs to STOP THE U.S. WAR AGAINST LIBYA AND BAHRAIN, as well
as to intensify the mobilization for the April 9th and 10th
Anti-War demonstrations in New York and San Francisco called
by the United National Antiwar Committee....
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March 15 — Events continue to unfold rapidly in North Africa and the Gulf states. On March 14 Saudi Arabia sent tanks and 2,000 troops into the kingdom of Bahrain to protect the Al Khalifa royal family there from mass protests demanding an end to the monopoly of political power in the hands of the king....
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March 13 — Libyan government forces have taken several towns both east
and west of Tripoli, the capital, driving out rebel groups that have been
calling for military intervention by the imperialist states. Morale among the
opposition is reportedly declining in Benghazi, which has been the de facto
headquarters of the rebels....
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With the corporate media’s attention concentrated on Libya, its oil
reserves and the real danger of U.S. and NATO’s military intervention,
one could almost forget that enormous popular revolts are percolating
throughout North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula....
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As of March 7, Libyan military forces have stepped up their counteroffensive
against rebel units backed by the U.S. and European Union countries. Government
soldiers have retaken the town of Bin Jawad and are mounting assaults on rebels
near the oil port of Ras Lanuf as well as Az Zawiyah, Tobruk and Misurata....
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The uprisings in Libya, coinciding with the struggles of other countries in North Africa and Western Asia respond to conditions similar to those of other countries but have very different consequences....
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Following is the statement of Cuba's Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Geneva, March
1 [2011]....
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On Sunday, Feb. 27, Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannochi resigned; he was replaced
by the elderly Beji Caïd Essebsi. On Monday the ministers of Industry and
Finance, the last remnants of the old regime also resigned. In the evening so
did Nejib Chebbi and Ahmed Brahmi, representatives respectively of the
Tajdid movement and the PDP, the two legal parties under Ben Ali. On
Tuesday they were followed by two other ministers. We have lived without a
government for four days in which terror has been circling like a bird of prey
around the Qasbah: youth beaten, threatened, persecuted by police and hired
criminals who have taken over the streets of the Medina and the surrounding
April 9th Avenue. At the same time the space has been restructured and the
class divide has drawn new geographical lines: while still Qasbah snugly in its
sacred area, with its illustrious barbarians and hardened militants, the silent
majority, silent for 23 years, decided to speak for about two hours a
day, between 5 and 7 p.m., at a daily assembly convened at the Dome in the
pompous Olympic Village, to support Ghannouchi, demand an end to the
demonstrations and defend the "revolution" from those who want to
make one...
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Defying threats from the puppet government and several party militias,
thousands of Iraqis from Basra in the south to Suleimaniya in the Kurdish north
took to the streets Feb. 25 in a “Great Day of Anger” inspired by
the uprisings across the Arab world....
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A new cabinet was sworn in on Feb. 22 in the aftermath of Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak’s resignation and the suspension of parliament and the
previous government. This was precipitated by the Feb. 11 Supreme Military
Council’s coup. The new cabinet’s appointment and publication of
the first set of political reforms on Feb. 26 is an attempt to address the
Egyptian people’s demands for a rapid return to civilian rule....
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Less than a dozen years after NATO bombed Yugoslavia into pieces, detaching
the province of Kosovo from Serbia, there are signs that the military alliance
is gearing up for another victorious little “humanitarian war”,
this time against Libya. The differences are, of course, enormous. But
let’s look at some of the disturbing similarities....
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The protests that we are witnessing in Libya must be examined carefully and
wisely. We have to realize that the intifada of Libya is not totally a genuine
one for reform; Part of it is provoked by the United States and the Zionists to
occupy this oil-producing country, under the pretence of
“democracy,” to get rid of its legitimate government for saying
“no” to US and Zionist domination. Those who broke ranks with
Gaddafi called upon the USto intervene, militarily if necessary, to get rid of
the legitimate government. This call gives an excuse for the US and its
European allies to pass a criminal resolution of the Security Council and
propose sanctions and a “no fly zone.” These actions remind us of
the same scenario that Iraq endured that caused its destruction. The infamous
resolution will give the US and its allies open interpretations and the options
of using military power that might lead to the invasion of Libya....
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The leaders of the rebellion, meeting yesterday in the headquarters in
Benghazi, have concluded that on their own they will not be able to overthrow
Gaddafi. Therefore a majority of them asked for US-NATO intervention using
air power, beginning with the imposition of a no-fly zone on
Libya. "The United States - they say - brought democracy when
they intervened in Kosovo." A part of the rebel forces, however, thought
otherwise: "We must free ourselves on our own; if we ask for foreign
intervention it would be treason."...
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March 2, 2011--"The United States is moving naval and air forces in the region" to "prepare the full range of options" in the confrontation with Libya: Pentagon spokesperson Col. Dave Lapan of the Marines made this announcement yesterday, March 1. He then said that "It was President Obama who asked the military to prepare for these options," because the situation in Libya is getting worse. The military then began "the planning and preparation" phase for an intervention in Libya. Pentagon planners are working on several specific plans, depending on how the “repositioning of forces” begins so as to have maximum flexibility to implement any option. ...
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Libya had been an Italian colony until Italy’s defeat in World War II.
After the war, the U.S. and Britain set up a monarchy in Libya under King Idris
I. Moammar al-Gadhafi was a military officer when he led a coup in 1969 against
the monarchy. This led to the nationalization of Libya’s oil and social
gains for the Libyan people...
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The White House is meeting with its allies among the European imperialist NATO countries to discuss imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, jamming all communications of President Moammar Gadhafi inside Libya, and carving military corridors into Libya from Egypt and Tunisia, supposedly to “assist refugees.” (New York Times, Feb. 27)...
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The Al-Mahalla strike is part of the spate of industrial unrest that has rocked the country in the midst and aftermath of the 25 January revolution. Policemen, bank employees, workers at the Helwan Coke Company, in military production, cement, iron and steel and at the Suez Canal all struck for higher wages and improved working conditions, demanding an end to corruption in the workplace....
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OIL became the principal wealth in the hands of the large yankee transnationals; with that source of energy, they had at their disposal an instrument that considerably
increased their political power in the world. It was their principal weapon when they decided to simply liquidate the Cuban Revolution as soon as the first, just and sovereign laws were enacted in our homeland: by depriving it of oil....
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Venezuelan president calls for mediation to end crisis while the US and other powers weigh military options....
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As popular revolts spread across the Arab world, now breaking out in Morocco
and Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and Bahrain, even in Kuwait, it is important to
remember one of the nations in this region that faces a special situation: It
is forcibly occupied by 50,000 U.S. troops. It is Iraq, which the U.S. and
Britain invaded in March 2003 and which the U.S. has occupied since. No one
should forget, when considering the crimes of the U.S.-backed tyrants, that
U.S. imperialism is responsible for the deaths of a million Iraqis and the
displacement of 4 million....
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Anti-government protesters in Bahrain swarmed back into a symbolic square on
Feb. 19, putting riot police to flight in a striking victory for their
cause....
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Protests continued throughout the country of Yemen on Feb. 21 to demand the
ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The demonstrations, which began during
the time of the uprising in Tunisia and gained traction with recent events in
Egypt, have increased in scope and intensity in the past 12 days....
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Of all the struggles going on in North Africa and the Middle East right now,
the most difficult to unravel is the one in Libya....
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The International Action Center urges solidarity with the resistance
struggles shaking dictatorships throughout the Arab World....
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Anti-government demonstrations have spread to the Horn of Africa nation of
Djibouti, where 30,000 people marched on Feb. 18 demanding the resignation of
President Ismael Omar Guelleh. Two people were killed when police attacked
protesters in this country’s capital, which is also called Djibouti....
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The Egyptian military would like to put the genie of the
Egyptian Revolution back in the bottle. But it won’t go back. The
so-called “orderly transition” — backed by the Obama
administration, NATO and the Egyptian ruling class — has the immediate
tactical goal of pushing the masses of people off the streets and off the stage
of history....
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Ghazala, a courageous woman, founder of the Committee of Unemployed
Graduates of Gafsa that so actively participated in the protests of 2008, has
given us a contact in Qasserine. We meet him halfway there, in Mejel Bel Abbes.
Boubaker, 33 year old, master's in engineering, also a member of the
Committee of Unemployed Graduates, is surviving by doing some odd jobs as an
electrician. He is tall, a bit prim, neatly dressed in the dignified severity
that attempts to preserve a modest sovereignty of his appearance in the midst
of difficulties. Like many educated young people in similar circumstances in a
situation where he is forced to remain single, he has wound up developing,
without wanting to, an air of a preacher or priest: there is something, how can
we put it, excessively clean in their dress and mannerisms. He speaks little
French, but has an almost scholarly knowledge of the history of the area, whose
natural wealth, well known by Romans, Vandals and Berbers, has been
misappropriated and wasted by postcolonial Tunisia....
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The
greatest analysts of human society described real revolutions
as “festivals of the masses.” We see then that the 18 days
that overturned the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship is one of the
greatest revolutions in the history of humanity. Never before
have so many in such a condensed period of time become the
actors and writers of their own history. We congratulate the
people of Egypt for their tremendous victory over a tyrant who
for 30 years had the support of the “great powers” of the
European Union and especially of the United States until the
final moments of his reign....
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These reports from Cairo are from Faiza Rady, formerly a resident of
Philadelphia, who has returned to Egypt...
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The International Action Center joins with the people of Egypt and the world in
celebrating the stunning triumph of people's power and mass action in
Egypt. The greatest analysts of human society described real revolutions as
“festivals of the masses.” We see then that the 18 days that
overturned the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship is one of the greatest revolutions in
the history of humanity. Never before have so many in such a condensed period
of time become the actors and writers of their own history. We congratulate the
people of Egypt for their tremendous victory over a tyrant who for 30 years had
the support of the “great powers” of the European Union and
especially of the United States until the final moments of his reign....
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From Gafsa to Redeyef you travel towards striped mountains that mark the
border with Algeria, under a pure blue sky, through a hard, dry terrain, a
planetary extension, which is about to succumb once more to the temptation of
being landscape: small towns with camels browsing between the houses, shepherds
with colorful headdresses, massive women sitting in the sun, wrapped in white
cloth, sharing tasks and conversation. Everything seems fresh, clean,
motionless, eternal and clear. But in reality there are few places in Tunisia
as ground down by its history as this square of adverse and ancient
land....
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...
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The Egyptian revolt against the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak regime has inspired many workers and oppressed people throughout the world. Mass solidarity demonstrations have taken place to show support for Egypt’s popular uprising. Here are brief reports on just a few notable actions, most of them on Feb. 5 or 6....
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With the popular uprising that is rocking cities across Egypt now heading into its third week, solidarity rallies are building across the U.S. in response. Many of these protests are calling on the U.S. government to end its funding for the repressive regime of Hosni Mubarak....
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Feb. 9 reports from Cairo say there are growing numbers of Egyptian workers who have gone out on strike all over the country, as the struggle to oust the despised, U.S.-backed Mubarak regime intensifies....
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Feb. 8 — Hosni Mubarak’s military-police regime and its creators in Washington are waging a war of attrition to wear down the newly emerging Egyptian revolution. But the people show no signs of backing down. More than a million anti-government demonstrators today once again filled Liberation Square. Despite police-agent attacks, gradual escalation of pressure from the military and slanderous campaigns against the protesters on Egyptian state television, all reports are that masses of people have flooded into central Cairo to demand the immediate ouster of Mubarak....
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"France is Paris, the rest is scenery," 19th century French
centralism said with contempt. Many times before we had been in central and
southern Tunisia, but we had never seen anything but flocks of sheep and
clouds, striated mountains and clean deserts, and people who seemed to
passively accept, in the villages and cafes along the highway, their condition
as a watermark or wrinkle in the tapestry. Our short and intense journey,
parallel to the turbulence that has shaken the country for more than a month,
reflects the decisive transformation, mental and material, of a landscape into
a territory....
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March in Solidarity with millions of Egyptian People in their struggle for
democracy and human rights as they demand the immediate DEPARTURE of the
repressive U.S. backed Mubarak regime....
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This interview was conducted in bits and parts, in the middle of a protest
demonstration, stopping to talk once you recovered your breath after running
through the streets near Bourghiba Avenue. These are crucial days for the
revolution, but the glare of the mainstream media is now directed towards
Egypt. "Tunisia is not an international issue but a local one," the
Al Jazeera employees told us when we tried to inform them that Benali militia
had returned to their old ways in Sfax. Boukadous disagrees. "The
revolution began in the provinces and remains very active there."...
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Nationalists, liberals, Islamists and leftists: A National Assembly should choose new transitional leadership in Egypt. There must be strong representation of youth....
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The masses in Tahrir (Liberation) Square - now known among the fighters as
Martyrs’ Square — gave the counterrevolutionary thugs of a dying
regime blow for blow, pushed them back and held the square, thus achieving both
a military and political victory. They were fully aware of the crucial
political importance of holding the square for the people. This was a victory
for the masses of Egyptian people, the people of the Middle East as a whole,
and the workers and oppressed of the world....
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...
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“You can only talk of revolution if there is a time when the whole
people go out to the streets to take part in a big festival. The victories are
celebrated and if we are not celebrating it's because there is victory. We
have not been able to celebrate anything in the street, not even the expulsion
of Ben Ali. And that means we have not yet won.”...
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Don’t be confused by the deceptive and false statements uttered by
President Obama or Secretary of State Hillary Roddam Clinton suggesting that
they have sympathy for Egyptians fighting for liberation and jobs in Tahrir
Square. <...
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Since the early hours of the morning loud music from large speakers in front
of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry on the Corniche Al Nile in downtown Cairo has
been booming. Shortly past 8 a.m., at the end of the curfew, as the first cars
and pedestrians crossed over from the Nile Zamalik in the direction of the city
center, an additional person reports to the loudspeaker to speak. He promises
that the government understands the concerns of the people and resolves to keep
the country in peace and prosperity. A man holds a T-shirt in the air, on which
President Hosni Mubarak is caught looking down and smiling. A good three dozen
men wave the Egyptian flag and look around uncertainly, and some melancholy men
behind them run swiftly past them along the promenade towards Tahrir Square,
Liberation Square. While some — probably for fear of losing their jobs
— cheer the Mubarak regime — the others will demand this day the
resignation of the man who ruled Egypt for 30 years. Only rarely is there even
a short battle of words between the two camps, that is then quickly ended by
soldiers, who have been blocking for days now bank of the Nile between the
State Department and Tahrir Square....
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We returned this morning to Qasba, closed on all four sides by barbed wire.
The police only let in the employees who work in the district. But from the
outside we were able to see and photograph, the new lime painted on the walls
looking like a facelift, revealing a hidden history, a strangled antiquity.
There is no doubt they have done a good job. Not a trace of a slogan or a comma
of graffiti or stroke of black ink. Not even on the prime minister's stone
palace can you find the slightest trace of the noisy discussions that for five
days fused politics and life in a pure present without future....
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The revolutionary upheaval in Egypt has brought millions of workers, youth
and professionals into the streets to demand the removal of the U.S.-backed
regime of Hosni Mubarak. The potential looms for a total collapse of
Washington’s foreign policy in the region....
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As of Jan. 24, the Lebanese Parliament is holding discussions to form a new
government. A year-old “unity government” containing all political
factions fell on Jan. 12, when Hezbollah pulled its people out of cabinet
posts....
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Jan. 30 — Massive protests continue throughout Egypt to demand an end to the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, a 30-year dictatorship that has served as an anchor for U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. In the streets protesters have fraternized with members of the military, while police forces have largely retreated. Meanwhile, youth direct traffic, as self-defense committees have been organized to defend neighborhoods from violence at the hands of “thugs,” who many suspect to be plainclothes police and members of the ruling National Democratic Party. After three days of demonstrations in which tens of thousands of people faced brutal repression at the hands of the Egyptian state apparatus, hundreds of thousands came out on Jan. 28 to protest the police brutality, poverty, unemployment and corruption they have endured under the Mubarak regime. Defying a curfew imposed by Mubarak the day before, protesters hit the streets not only in the capital city, Cairo, but in cities throughout the country....
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Hamida Ben Romdhane, director of La Press on January 13, still director of La Press on January 30, writes an article today entitled "I am guilty,” in which he lashes out against "the smoothies, sycophants, calculators and manipulators" that for years have been lackeys in the service of the dictator's personality cult. "Today," he says, "Tunisia breathes freely and so does our newspaper. ...
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IAPSCC salutes the people of Egypt for their determined struggle to end the
30-year long tyrannical rule of Mubarak having a tacit understanding with
Israel and who was backed by the imperialist powers, esp. the USA, all these
years. Inspired by the example of Tunisian people’s struggle and victory
over dictatorial rulers, people in Egypt have taken to the streets for over one
week defying curfew and planning still more powerful movement....
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After two weeks of restraint, in fact, the police have returned to take
charge of the situation. Yesterday they broke hands and legs in the Qasbah and
throughout the day lists have circulated of unconfirmed dead and missing. At
least 20 people were arrested this afternoon at the station. And on the Qasbah
square where yesterday there were still blankets, tents and cooking pots, some
dozens of mobile phones were scattered about. Of many of the people the police scattered yesterday nothing is known.Meanwhile this morning, 12 hours later, the walls of the building that for five
days was the ministry of the people were being painted over, the Press
published a front-page photograph of the crushed concentration under the
headline: "in the Qasbah the freedom caravan follows the protests."
The revolution is already a brand-name, the spark of life of a government that
weaves in the darkness and a press that uses new names to name the same
things....
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At 9:30 a.m. a taxi driver answered our question about Mohamed Ghannouchi
with impeccable reasoning:“Do you know why I want him to go? Because he doesn't want to go.
If he doesn't want to go, it's because he is hiding something. If he is
hiding something, it can't be something good. And if he is hiding something
bad, he has to go.”...
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If everything was following a plan, if 120 people were killed to rejuvenate
the old country and better locate it in an Arab world submissive to
Washington's plans, if it were aimed at better ensuring continuity by
introducing some cosmetic changes, then now it would have to sweep away the
embers that the wind -- always unpredictable -- has blown together at the
Qasbah. The past returns with unsettling speed....
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A seemingly all-powerful military, police and media apparatus, that has had the
support of the U.S. superpower for decades, is crumbling before the even
greater strength of a united people who have first conquered fear and may now
push the dictator’s regime into the dustbin of history....
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Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in cities across Egypt
demanding the ouster of U.S. ally President Hosni Mubarak. These are the
largest anti-regime protests in Mubarak’s 30-year rule of this North
African country of 85 million people. Though the White House has declared the
Mubarak regime “stable,” even greater protests are expected on Jan.
28 following Friday services at mosques throughout the country. Egyptian
opposition forces were inspired by the uprising in nearby Tunisia, which on
Jan. 14 forced that country’s dictator, Zine El Abadine Ben Ali, to flee
to Saudi Arabia. The uprising in Tunisia surprised not only its own rulers but
their imperialist overlords in Paris and Washington....
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To affirm and ensure our participation in the revolution of our people, who fought for their right to freedom and national dignity, this people who sacrificed dozens of martyrs and thousands of wounded and arrested, and in order to complete and secure the victory against both domestic and foreign enemies and against those who are attempting to hijack the sacrifices of the people, have constituted "The January 14th Front” as a political structure to promote and ensure the revolution to achieve its goals and fight and stop the forces of counterrevolution; this front is a structure that brings together national, progressive and democratic parties, forces and organizations....
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After a festive and liberating week with unanimous participation, Tunisian society is beginning to split along class lines. It is a territorial division, which is beginning to separate Bourguiba Avenue from the Qasbah, and is also a cyber division, in which the same people who used facebook to fuel the revolution are today calling for calm and the restoration of order against the insurgent proletariat. You can perceive a disturbing contraction. Hamida Ben Romdhane, director of La Press, which on Jan. 13 dutifully praised the last steps Ben Ali took to try to calm the masses, on Jan. 20 exhibited on its front cover jewels allegedly confiscated from the Trabelsi family and praised the revolution of the worthy people of Tunisia....
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The unknown country, which has made the revolution, which has sacrificed 120 lives in the protests, is found not on Bourguiba Avenue, where intellectuals celebrate a revolution that they can gain from and then withdraw, but in the Qasbah in front of the prime minister's headquarters. Yesterday hundreds of people slept here, and now, at 12 a.m. (on Jan. 24), thousands of them are still shouting: "nidal nidal hata iusqut el nitham", "Al yaum al-yaum tusqut el-hukuma" ("Struggle, struggle until we end the regime","today, today we overthrow the government.") ...
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A revolution, can it so easily become a habit? Is it compatible with the customary normal duties of government, the production and reproduction of everyday life, the natural decline of forces? The government hopes and protesters fear the same thing: fatigue will set in. But this Sunday [Jan. 23] of transition to "the first day of normality," which will once again put to the test the people's ability to break out, Bourguiba Avenue remains vibrant under a light so pure, so sharp, that its buildings and the trees look bare, even skinless....
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In some sense these days I feel very Tunisian: because, like other Tunisians, I realize that up to now I understood nothing about Tunisia. And because what is now clear to me, like to all other Tunisians, is mostly a great confusion. The situation, eight days after the collapse of the tyrant, it stretches and stretches without breaking. As in all revolutions, everything is decided in the first few weeks and today one everything feels a little uncomfortable -- like amorphous, painful, formless freedom -- a great uncertainty....
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The following is a day-by-day chronicle of developments in Tunisia, which are written in Spanish and which the IAC is translating to English:...
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Jan. 24 — Tunisia’s workers and youth have continued mass demonstrations and strikes aimed at removing the neocolonial regime and replacing it with a representative government of national unity....
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Jan. 18 — A popular uprising in the North African state of Tunisia since mid-December has driven President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had ruled the Western-allied government for 23 years, into exile. Ben Ali fled on Jan. 14 after tens of thousands of workers and youths attacked the Ministry of the Interior and other government buildings in the capital of Tunis and in the city of Carthage. When a street vendor who was attacked by police committed suicide by self-immolation on Dec. 17, it unleashed this enormous struggle. Defying tear gas and even live fire from the security forces that killed between 50 and 100 people, thousands also demonstrated in dozens of Tunisia’s provincial cities until they brought down a repressive head of state....
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