By Nick Brown:
On July 1st, 2011, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tripoli for a massive rally in support of Muammar al-Gaddafi and the Libyan government. The rallies come in the wake of all-around attacks by Western imperialists and their lackey regimes in the Middle East against the north African country’s social and political institutions.
First July demonstration
Since March 19th, the Naked Aggression Treaty Organization (NATO) has been attacking the country, resulting in over 6,000 civilian casualties in the first 100 days alone. NATO reps announced its intentions of killing Qaddafi and overthrowing the government he heads. By early July, the Libyan government had lost control of the eastern region of the country to Western and Monarchist-backed “rebels,” who advanced to within 80 km (50 miles) of the capital. In addition, a vicious propaganda war has been unleashed against the Libyan government and Qaddafi by various media outfits, one being Al Jazeera which is owned by the Qatari royal family. It is under such conditions that the population of Tripoli has rallied around the beleaguered Libyan government.
One reporter who is not part of the imperialist-centered establishment described military preparation in Tripoli as thus:
“The neighborhoods in Libya are preparing for a ground invasion and to confront directly the invaders with a plan that one imagines would not be unfamiliar to a General Giap of Vietnam or a Chinese General Lin [Biao], being a massive peoples defense. It has been organized with a house by house, street by street defense plan for every neighborhood and will include all available weaponry.
“The defenders are not military although many of the older ones had done one year compulsory service following high school. Their ranks include every able bodied woman and man from age 18 to 65. Younger or older will not be refused.
preparation for defence
“They are organized into 5 person squads once they complete their training. It works like this: Anyone over 18 years of age can report to his neighborhood “Tent”. Knowing virtually everyone in the area, the person will make application and will be vetted on an AK-47, M-16 or other light arm.
…
“I agreed not to describe other weapons that will be used if NATO appears besides rifles, grenades, booby-traps, rocket propelled grenades (RPG’s) but they appear formidable.”
The previous existing relationship between Qaddafi, the Libyan people and imperialism has now changed. Forces are squaring off into two distinct camps: the imperialist-backed ‘rebel’ camp and the pro-government camp now aligned against Western imperialism and foreign intervention. Whatever initial, genuine, anti-government rebellion by the Libyan masses existed, it has since been co-opted by Western imperialism and its regional lackeys in an effort to install a regime more compliant to their rotten interests. The “reforms” this anti-people bloc offers would clear away the remaining economic protections enjoyed by Libyans and work against inter-African and Muslim unity. (For example, the puppet “rebels” of the ‘National Transitional Council’ have rejected every proposal by the African Union to begin negotiations between the two camps. This disregard on the African Union will continue if the “rebels” take power and it will only serve to benefit imperialism against Africans.)
Libyan resistance to the NATO alliance must be supported by all revolutionaries because the outcome of the struggle in Libya is part of a larger, global class struggle. Revolutionaries do not try to assuage imperialism into not being the aggressive beast it is. Nor do we advocate jumping behind Qaddafi and pretending he had our full support all along. Rather, through such conflicts we champion organizing for resistance to the imperialist aggressors and the political awakening of the Libyan and world’s masses.
US-led imperialism is as belligerent as ever, spurred on by rising competition from Chinese and Russian interests and further challenges in the Third World such as the South America’s ‘Bolivarian Revolutions’ and the creation of the African Union. Yet, each act of belligerence increasingly sets the masses of the Third World against imperialsim. Western imperialism is on the brink of picking fights it won’t win.
Long live resistance by the Libyan masses to NATO and the comprador “rebel” movement! Long live the real rebel movements to carry out real revolutions against lackey regimes in Africa, the Maghreb and Middle East!
-Nick Brown
Sources and Notes:
http://www.countercurrents.org/lamb020711.htm
http://www.countercurrents.org/lendman020711B.htm
http://www.countercurrents.org/blum010711.htm
http://allafrica.com/stories/201107050386.html
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/07/04/feature-02
Also, check out this video of the massive patriotic rally held in Tripoli on July, 1st:
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=79400&s2=10
Courtesy of Nick Brown
Source: http://anti-imperialism.com/?s=As+imperialists+and+lackeys+continue+assaults%2C+Libyan+masses+prepare+for+all+out+resistance
Publication date of original article: 08/07/2011
URL of this page: http://www.tlaxcala-int.org/article.asp?reference=5340