[antiwar-van] 2 MAWO Statements on Libya

[Kira Koshelanyk]

* Please Forward Widely * 






Mobilization Against War &
Occupation ~ MAWO





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TWO RECENT STATEMENTS BY MOBILIZATION
AGAINST

WAR & OCCUPATION ON THE CURRENT
SITUATION IN LIBYA

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~> MARCH 17th 2011
STATEMENT:
http://www.mawovancouver.org/sections/revolutionandcounterrevolution/statements/110317statement.html




DON'T ATTACK LIBYA!

US, CANADA, UN, NATO HANDS OFF
LIBYA!

STOP NO-FLY ZONE OVER LIBYA!

March 17, 2011

Yet
again the United Nations Security Council, this criminal tool of the
US war 
machine, decided to bring another sovereign country to the
bloodbath. Today, 
Thursday, March 17th, the UN Security Council
passed a resolution (10 for, and 5
abstaining), that not only
imposes a no-fly zone over Libya, but in detail gives
all
possible options for imperialist countries to attack Libya with
whatever
they may see fit. With resolution 1973, the US, UK,
Canada, France and all other
imperialist countries declared war
on the people of Libya. The United States of
war, destruction and
killing successfully brought together a coalition of war
mongers
under the shameless new fake term of the “International Community.”
Immediately after passing resolution 1973, the United States,
France, UK, Italy 
and NATO announced that they are ready to act
and impose a no-fly zone and 
whatever necessary measure needed to
be taken against Gaddhafi and the Libyan 
government. Here in
Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, not lagging behind,

instantaneously announced that Canada will send 8 CF-18s fighter
jets to help 
enforce the UN resolution of a no-fly zone over
Libya. Furthermore, Canada's 
foreign affairs minister, Lawrence
Cannon, stated “Canada is open to all 
options”, and when
asked if this means deploying troops on the ground he 
responded,
“protecting citizens that are being literally murdered by Gaddhafi,

is what the resolution calls for."

We need to remind
ourselves that resolution 1973 is not to bring democracy and 
human
rights to the Libyan people. There is no saving of human lives or any

humanitarian intervention on behalf of the Libyan people that can
be performed 
by imperialist powers. Indeed, this is such an
obvious hypocrisy by these war 
mongers because none of those
precious human values mean anything to them. One, 
we haven’t
forgotten the killings of millions of people in Vietnam, more than a

million people in Rwanda, killings of more than one million
people in Iraq just 
from 2003 until now, as well as hundreds of
thousands of innocent people in 
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Congo,
Nigeria, Sudan , Somalia and many other poor and 
sovereign
countries by the very same imperial powers. These crocodile tears are

not for human lives in Libya but it is for the oil and gas of
Libya, which has 
the proven largest underground reserves in
Africa. Two, how ironic and 
preposterous it is that the so-called
international community includes the 
backing of the Arab League
which in its latest meeting only 11 out of 22 
countries
participated with 2 against a no-fly zone. How credible would be the

support of the Arab League for the no-fly zone when only 40% are
in agreement. 
However there has been almost no mention of the
African Union (AU), with 53 
countries and the Organizations of
Islamic Countries (OIC), with 57 members, 
where both
organizations utterly rejected any foreign interference or

intervention in Libya. “The African Union last Friday [March
11] meeting in 
Addis Ababa rejected any military intervention in
Libya urging the international 
community to observe the rules of
international laws and find a non military 
intervention strategy
to end the crisis”, and “The meeting [OIC, March 8] 
emphasized
the imperative of respecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity

of Libya and non-interference in its internal affairs stressing
the principled 
and firm position of the OIC against any form of
military intervention to 
Libya.” How preposterous it is that
the two Arab countries which are so far 
participating in the
no-fly zone, United Arab Emirate and Qatar, are both 
participating
as mercenary forces in killing people and supporters of the

opposition in Bahrain. How credible are these and Arab countries
like Yemen, 
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other s that while
they are killing their own 
opposition members or helping other
countries to suppress their opposition, now 
are so concerned
about the opposition in Libya. Why are these countries and 
their
imperial masters conducting such a huge campaign against the Libyan

government and advocating a no-fly zone, military attack and
sanctions while 
they are completely silent on the violence being
perpetuated on millions of 
people in North Africa and the Middle
East, namely the suppression and 
massacring of people and
protesters in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. 
Furthermore, in
the case of Bahrain, the security and special forces from Saudi

Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and UAE, are acting as merciless
mercenaries to suppress 
the growing opposition.

Third and
not least important is that the new war drive in the Middle East and

North Africa which is unfolding against Libya, is a very
important strategic 
move by the United States and other colonial
powers. The mass revolutionary 
movement that started in late
December 2010 in North Africa and the Middle East 
has changed the
balance of forces further in favour of the working and oppressed

people of this region. It definitely slowed down the US war
preparation against 
Iran and sank them more deeply in the
quagmire of Iraq and especially 
Afghanistan. This mass movement
is in its early stages of development. With the 
US attacking
Libya, they are clearly attempting to roll back the powerful

revolutionary movement started more than two months ago. By
defeating the 
government of Libya, it reinforces the army and
police against protesters 
everywhere in North Africa and the
Middle East. Of course the defeat of 
government forces in Libya
also means a great opportunity for imperialist forces
to either
influence the opposition forces more or to get rid of them
altogether.
All progressive and peace-loving people and
organizations must strongly condemn 
this new war drive. We must
come together as a real international community to 
stop this new
madness by the US and other colonial powers.

Needless to say,
in this critical time our unity is essential to defend the 
people
of Libya, the people of the Middle East and North Africa and to build
an 
effective antiwar movement. This is the time that all antiwar
and 
anti-occupation organizations come together under one clear
strategy against all
US and other imperialists military
interventions. This is a time to abandon all
illusions that there
might be anything progressive and human to overthrowing the
Libyan
government or helping the opposition in Libya through imperialist

intervention such as sanctions, a no-fly zone or military
attacks. It is clear 
as sunshine that an imperialist military
attack is imminent and the consequences
of this attack will be
catastrophic for humanity. The unfolding mass 
revolutionary
movement and ousting of Mubarak and Ben Ali in Egypt and Tunisia

have been a fresh struggle for anti-imperialist movements in the
region. It 
certainly reversed the setback imposed on the working
and poor people of the 
world through the occupations of
Afghanistan and Iraq. What the great masses of 
North Africa and
the Middle East need to see is not another Iraq but rather 
another
Egypt. Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO), strongly
condemns
the UNSC resolution 1973, the imposing of a no-fly zone
on Libya, and the
undermining with any justification of the
self-determination and sovereignty of
the Libyan people. We
demand:

DON’T ATTACK LIBYA!

US, CANADA, UN, NATO
HANDS OFF LIBYA!

STOP NO-FLY ZONE OVER LIBYA!

REVOKE
UNSC RESOLUTION 1973 AGAINST LIBYA!

ALL IMPERIALISTS OUT OF
NORTH AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST!

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~>
FEBRUARY 24th, 2011 STATEMENT

http://www.mawovancouver.org/sections/revolutionandcounterrevolution/statements/110224statement.html

IMPERIALISTS
HANDS OFF LIBYA, SYRIA & IRAN!

U.S., UK, EU & NATO
DON'T ATTACK LIBYA!

NO SANCTIONS AGAINST LIBYA!

LONG
LIVE THE MASS POPULAR STRUGGLE IN NORTH AFRICA & THE MIDDLE
EAST
FOR FREEDOM, SELF-DETERMINATION & BASIC RIGHTS!

February
24, 2011

For more than two months people in North Africa and
the Middle East, from 
Morocco to Yemen, have been in struggle for
freedom, social justice, democracy, 
a better life, human dignity
and self-determination. The growing momentum of 
this mass
uprising has changed the social and political life of millions in

Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya,
and to some 
extent, Syria and Iran. However, one must note that
three countries, Libya, 
Syria and Iran, unlike the rest of the
countries in the region, are not ruled by
an imperialist client
regime. In these countries, within the framework of being
independent of imperialism, as well as the framework of the
struggle of masses 
of people for their rights, the dividing line
between revolution and counter 
revolution is more complicated.
Fundamentally, the revolutionary movement that 
is unfolding today
everywhere in North Africa and the Middle East is 
anti-autocratic
and anti-imperialist in character.

The popular mass radical
movement started in Tunisia in mid-December 2010, when 
an
unemployed graduate student who was working as a street vendor set
himself on
fire in protest to humiliation and police brutality.
After 28 days, on January
14, 2011, the protest rallies that were
sparked and inspired by this incident
forced the tyrant Ben Ali,
the president of Tunisia for 23 years, to give up 
power and flee
to Saudi Arabia. The popular mass struggle and victory in Tunisia 


elevated the social and political awareness in the already
volatile atmosphere 
and generated a powerful confidence in
millions of people that sparked a chain 
of mass protests and
revolutionary struggle across North Africa and the Middle 
East.
Strongest of all of these mass uprisings was in Egypt, where 18 days
of 
marches, rallies and strikes by all layers of society,
especially poor and 
working people, finally brought down the
vicious dictator Hosni Mubarak, after 
30 years in power.

The
victory of the people of Egypt and Tunisia has set an important
example for 
other countries in the area in terms of increasing
immensely the radicalization 
and consciousness of working and
oppressed people. Furthermore, the similarity 
of the
socio-economical crisis in the region has reinforced the escalation
of 
mass protest to all North African and Middle Eastern
countries, either 
imperialist client regimes or independent ones,
in the form of wide spread 
social and political unrest. The
autocratic rulers of Tunisia and Egypt used all
suppressive
measures to crack down the mass protests. Hundreds of people were
killed and thousands were injured, as well as hundreds of
protesters were 
rounded up. However, mass killings and arrests
did not demoralize and alter the 
protest movement. On the
contrary, it encouraged more the heroic masses of 
Tunisia and
Egypt to bring down their tyrants more effectively.

Without
any doubt, the mass rallies and uprisings that have unfolded in the

countries with overwhelmingly U.S. client regimes are in nature
an 
anti-imperialist movement. The U.S. for decades has plundered
the wealth and 
natural resources of these countries. The U.S. has
armed these regimes with all 
the weaponry and military assistance
necessary to suppress their population for 
the interest of
multinational corporations and blood-sucking imperialist 
financial
institutions. How could it be that these massive protest movements

against local client regimes do not aim at imperialist
exploitation and 
domination? After all, all these movements are a
reaction to imperialist 
domination and exploitation. In fact, the
client regimes have only been the base
of operation for
imperialist countries and their corporations.

The
revolutionary mass movement in North Africa and the Middle East has
so far 
undoubtedly imposed a huge setback for imperialist
hegemony in general, and the 
U.S. war-drive in particular, in the
region. This revolutionary movement also 
created world-wide
solidarity with people in struggle. However, it must be said 
that
thus far the U.S. and other imperialists, with the help of
international 
institutions and especially the mainstream mass
media, have been able to 
manipulate the world public opinion to
prevent more sympathy and solidarity, 
needed to support
effectively the people of North Africa and the Middle East. 
They
have also partially succeeded so far in bringing the focus of the
mass 
movements to just two issues. One, that the struggle of the
mass movement is
only a fight against dictators! And two, that
they support these mass social and
political movements and are on
the same side as the protest movement. They have 
tried to
register this on the world scale as well as in the Middle East and

North Africa. In other words, their effort so far has been to
direct this 
dynamic revolutionary movement into a safe hub,
diverting the growing awareness 
of the masses locally and
internationally away from the role of the 
imperialists’
destruction in the region. The U.S. and other imperial countries
have been trying very hard to do this, with the instrumental help
of whatever is
left of the old rotten regimes in the Middle East
and North Africa.

While this manoeuvring worked at the
beginning of the mass movement, now it has 
become clear that in
Tunisia and Egypt working people have already advanced 
their
struggle to fight for rights beyond the dismissal of dictators.

In
non-client countries, such as Iran, Syria and Libya, the U.S. and
other 
imperialists are campaigning simultaneously for democracy
and democratic rights, 
as well as for regime change. However,
their campaign in countries like Egypt, 
Tunisia, Bahrain, Jordan
and Yemen is merely for “transition to democracy.” All 
the
while they are working with what remains of other client regimes to

channelize the mass movement into a safe and harmless order.
Essentially, the 
imperialists need to establish in the world that
movements in all these
countries, either imperialist client
regimes or independent regimes, all have
the same nature and
character. But in fact, while they preach for transitional
governments in the client countries, they propagate for regime
change in
independent countries, a clear practice of
double-standards and hypocrisy. It is
of vital importance to
understand that there are two types of countries in North 


Africa
and the Middle East; those that are independent of imperialist
countries 
like Iran, Syria and Libya, and then all the rest, that
in different degrees are 
client regimes, including Egypt,
Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain and so on. In 
the latter
countries, the mass movements must get rid of client regimes and

imperialist domination. On the contrary, the mass movement in the
independent 
countries must reinforce the anti-imperialist
consciousness, in rejection of 
imperialist domination and
military intervention at the same time as they are 
fighting for a
better government or regimes.

The return of imperialism to the
independent countries and the establishment of 
client regimes in
them is a severe harm and setback for working and oppressed 
people
in the region. Such a defeat restores the balance of forces in favour
of 
imperialism and brings back more misery and exploitation for
decades to come. It 
is more troubling to realize that Iraq and
Afghanistan are still under the boots 
of the U.S., UK, Canada and
their allies and that Palestine is more remote than 
ever from any
dignified solution. Furthermore, such a defeat changes the 
dynamics
of opposing forces completely in favour of the U.S., not only in the

region, but on a world scale.

We must understand that
there is big difference between regimes like Mubarak in 
Egypt,
Ben Ali in Tunisia and Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen, and regimes in
Iran 
and Libya. The first three regimes have all been puppets of
the colonialist 
countries, therefore people of those countries
must oust those puppet regimes in 
order to advance the movement
against imperialism. The regimes of the two latter 
countries are
against imperialist domination in their countries and indeed are

independent of imperialism (though they are not truly
anti-imperialist regimes). 
We are against any attempt by
imperialists to campaign to overthrow these 
independent, non U.S.
client regimes, be they good or bad regimes. It does not 
mean we
support them politically, not at all. If there is any struggle in
these 
countries against their governments or regimes, it must be
absolutely an 
internal affair without imperialists’
interference.

Since the beginning of the mass revolutionary
movements, the U.S. and European 
imperialists have not conducted
such a regime change campaign as the one that is 
now conducted
against Libya. Imperialist countries of the U.S. and Europe are

serious about intervention in Libya. Condemnation of the Libyan
government by 
the EU and the U.S., the proposal for a UN
intervention, the emergency session 
of the UN Security Council to
adopt policies and decisions to ease military 
intervention by
NATO or the UN, the potential imposition of a no fly zone, the

imposition all sorts of sanctions, and finally the asking for the
removal of 
Gaddahfi by imperialist authorities including Barak
Obama, the president of the 
United States, all and all are to
undermine the self-determination of the people 
of Libya.
Imperialists are taking advantage of the confusion around the
internal 
conflict in Libya, advocating the re-instatement of a
client imperialist regime 
in Libya, in order to be able to freely
exploit the resources of Libya including 
the vast reserves of oil
and gas. We condemn all imperialist campaigns for 
military
intervention in Iran and especially in Libya and say loudly, U.S., EU

hands Off Iran, Libya and Syria. We are against all sorts of
sanctions against 
Syria, Libya and Iran. We DO NOT want another
Iraq, we DO want another Egypt.

We invite everyone to join
Mobilization Against War and Occupation (MAWO) to 
campaign
against the military presence of imperialists in North Africa and the

Middle East and demand:

Stop meddling in the internal
affairs of all these countries!

Stop the false campaign and
provocations against Iran and Libya!

U.S., UK out of Iraq and
U.S., Canada, NATO out of Afghanistan!

Stop sanctions against
Iran and Libya!

U.S. Get out of North Africa and the Middle
East! 






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MAWO ~ Mobilization Against War &
Occupation
http://WWW.MAWOVANCOUVER.ORG
info at mawovancouver.org
P
604.322.1764 || F 604.322.1763










 		 	   		  
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