Libya

AWL challenges Peter Taaffe to debate Libya

Peter Taaffe, leader of the Socialist Party, has written two long polemics against AWL over Libya, the second of them digressing to many other things, back to Taaffe's grievances against criticisms in the 1960s. AWL formally and publicly challenges Taaffe to debate the issues publicly, and we offer him a platform and an audience at our summer school, "Ideas for Freedom", on 8-10 July. We wrote to the Socialist Party challenging them to a debate on 21 April, as soon as Taaffe's first polemic appeared on the web. We have written to them again since then, and repeatedly followed up with phone...

Peter Taaffe: "The ‘no-fly zone’, the Left and the ‘Third Camp’"

Peter Taaffe, leader of the Socialist Party, writes another polemic against AWL. The debate 1. Martyn Hudson: Libyan rebels fight for life 2. Sean Matgamna: Why we should not denounce intervention in Libya 3. Barry Finger: Libya and the no-fly zone: precedents for socialists 4. Dan Katz: The Left, slipping towards Qaddafi? 5. Sean Matgamna: The battle for democracy in the Arab Revolution 6. Barry Finger: Once again on "Stop the Bombing" 7. Peter Taaffe: Libya, the no-fly zone, AWL and the Left 8. Martin Thomas: Peter Taaffe equates Libyan rebels with Nicaraguan "Contras" 9. Ira Berkovic: The...

Libya, the Left and Intervention: a Debate

1. Martyn Hudson: Libyan rebels fight for life 2. Sean Matgamna: Why we should not denounce intervention in Libya 3. Barry Finger: Libya and the no-fly zone: precedents for socialists 4. Dan Katz: The Left, slipping towards Qaddafi? 5. Sean Matgamna: The battle for democracy in the Arab Revolution 6. Barry Finger: Once again on "Stop the Bombing" 7. Peter Taaffe: Libya, the no-fly zone, AWL and the Left 8. Martin Thomas: Peter Taaffe equates Libyan rebels with Nicaraguan "Contras" 9. Ira Berkovic: The left and Libya 10. Clive Bradley: No illusions in West, but "anti-intervention" opposition is...

Ridley flips on Libya

Yvonne Ridley, European President of the International Muslim Women’s Union has defected and become a cheerleader for Libya’s rebellion. Ridley calls for full backing for Nato military intervention on the grounds that “it might just be regarded as a force for good”. Perhaps she wants to fan the flickers of the Islamist component of the rebellion against the Arab nationalist Qaddafi regime. Her teary eyed witnessing of regiments of young men off to fight tyranny is reminiscent of Church of England priests blessing their flocks of young men in the First World War as they were sent over the top...

Peter Taaffe equates Libya's rebels with Nicaragua's contras

For the first time, I think, in 45 years of political conflicts with the AWL and its forerunners, the Socialist Party (formerly Militant) has explicitly polemicised against us. Debate on Libya : 1. Martyn Hudson: Libyan rebels fight for life 2. Sean Matgamna: Why we should not denounce intervention in Libya 3. Barry Finger: Libya and the no-fly zone: precedents for socialists 4. Dan Katz: The Left, slipping towards Qaddafi? 5. Sean Matgamna: The battle for democracy in the Arab Revolution 6. Barry Finger: Once again on "Stop the Bombing" 7. Peter Taaffe: Libya, the no-fly zone, AWL and the...

Egypt's new unions reach out

Egypt New political voices are emerging within the independent trade union movement which has exploded into existence since January. The unions themselves now have 250,000 members and have begun to organise groups of workers previously unorganised even by the old official unions — in fishing, street cleaning and farming. A doctors’ strike in May was successful — with an 80% turnout — despite opposition from the leadership of the Doctors’ Syndicate (the leader of the Syndicate broke the strike). The newly-formed Workers Democratic Party, which aims to be a political voice for the working class...

Libya: the opposing shore

The divide between Qaddafi’s Libya in the west and Free Libya in the east continues even as Nato begins to intensify attacks against the heart of the regime in Tripoli. It is curiously reminiscent of Julien Gracq’s The Opposing Shore which described two divided empires across the Gulf of Sirte lasting for aeons. This is the fear on all sides — that regime intransigence and the inability of the rebellion to militarily secure the west could lead to some form of longer lasting stalemate. The intensification of Nato attacks signal that this is a very real fear. Certainly for the rebellion it would...

Libyan rebels fight for life

Qaddafi has been draping himself in the battle flags of the past and appealing to international opinion in order to achieve a ceasefire which would provide a cover for the complete elimination of the rebel positions in Misrata. Draped in his Punic Roman toga whilst addressing “his” people, he has also received support from a super-team of his international pals — a pro-regime “anti-imperialist” international including Daniel Ortega, Castro, Chavez and Kim Jong-Il. The death of his youngest son in the NATO raids on his Tripoli compound has led to further appeals to NATO to back off. Some Tory...

Once again on “stop the bombing”

Does the refusal to endorse a call for an immediate end to the Western imposed no fly zone over Libya constitute a critical endorsement of imperialism? This is a charge that has been hurled with great solemnity at those of us who refuse lend our voices to the chorus demanding a halt to the aerial assault, while also claiming to champion Libyan democracy. This question appears to the many opponents of Western intervention to simply and smugly answer itself. The accusation itself is a veiled form of political damnation wrapped in a heavy dose of tongue clicking condescension. It is usually...

Misrata: our Guernica, our Srebrenica

On 18 April anti-Qaddafi rebels in Misrata — Libya's third-largest city, and the main city held by rebels in the west of the country — were reported as saying that without outside aid the city would soon fall to its month-long siege by Qaddafi's army. They said that there had been no NATO air strikes on the siege troops for three days. The European Union has a plan to send up to one thousand ground troops to Misrata “to secure the delivery of aid supplies”, and to fight only in self-defence. EU officials say they are waiting for UN endorsement of the plan. On 19 April the British government...

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