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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Jul 15 2011 - 20:22:46 EDT
NATO will be Defeated in Libya
The Libyan Resistance Movement. A Defining Moment for Africa
by Gerald A. Perreira
http://www.globalresearch.ca/coverStoryPictures2/25634.jpg
<http://www.globalresearch.ca> Global Research, July 16, 2011
The argument in Libya has been won by the Al Fateh revolution. There is now
a glaring truth confronting the North Atlantic Terrorist Organization (NATO)
– Muammar Qaddafi has handed out over one million kalashnikovs to the Libyan
people. If he was the brutal dictator that NATO would have us believe him to
be, then the armed population could have turned their guns on him and the
revolutionary armed forces by now, especially as they would have NATO’s full
backing if they did so.
Instead, on July 1st, more than a million Libyans, were in Green Square and
the surrounding streets, to hear Muammar Qaddafi speak and to rally against
NATO.
Chinese media put the number at 1.7 million and Intifada – Voice of
Palestine website called it ‘the largest demonstration ever in world
history’. The crowd chanted over and over again ‘We want Qaddafi’ while
unveiling a green flag 6 kilometers long.
The Al Fateh revolution has given the Libyan people a taste of the dignity
that comes with true independence and real sovereignty.
Unlike so many ‘Third World’ nation-states, Libya, under the leadership of
Muammar Qaddafi, has been a surrogate of neither the East nor the West. The
first thing that hits you when you step off the plane at Tripoli
International Airport is that Libyans are firmly in control of their
country. Libya is a power unto herself and Libyans are not taking kindly to
NATO’s attempts at re-colonization.
What has developed in Libya is a conundrum for NATO. They may have imagined
that with such vicious ongoing bombing raids, Qaddafi’s forces would have
crumbled.
Instead, they have witnessed the opposite. In the face of this all out
aggression, over 10,000 bombing raids and into its fifth month, the Libyan
patriotic and revolutionary armed forces and the vast majority of Libyans
have remained steadfast and loyal, defending their revolution and its
leader.
There are even pro-Qaddafi rallies in Benghazi, and constant gun battles
between pro-Qaddafi forces and the rebels in Benghazi and Misurata. In
villages and towns, reportedly under rebel control, the green flag of the Al
Fateh revolution can be seen flying from homes and public buildings. One
thing is clear, if Qaddafi did not have mass support he could not be
resisting this barbaric onslaught so effectively.
Every day the rebels reveal themselves to be mere surrogates of an
imperialist plot to overthrow the Libyan revolution. They cannot call for
health-care, housing, free education, subsidized food and a share in the oil
wealth because they have all of that.
Residents in areas where the NATO backed rebels are in control, have
reported that the rebels are looting stores and removing goods and food at
gunpoint. There are also numerous reports of torture, rape and execution of
captured pro-Qaddafi soldiers, Black Libyans and migrant workers from
neighboring African countries.
The nature of the Benghazi rebels is best illustrated by events that
occurred after rebels took control of the mountain village of Qawalish in
Western Libya. Many of the villagers were forced to evacuate the area since,
according to a report carried on July 10th, in the New York Times:
“All of the shops in the town had been ransacked, several homes were burned,
and the town’s gas station, in fine condition when Qawalish fell, had been
vandalized to the point of being dismantled. In building after building
furniture was flipped over, dishes and mirrors shattered, and everything
torn apart. Except for a few rebels roaming the streets in cars and trucks,
the town was deserted – a shattered, emptied ghost town decorated with
broken glass.”
There is no doubt that ‘the Coalition of Demons’, as Minister Louis
Farrakhan has called them, has realized their grave mistake – if not out in
the open, certainly behind closed doors. Having finally understood that the
Benghazi rebels are not now, nor would they ever be in a position to take
power in Libya, the ‘Coalition of Demons’ is crumbling, with major
differences surfacing amongst members on how to proceed with this ill-fated
mission impossible.
After spending billions of dollars at a time when their economies are in
deep crisis and reeling from the cost of years of war in Iraq and
Afghanistan, Europe and the US are now scrambling for a solution which will
allow them to save face.
The French, who were the driving force behind the invasion of Libya, are now
pressing for dialogue with Tripoli. On July 11th, in a report carried in
Flash News Today, French Defense Minister, Gerard Longuet stated: “We’ll
stop the bombing when the Libyans talk to each other and the military forces
on all sides return to their barracks. They can talk to each other because
we provide the proof that there is no solution by force”.
I wonder sometimes if these people actually hear themselves. No matter what
disdainful spin Gerard Longuet tries to put on the situation, he can never
convince us that the purpose of this mission was an exercise to prove that
this conflict could not be resolved by force.
The truth is that the French, British and Americans, in their arrogance and
ignorance, believed that toppling Qaddafi and rolling back the Libyan
revolution would be a push over and now they are trying everything to avoid
admitting an all out defeat.
In addition to the death and destruction caused by this French, British and
US barbaric adventurism, an estimated 150,000 people have been forced to
flee Libya, many of them African migrant workers. These refugees, who were
working in Libya and supporting their families in other parts of Africa, now
find themselves sleeping in parks in Italy and France.
With an estimated 23 million men and women unemployed in Europe, a figure
that is expected to increase in the coming months as the capitalist crisis
deepens, the situation for these refugees is disastrous.
NATO picked on a country that has experienced a profound political and
social revolution for the past 40 plus years. The majority of Libyans only
know life in the Jamahiriya and have lived in its dignity, comfort and calm
all their lives, causing many of them to perhaps become complacent, taking
much of what they had for granted.
However, there is no doubt that their revolutionary spirit has been
reignited by NATO’s bombs and they are standing behind the Al Fateh
revolution. As one female student from Al Fateh University put it, “Libya is
our mother and Qaddafi is our father.”
NATO – North Atlantic Terrorist Organization
NATO is a terrorist organization. Originally created to check the spread of
Soviet Communism into Western Europe, this European organization has now
reinvented itself as an enforcer and defender of White supremacy. On a
global crusade, NATO brutally enforces neo-colonialism worldwide under the
guise of ‘spreading democracy’ and ‘humanitarian intervention’.
Since the onset of colonialism, hundreds of years ago, West Europeans have
carried out a policy of genocide and plunder throughout the world. NATO
comprises these same old tribes of Europe organized under a modern day
umbrella.
The number of Iraqis slaughtered in the ongoing US war and occupation of
Iraq – now in its ninth year, is estimated at 1,455,590, let alone the
numbers murdered in Afghanistan, Somalia, Cote d’Ivoire and conflicts all
over the world – set in motion either covertly or overtly by these
terrorists. No people in the entire history of humanity have made war on all
peoples and murdered more people than these North Atlantic Tribes. This is
an historical fact.
Qaddafi – African Hero
Only leaders who are determined to live for their people are prepared to die
for their people. Young Libyans from the Student Revolutionary Committees in
the streets of Tripoli chant ‘Allah, Qaddafi, Libya’. The overwhelming
majority of Libyans – young and old – love him. And then there is the
massive outpouring of love and support that has come from every corner of
the globe, where people, organizations and liberation movements, all of whom
have received assistance from him at one time or other, have raised their
voices against NATO’s unprovoked aggression.
But nowhere is Qaddafi loved more than in Africa. His genuine commitment to
our liberation is known to all Africans. African youth support his vision.
Rappers have called him ‘African Hero’.
Tuaregs and freedom fighters from all over the continent have joined with
the Libyan people to defend Tripoli. The Pan-African movement has been
re-energized. It is no accident that it took an attack on the man who said
‘The Black race shall prevail throughout the world’, to galvanize the
movement which is capable of bringing about the dream of Garvey and Nkrumah,
a dream which Muammar Qaddafi has pursued at his own peril.
Tingba Muhammad, in an excellent article in The Final Call, made the
following indisputable points:
“Since he came to leadership in that oil-rich nation in 1969, Col. Qaddafi
has amassed a record of accomplishment for Black Africa unmatched in modern
history. Using his nation’s oil revenues, he has set the exploited former
Italian colony firmly on the road to true independence… those who take the
time to look past the litany of white lies about Qaddafi will be introduced
to a man whose progressive record of accomplishments very well may be
unmatched by ANYONE who has ever led a nation in modern times. And this is
not hyperbole! We will take it further: If this man—Muammar Qaddafi—ever ran
for president of America with a résumé like his, we dare say EVERY American
would not only vote for him, but would angrily trash the 22nd amendment to
the Constitution to allow him to serve forever!”
‘Wathint Abafazi Wathint Imbokotho’ – ‘You Strike a Woman, You Strike a
Rock’
The women of Libya are taking a leading role in defending the gains of the
revolution. Under the leadership of Muammar Qaddafi they have been able to
realize their own emancipation, which is uniquely Libyan and not based on
the Eurocentric notions of Western feminism.
They are amongst the most highly educated female population in Africa and
the Arab world. They are free to dress with or without the headscarf,
because Qaddafi understands that Islam cannot be enforced by a ‘moral police
force’, harassing and beating people in the streets for not dressing in
hijab and not praying on time.
Adhering to the edict articulated by Prophet Muhammad, stating that ‘there
can be no compulsion in religion’, Qaddafi knows that the only way forward
is to raise the consciousness of the people.
What protects the Islamic tradition and way of life in Libya is that their
very liberation is derived from the true emancipatory spirit of Islam. They
have been able to hold onto their traditions, while shedding the reactionary
pre-Islamic residue that permeates so much of the Muslim world. No one is
clearer than the women of Libya about what to expect from the backward,
al-Qaeda inspired Benghazi counter-revolutionaries, and they are having none
of it.
Sarkozy – the Wicked Pied Piper
NATO is arming and fighting alongside al Qaeda in Libya after telling the
world for years that al Qaeda is the single largest threat to their national
security.
At the same time, they continue to claim that they are fighting al Qaeda in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and Somalia. This might seem like a
contradictory and confused foreign policy however, it is classical
Machiavellian policy at play and nobody plays Machiavellian politics better
than Europeans.
War criminal, Henry Kissinger, summed it up many years ago when he said: “We
do not have permanent friends or permanent enemies – we only have permanent
interests.”
Obama, Cameron, Berlusconi and other European leaders were led on a merry
dance by French president and white supremacist, Sarkozy.
His real reason for France’s frantic move against Libya was his government’s
embarrassing failure to save their minion, Zinedine Ben Ali in Tunisia, in
an election year. We know this man Sarkozy by his actions and his words. He
is on record as saying, in true Hegelian spirit, that:
“The tragedy of Africa is that the African man has never really entered
history. The African peasant has known only the eternal renewal of time via
the endless repetition of the same actions and the same words. In this
mentality, where everything always starts over again, there is no place for
human adventure or for any idea of progress.” He added: “Africa’s problem is
that its present is permeated with nostalgia for the paradise of its lost
childhood….”
They call it Democracy – we know it as Hypocrisy
Muammar Qaddafi has handed out kalashnikovs to an entire people. Libya is
one of maybe only two countries in the world – the other being Cuba – that
could arm their people under these circumstances. Why?
Could Sarkozy, Cameron, Obama, or for that matter the Sheikdoms in the Arab
world who have lined up against Qaddafi, hand out kalashnikovs like pancakes
to their populace under the same circumstances? I think not.
In fact, in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia was called on to invade and brutally
suppress the rebellion. The Bahraini ruling family is certainly not arming
the people.
When the Saudis brutally suppressed the uprising in Bahrain, not a word was
uttered from the ‘international community’ – international community being a
euphemism for the US and Western Europe. And if a few words were uttered by
Hillary Clinton, it was done for the sake of protocol and meant nothing.
Kwame Ture Speaks
The great Pan-African revolutionary, Kwame Ture, was a frequent visitor to
Libya. He was a member of the World Mathaba based in Tripoli and a vocal
supporter of the Al Fateh revolution. He led a worldwide campaign to break
the unjust sanctions placed on Libya in the 90s and worked tirelessly to
promote Nkrumah and Qaddafi’s vision of a united and truly independent
Africa.
He made an interesting point about the double standards that the West
applied when dealing with Africa, which is particularly relevant to what is
happening in Libya today.
He observed that when sections of society in Europe or the United States
disagree, even violently disagree, it is called pluralism and this is said
to be a vital ingredient of their democracy.
It is never said that the US is undemocratic because they disagree–on the
contrary it is, according to them, what makes it democratic. Our people on
the other hand are not allowed to have differences or disagreements. When we
do, it is called disunity and dissent, never pluralism.
When revolutionary leaders defend their revolutions against
counter-revolutionary uprisings they are called brutal dictators. The
contradiction is that throughout the history of the United States, any
uprising against America’s injustice has always been suppressed violently,
and Kwame would remind us that he was one that knew this from personal
experience.
The Libyan rebels make up an estimated 2 percent of the entire Libyan
population. What is the percentage of people who disagreed with George W.
Bush or who now disagree with Barak Obama? In fact, Bush only received 50.7
percent of the US citizens’ vote and Obama only 52.9 percent. There is a
great deal of dissent there.
In the Green Book, Muammar Qaddafi has this to say:
“Political struggle which culminates in the victory of a candidate obtaining
51 percent of the total votes of the electorate, establishes a dictatorship
in the seat of power garbed in the guise of democracy. It is in fact, a
dictatorship because 49 percent of the electorate would then be governed by
an instrument of government they did not vote for, and which has been
imposed upon them. This is the essence of dictatorship…under such systems
the people are the victims whose votes are vied for by exploitative
competing factions, who dupe the people into political circuses that are
outwardly noisy and frantic, but inwardly powerless and irrelevant.”
Western Fallacies
Let us put one fallacy to rest forever – Europeans do not have a monopoly on
the theory and practice of democracy. It is not my intention here to enter
into what is a huge discussion of what constitutes democracy. Suffice to
say, that Western Europe and the US, which continue to this day to brutally
enforce their undemocratic systems of colonialism, neo-colonialism and
capitalism worldwide, are not in either a moral or historical position to
lecture the world on what is or is not democratic.
Those who promote democracy, European and US style, must be aware that the
Fathers of the American revolution excluded the indigenous peoples and the
captured Africans from their ‘democratic’ project. Same with the French
revolutionaries, who in 1789 were proclaiming ‘liberty, equality and
fraternity’, but were not prepared to extend these principles to the
captured Africans working their plantations in the Caribbean.
However fallacious the Western notion of democracy may be, the only thing
that matters from an African perspective is that the West is prevented from
continuing to impose this fallacious notion on us. They can, as far as we
are concerned, have whatever political system they choose. The point is, so
can we as Africans. This is what we are fighting for – our inalienable right
to self-determination – to freely decide our own destiny.
That is what it means to finally throw off the yoke of colonialism and
imperialism, and that is what Libya dared to do under the leadership of
Muammar Qaddafi. And Qaddafi dared to extend this vision to the entire
African continent.
In the words of the Afrocentric intellectual warrior, Dr Molefi Kete Asante:
“The work of the Brother Leader, as he is sometimes called, has been to
raise African consciousness to the point that some of the nations on the
continent of Africa begin to reject the loyalty they hold for their colonial
masters…Qaddafi has proposed that Africa do away with travel restrictions,
create a common currency and ease trade tariffs and barriers. This African
solidarity is not only a threat to the West – some who identify as Arabs
have a difficult time accepting the Africanity promoted by Qaddafi.”
The battle for African self-determination did not start in Libya or with
Qaddafi – it is a very long battle stretching back to the earliest
incursions into Africa. And it is not the first time that Africans have
faced such a sophisticated and deadly European attack – we can look way back
at the battle of Isandlwana in 1879, where the arrogant British army, one of
the most technologically advanced in the world at that time, was humbled by
the Zulu fighters under the leadership of the great African king, Cetshwayo.
What this ‘Coalition of Demons’ currently attacking Libya, armed with the
most sophisticated weaponry known to humankind, is slowly coming to realize,
is that they could well be defeated by the will of the Libyan people armed
with their faith, revolutionary consciousness and kalashnikovs.
Fear of a Black Planet
‘Up you mighty race, you can accomplish what you will’ – Marcus Garvey
‘The Black race shall prevail throughout the world’ – Muammar Qaddafi
This is a defining moment for Africa and Africans all over the world. It is
a moment in history that we must seize.
Africans on the continent and throughout the Diaspora were recently given a
tiny glimpse of the kind of power that Africa can possess, when Jean Ping,
speaking on behalf of the African Union, directed all member states to
ignore the ICC’s (International Colonial Court) call for Qaddafi’s arrest.
Jean Ping stated that “the ICC is discriminatory because it only pursues
Africans. The Hague-based court ignores crimes committed by Western powers
in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan”. Thank you, Jean Ping.
However, it is the African youth on the continent and in the Diaspora that
are leading and inspiring us towards true independence. Tendai Wenyika,
Deputy General Secretary of the Pan-African Youth Union, addressing the
recent AU Heads of State summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea called on
African leaders to:
“demand the arrest of the likes of Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy, who through
their unprovoked war have violated the supreme tenets of the Nuremburg
Principles and committed the crime of all crimes…We call for the suspension
of all engagements with NATO, and Africa must begin to strengthen its
internal ties, security and trade mechanisms in order for us to prosper.”
As I have stated in previous articles, there is nothing that White Power
fears more than a united Africa. They know that a united Africa would
completely alter the balance of power globally. The well-documented fact is
that if Africa stopped the flow of all resources and raw materials to the
Western nations for just one week, the United States and Europe would grind
to a halt.
In 2007, in Conakry Guinea, Qaddafi made a simple observation to a cheering
crowd of thousands:
“Whenever I ask people about Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola people immediately say
it’s an American or European drink. This is not true. The kola is African.
They have taken the cheap raw material from us, they’ve made it into a
drink, and they sell it back to us for a high price. We should be producing
it ourselves and selling it to them.”
If only Africa could realize its immense power. Realizing this power is
primarily a psychological transition, since the material facts are
overwhelmingly clear. Almost every known natural resource needed to run the
contemporary industrial economies—such as uranium, gold, copper, cobalt,
coltan (for cell phones, video games, laptops), platinum, diamonds, bauxite,
and especially large reserves of oil are located in Africa. Azania (South
Africa) alone contains half the world’s gold reserves. Democratic Republic
of Congo contains half of the world’s cobalt and 80 percent of the world’s
known coltan reserves. One quarter of the world’s aluminum ore is found in
the coastal belt of West Africa and the continent is awash in petroleum
reserves.
Time for ‘us’ to put sanctions on ‘them’
It is time to stop the flow of these strategic resources to the Western
capitals until they meet our demands. Yes, it is time for us to sanction the
Western capitals. The Global Pan-African Movement and the African masses are
crying out for it – the time is now. Africans everywhere must exert maximum
pressure on their leaders to realize this power, as Muammar Qaddafi dared
to, or move aside.
But how would we survive if we were to sanction these Western capitals? I
can hear the detractors cry. Answer: there are huge emerging economies such
as China, India and Brazil who will be only too happy to pick up the slack.
Already this is the West’s greatest fear: In an article titled, ‘Wen calls
for more Access for Africa’, which appeared in 2007 in the Financial Times,
W. Wallis and G. Dyer, wrote:
“Western powers real concern is that African States will opt for Chinese
deals to free themselves from the punitive conditions of IMF/ World Bank
loans and other forms of financial dependence on Europe and the Unites
States. As the second largest source of oil in Africa, Angola is now in such
a strong position that it is rejecting IMF loans completely. As one
consultant put it, with all their oil revenue, they don’t need the IMF or
the World Bank. They can play the Chinese off the Americans.”
In another article, ‘China and the USA in a new cold war over Africa’s oil
riches: Darfur? It’s the oil, stupid…’ William Engdahl points out:
“Today China draws an estimated 30% of its crude oil from Africa. That
explains an extraordinary series of diplomatic initiatives which have left
Washington furious. China is using no-strings-attached dollar credits to
gain access to Africa’s vast raw material wealth, leaving Washington’s
typical control game via the World Bank and IMF out in the cold. Who needs
the painful medicine of the IMF when China gives easy terms and builds roads
and schools to boot?”
What does all this mean for Africa? Quite simply it means that we now have a
choice in trading partners, and although all trading partners drive a hard
bargain – some are giving better deals than others.
Black Power – African Power!
This is the moment to put all our efforts into the realization of Nkrumah
and Qaddafi’s grand plan for a United States of Africa. A strong and truly
independent Africa, with one government, one defense force and one currency
based on our African gold standard as Qaddafi has proposed. Only when we can
achieve this level of unity and power, will we be able to take our rightful
place in the world. Only then can we say that the time is finally over when
Africa must run from one power broker to another to do our bidding. At last
we will be able to do our own bidding on our own terms. Backed by a
population of 1 billion people, Africa will then be able to make demands
that cannot be ignored.
In 2009, at a meeting of the AU in Addis Ababa, Qaddafi, commenting on
European and US attitudes to Africa, had this to say: ‘If they do not want
to live with us fairly, then they should know it is our planet and they can
go to another planet.’
Fair and just is all we are seeking – only the unfair and unjust have
anything to fear from a Black planet.
Gerald A. Perreira is a founding member of the Guyanese organizations, Joint
Initiative for Human Advancement and Dignity and Black Consciousness
Movement Guyana (BCMG). He lived in Libya for many years, served in the
Green March, an international battalion for the defense of the Libyan
revolution and was an executive member of the World Mathaba based in
Tripoli.
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