The human cost of UK imperialism

November 11, 2011 By KD Tait Leave a Comment

As politicians put aside their political diffierences to pose for photo-shoots at the Cenotaph, REVOLUTION remembers that British soldiers are not fighting and dying for ‘Britain’, but rather in the interests of a British elite which profits from their deaths, and doesn’t do body counts.

The annual Remembrance Day circus in Whitehall has been overshadowed this year by ‘poppygate’, where David Cameron tried to make a political point out of whether people wear a poppy or not. The fact is, you don’t need to wear a poppy to be disgusted by the senseless sacrifice of young British service personnel, and the often uncounted cost to the civilian population in the countries where they operate. That warmongers like David Cameron should tell ordinary people how to ‘commemorate’ our soldiers’ sacrifices is an unparalled feat of hypocrisy.

The capitalist media will be full of breakdowns of British military casualties, so here at socialistrevolution.org we bring you the civilian cost of Britain’s military adventures.

2011: Libyan Revolution (NATO Operation Unified Protector)

After the rapid fall of western-backed dicators in Egypt and Tunisia, the imperialists wasted no time in preparing to intervene in the Libyan revolution to ensure that the political and economic investments they had made under Gadaffi would be protected by any new regime. Indeed, the ex-Gadaffi, pro-imperialist National Transitional Council explicitly promised to reward any foreign power who helped them overthrow the dictator, and guaranteed that the favourable agreements made under Gadaffi to allow French and UK oil companies to exploit Libya’s human and oil resources would be safeguarded.

The imperialist charge was led by France and Britain, desperate to maintain their influence in the region (read: ensure their oil companies retained privileged access to Libya’s oil fields). Rushing a resolution through the United Nations, NATO got a mandate to ‘protect Libyan civilians’ by imposing a No-Fly Zone over the country.

Below we print the results of this humanitarian mission in black and white. (Total civilian deaths during the revolution are estimated in the tens of thousands, the figures below are only for those inflicted by NATO airstrikes).

1,108 killed

4,500 wounded

2003-2010: Iraq War

The Iraq War in 2003 was declared unilaterally by the US and UK under the guise of the so-called ‘War on Terror’. Far from being an exercise in creating a safer world, it was the conclusion of US imperialism’s unfinished business with Iraq after the First Gulf War in 1991.

Using the flimsy pretext of finding Saddam Hussain’s (non-existant) weapons of mass destruction, the US and UK toppled his regime, dismantled the army and police force and oversaw a descent into anarchy.

The Iraq War was big business for the world’s arms companies, with the United States alone spending $12 billion a month, including a $20.2 billion a year in air conditioning costs.

All wars are a gold-mine for war-profiteers, but the Iraq War took this to a new level, with unprecedented levels of plunder, theft and unaccounted spending by western military contractors. Particularly shocking was the wholescale looting of Iraqi State resources in the form of construction and building equipment which almost entirely disappeared in the months after the invasion.

US Congressional hearings found that up to 2007, $1 billion in tractor trailers, tank recovery vehicles, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and other equipment and services provided to the Iraqi security forces had gone ‘missing’. $10 billion accounted for ‘mismanagement and waste’, while $9 billion of US taxpayers’ money and $549.7 milion in spare parts shipped in 2004 to US contractors was ‘lost and unnaccounted for’. To this must be added $6.6 billion of U.S. taxpayers’ money earmarked for Iraq reconstruction, reported on June 14, 2011 by Special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction Stuart Bowen who called it “the largest theft of funds in national history.”

Of course, at the time of the Iraq War, George W. Bush’s government was dominated by directors and shareholders of US military contractors, the largest being Halliburton who were the recipients of much of this ‘unaccounted’ expenditure, along with a $20 billion payment to supply the U.S. military in Iraq with food, fuel, housing and other items.

So while western capitalists who sat on national governments and arms companies robbed their taxpayers in the name of ‘fighting global terrorism’ and stripped Iraq of everything that could be sold off, the US army sat in their fortified “Green Zone”, and watched on as Iraq became a slaughter house.

103,472 – 113,052 killed

1,000,000+ wounded

2001-present: Afghanisatan (Operation Enduring Freedom)

The war and occupation in Afghanisation marked the debut of the ‘War on Terror’, where US imperialism turned against the Taliban who it had trained and funded in the 1980s and 90s to act as its proxy forces against Soviet forces invading Aghanistan.

After ten years of war, there is no end in sight to the occupation, and the first months of 2011 were the bloodiest since the beginning of the conflict.

There has been no systematic, independant accounting of deaths and injuries in Afghanistan since the start of the war. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) only started accounting for deaths in 2007. The imperialists’ attitude to the slaughter in Afghanisatan is best summed up by US General Tommy Franks who famously said: “You know we don’t do body counts”.

17,611 – 37,208 killed

29,716+ wounded (since 2007)

Serbia (Operation Allied Force 1999)

The NATO-led attack on Serbia in 1999, was the precursor of the imperialists’ strategy for imposing regime change from the skies, most recently observed in Libya.

The attacks on civilians in Serbia included daylight bombings of refugee convoys, a passenger train, hospitals, residential areas, an old people’s home, and market places.

489 – 528 killed

298 injured

Northern Ireland (1969-present)

While the media devotes thousands of hours of airtime and miles of column inches to our leaders’ crusades across the world, we should not forget the consequences of British imperialism closer to home.

The occcupation of Northern Ireland has seen British forces, and their loyalist paramilitary allies carry out dozens of unprovoked attacks on the civilian population. The most infamous of which was the ‘Bloody Sunday’ massacre which resulted in the deaths of 14 peaceful demonstrators. Bombings by the IRA and various splinter groups waging a campaign against the occupation of their country account for a large number of civilian casualties, both in Ireland and on the Mainland.

1,879 killed

Filed Under: Afghanistan War, International, Iraq War, Middle East Revolts, News, War Tagged With: afghanistan, civilians, Imperialism, iraq, Libya, northern ireland, remembrance day, serbia

Can the United Nations liberate Palestine?

November 9, 2011 By KD Tait Leave a Comment

Riding the surge of popular optimism in the wake of the Arab Spring, Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority launched a bid for recognition of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. In this article Kady Tait examines why the UN’s failure to achieve a lasting settlement in Palestine is rooted in its role as a vehicle to maintain the status quo in favour of the imperialist powers who founded it.

With the bid announced in late September, Abbas is playing a dangerous game. On the one hand, his mission at the UN attempts to pre-empt an eruption of the mass movements in neighbouring Egypt and Syria in his own country, on the other it threatens to expose the futility of sustaining illusions that the United Nations can play a neutral, useful, or progressive role in the struggle for palestinian liberation.

The reactions from the US and Israel were predictable: the US declared that it would veto any vote on the Security Council, while Israel condemned the move, saying it undermined the ‘peace process’. Not a trace of irony from Obama who has attempted to cast himself as a friend of the Arab people, nor from Israeli president Binyamin Netanyahu whose attitude to the ‘peace process’ can be summed up by the 1500 deaths during the 2009 bombardment of the Gaza strip.

Abbas knows that any vote in the Security Council will be sunk by the US, so he has placed his hopes in the UN General Assembly, which has long been supportive of the Palestinians’ struggle. Indeed, countries which have declared their support for the statehood bid represent more than 80% of the world’s population. Since 1948, the General Assembly has regularly passed resolutions condemning Israel’s policy of colonisation, war and ethnic cleansing as illegal under international law.

Why is it then, that the UN General Assembly is incapable of acting upon such an overwhelming majority in favour of the Palestinians’ right to national determination, or to police Israel’s repeated violations of the UN’s mandates, resolutions and international ‘laws’?

Imperialism vs Semi colonies

Since its inception, the United Nations has been dominated by the ‘Great Powers’ of the world – the USA, France, Britain, Russia, and China. And like its predecessor, the League of Nations, it has been handicapped and paralysed by these nations’ antagonistic competition over political and military influence on the world stage.

These 5 nations are the permanent members of the UN ‘Security Council’ – the body which relegates the General Assembly to the status of talking-shop. That the UN does nothing without the agreement of the Security Council demonstrates that the true purpose of the UN is not to promote ‘world peace’ or to achieve the ‘equality of nations’. Instead it’s purpose is much more prosaic. It serves to act as a body by which the powerful imperialist nations can resolve their differences peacefully, by engaging in a game of chess whereby the 100+ semi-colonial countries who sit in the General Assembly are used as pawns, reduced to aligning themselves with one or other imperial power or bloc in the hope of retaining the crumbs from the imperialists’ table.

Imperialism is what the russian revolutionary Lenin described as the ‘highest stage of capitalism’ where financial capital concentrated in advanced nations expands across the world using its financial might to overwhelm the economies of smaller nations and subjugate them to the politics of the imperialist country. An example of this is the IMF, a financial vehicle funded in the main by the principal imperial powers. It sets conditions for lending money to poor countries, forcing them to open up their economies to the big capitalist corporations who strip the assets out of these countries in a constant expansion across the globe searching for profitable sources of raw materials and labour.

Where countries refuse to open up their economies, the power of finance capital is backed up by the armed power of the state they are based in. In this way the world is divided into imperial countries, the centres of finance capital based in the City of London and Wall Street, and the ‘semi-colonial’ countries who are subordinated politically by their economic dependence on the advanced capitalist states. The most obvious and destructive expression of this system is the African debt crisis, where African nations are prevented by the threat of economic and military sanctions from escaping the debt trap which impoverishes their people by transferring their natural wealth into the coffers of Western ‘multinational’ banks and corporations.

The division of the world into imperial powers and semi-colonies ensures the unequal distribution of the world’s resources under capitalism. While semi-colonial countries make up more than 80% of the world’s population, and are the source of the majority of the world’s natural resources, their people own much less than half of the world’s wealth.

The structure of the United Nations is arranged so that the imperial powers have a veto over any decisions which oppose their interests. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the hegemony of the USA in world affairs has been unchallenged. This is why it was able to present its invasion of Iraq as a fait accompli and why the UN is unable to enforce its mandates or international laws without the co-operation of the United States.

Why is Palestine important?

The 60-year conflict between Palestine and Israel has been a low-intensity conflict characterised by occasional short-lived outbreaks of open fighting, 1948, 1967, 1988-92, 2001, 2005, 2009. While thousands have died and the situation of millions of refugees has remained appalling, it is worth asking why it is this struggle rather than, say, the devastating war in Congo which has killed over 5 million people in the last 10 years, or the ‘War on Drugs’ which has ravaged the entire South American continent and claims tens of thousands of lives in Mexico every year, which is the subject of a huge international solidarity movement.

The Palestine-Israel conflict has remained a central feature of world politics, because it is a proxy war fought between the dominant forces in global politics since the end of the Second World War – US imperialism attempting to expand its influence in key strategic areas, jostling with French, Russian and Chinese interests in the region. While the wars which blight the African continent are the result of imperialist finance-capital’s ability to practice super-exploitation on a massive scale while the world’s media turns a blind eye, the conflict in Palestine encapsulates imperialism’s character as a union of finance, militarism and geo-politics operating in a region which will make and break imperial powers in the future decades of the 21st century.

This is why the fall of US backed dictators such as Mubarak in Egypt is an historic opportunity – and why we must fight for a genuine democratic revolution to topple Assad in Syria – not an imperialist puppet government like the NTC in Libya but a real people’s government founded on councils of the ordinary workers and youth

Only the working class, poor farmers, unemployed and youth, have an interest in opposing imperialism in all its forms – whether it is the zionist puppet of US interests or the brutal dictators propped up for decades by western cash and military equipment.

This is why we support the revolutionary overthrow of Gaddaffi, but reject the ex-Gadaffi imperialist puppets in the NTC, and oppose any further NATO or UN interventions in the ongoing struggles in the Arab world.

Arab Spring refreshes resistance

The revolutions and revolts which became known as the Arab Spring, rocked the Middle East status quo, where US-backed dictators in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia ruled their people with an iron fist for decades. The overthrow of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt was a defining moment in this struggle, because Egypt had long played a crucial role in refusing to challenge Israel’s occupation of Palestine. With his downfall, the Rafah border crossing into Gaza was opened, permitting a flood of supplies and ideas into the territory.

Yet in Gaza, Hamas acted swiftly to disperse pro-democracy demonstrations inspired by the Arab Spring, while Fatah did the same in the West Bank.

Nevertheless, the continuing resistance to the military junta in Egypt shows the way forward. Mubarak was brought down by a General Strike of Egyptian workers, organised through new Trade Unions and popular committees to organise defence in their communities. The continuing struggles of the Egyptian working class shows the way forward for Palestine. Mass strikes and democratic organisation can bridge the sectarian divide in Palestinian politics. The common struggle of workers and youth in Palestine can build links with those in the Israeli anti-austerity movement who also oppose the occupation.

A mass movement of resistance to Israeli occupation would no doubt see both Hamas and Fatah move to try and co-opt and contain it, attempting to pass themselves off as its natural leaders. But such a move is fraught with dangers and threats of new political organisations emerging to lead the Palestinian national resistance struggle. These new organisations can apply the lessons of the ongoing Egyptian revolution and have the potential to go far beyond the failed strategy of negotiation, compromise and guerilla warfare of Hamas and Fatah.

Why we support the vote

Abbas at the UN vote

The vote demonstrates one important principle: should the international community recognise a Palestinian state? The answer is yes. To oppose it would mean to line up, though for different reasons, with the US and Israel in opposing Palestinian national rights.

Any recognition at the UN must be seen in perspective. It will not liberate the Palestinians and it will not end the conflict. It will, however, strengthen the Palestinians’ position internationally, which exactly is why Israel is so opposed to it. But the wider goal must remain a secular, democratic and bi-national state for both peoples.

The 5.84 million Jews in Israel today are now close to being outnumbered by a growing Palestinian Arab population, comprising both those living as a minority in pre-1967 Israel and those in the post-1967 Occupied Territories. There are millions more in exile waiting for the right to return to their historic homeland.

Some Palestinians are opposed to the proposal because they see it as strengthening the corrupt Palestinian Authority and a betrayal of the refugees by accepting the 1967 borders.

Whilst these concerns are important, what is of over-riding importance is that any short term strengthening of the Palestinians’ position is not counter-opposed to the long term goal of a one state solution for Arabs and Israelis. Recognition of Palestine, even along the 1967 borders, would be a step forward, as part of a wider struggle to liberate all Palestinians.

Ultimately what is needed is a mass pro-Palestine liberation, pro-democracy and anti-imperialist movement on the streets right across the Middle East, which would weaken the Zionists’ position and strengthen the Arab revolution as a whole.

Internationally, we must win the labour movement – the trade unions, co-operatives, working class organisations – worldwide to support the Palestinian struggle and boycott and isolate the Zionist state.

We see the Arab spring as opening up historic opportunities to advance the struggle for a secular, democratic state with equal rights for men, women, Muslims, Jews and Christians in Palestine. The vote at the UN is a step towards greater recognition of the struggle, but ultimately we cannot let the imperialists in the UN be the ones to determine who is and who is not worthy of national rights. That question, and the democratic workers’ government that ensures it can only be answered by the workers themselves, in a political, military and above all international struggle against racism, dictatorship and imperialism.

Gadaffi killed – revolution continues

October 25, 2011 By John Bowman Leave a Comment

Libyans in Manchester celebrate Gadaffi's death

“The reported killing of Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte today will mark a new round of celebration by western governments over their intervention in Libya” wrote Lindsey German from the Counterfire website after Gadaffi’s death.

That may well be true, but more importantly many thousands of Libyan people – those still in the country, and those abroad – stayed up all Thursday night singing, chanting and celebrating the fall of one of the world’s most brutal dictators.

And what a fall it was. From being a multi-billion dollar despot, leader of one of the most oil rich countries in the world, the Colonel died a mess of dirt and blood and the hands of his own people.

One Libyan told the Kuwait Times, “Throw him in a hole, in the sea, in garbage. No matter. He is lower than a donkey or a dog and only foreigners say they care about how we killed him. And they are lying.”

NATO takeover?

The nature of the Libyan revolution has been difficult for some parts of the international left to stomach. Not only was it a revolution of the most extreme violence and bloodshed, but it was complicated by the involvement of NATO forces who tried to co-opt the revolution for their own greedy oil-grabbing ends.

This has led some left-wing commentators to compare it unfavourably to the Egyptian revolution, which did not erupt in civil war (at least not yet), and did not involve NATO fighter jets. Socialist Worker nodded approvingly, “Egypt shows the real way to win freedom and democracy across the region.”

Whilst the battle for Libya was continuing, Richard Seymour from the Socialist Workers Party and Lenin’s Tomb wrote, “I would strongly caution against getting carried away with the prospect of permanent revolution here.”

But the Libyan revolution had to take a different path to that of Egypt. In doing so, and destroying the police and the army the revolution in some ways has gone a stage further than in Egypt or Tunisia.

Obstacles

Whilst the state armies in Egypt and Tunisia refused to follow orders to massacre those taking part in the huge demonstrations, the Libyan revolution had to deal with a fine-tuned and sophisticated system of [counter] revolutionary committees, designed specifically to be a counter-weight to any potentially military rebellion, fiercely loyal only to Gaddafi himself.

Whilst the masses of workers in Tunisia and Egypt shut down the country, and took to the streets in general strikes, supporting the revolutions, Libyan industry was primarily serviced by migrant workers and contractors who fled the country when the crackdown began.

And finally, the uniquely despotic nature of the Gaddafi regime, prepared even to bombard its own people from the air meant the Libyan revolution was pushed into civil war from the moment it began.

NATO sensed an opportunity to exploit the situation and did so. But their options were limited. They would have loved to send in ground troops to “police” the cities and towns, to “restore stability”, to “protect” Libya’s oil infrastructure and to “aid redevelopment”.

However expenditure cuts at home, commitments in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and most importantly the dynamic of millions rebelling against western-backed dictators across the region made this impossible, as did the likely hostility of many Libyan resistance fighters. It was in fact the revolutionary dynamic of the situation in Libya and in now so many other countries that prevented much deeper NATO involvement. A full scale invasion would have set the region on fire against imperialism.

Instead, France, Britain and the US used their access to high-tech weaponry to strengthen the self-appointed ‘Libyan Transitional Council’ as a leadership with real military clout in a military struggle. But this was in the absence of organic political legitimacy and support in the country including among the rebel fighters.

: Rebel militias have not yet disbanded

NATO hoped to develop allies in a new Libya out of the TNC, who would be reliant on western support for their political influence, and so willing to further imperialist involvement, allowing the seizure of the country’s natural resources.

The danger that this could happen is very live and very real if the pro-NATO Transitional Council are able to win substantial support from the Libyan masses. But that hasn’t happened yet, and at this point it is the revolutionary struggle in Libya that will determine its direction, not NATO High Command.

The death of Gadaffi, and the thousands of ordinary Libyans still organised in militias that are refusing to disband, represent a milestone in an ongoing revolution, not a strategic victory for western imperialism. It is what happens now that could be decisive.

Filed Under: International, Middle East Revolts Tagged With: Egypt, Gadaffi, Libya, NATO

Will the Arab Spring reach Palestine?

September 15, 2011 By Mark Booth 2 Comments

For over 9 months now protests, strikes and revolutions have rocked the Arab world. Now there are signs it will erupt in Palestine.

When the first demonstrations broke out in Tunisia and Egypt, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank demonstrated in solidarity and with their own demands for democracy and equality. These protests were brutally crushed by both Fatah (the ruling party in the West Bank) and Hamas (the ruling party in Gaza).

Now a number of national, regional and international issues are intersecting in a way which will make an uprising by the Palestinians, and a confrontation with Israel almost inevitable.

In September, the Palestinian Authority (Palestine’s government, controlled by Fatah) is forcing a vote at the UN on whether Palestine should be recognised as a nation. While the vote will be symbolic, it will force the issue of the continuing occupation of Palestine by Israel. If the vote passes it could embolden the Palestinian National Liberation movement. If it falls, it will enrage tens of thousands who will rightly see the votes failure as a result of US political and economic bullying on behalf of Israel.

The force unleashed by the mass rebellion across the Arab world has reverberated in Turkey. The Turkish government is now being more confrontational with Israel and has said it will send it’s Navy to escort the next freedom flotilla to Gaza.

The Egyptian revolution and has moved beyond mass protests into general strike action by hundreds of thousands of workers trying to break the power of the military dictatorship. The anti-imperialist feelings of the Egyptian masses are being felt ever stronger, as when thousands assaulted the Israel embassy and ransacked it in response to Israel killing 5 Egyptian soldiers.

In Syria the rebellion continues, and the Israeli state knows full well that if Bashar Assad is deposed then the Syrian masses could quickly turn their anger on Israel, as the Egyptian masses have.

In Israel itself a mass protest movement against poverty, for more equality and a stronger welfare state has emerged, organising demonstrations of hundreds of thousands. Although it does not challenge of even raise the issue of Israel’s occupation, it is destabilising the Israeli government, at a time when it is under immense pressure internationally.

With a Palestinian movement emboldened by the UN vote, and with Israel hemmed in by Egypt, Turkey and Syria, and dealing with its own mass protest movement, the autumn looks like we will see the struggles of the Arab Spring arrive in Palestine with full force.

Filed Under: International, News, Palestine, War

Bin Laden dead – World no safer

May 2, 2011 By KD Tait Leave a Comment

The US government has announced that their special forces assassinated Osama Bin Laden on 01 May in north Pakistan.

The vain self-congratulation by the leaders of the Western governments has rapidly descended into a shameless media spectacle, with each representative of the ‘free world’ keen to claim Bin Laden’s death as a ‘victory for world liberty and justice’.

It wasn’t long before Prime Ministers and Presidents put forward their own conclusions – that international terrorism had been dealt a serious blow, the military intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan was justified, and once again the USA has saved the world from tyranny.

This from the leaders of imperialist butchery with the blood of tens of thousands of Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis on their hands.

While it was clear that Bin Laden was used by the US and its allies as a face to brand the vague parameters of the War on Terror, his pursuit and capture was always secondary to the task of subduing the Afghan resistance and imposing western imperialist dominance over the region.

For 20 years, the United States and other western governments provided Bin Laden and his followers with the training, equipment and funds that they eventually turned so successfully on their former benefactors.

In the ten years that the US has pursued Bin Laden across the Middle East, 2 countries have been invaded and torn apart by civil war, Pakistan has been subjected to an undeclared American air and ground campaign, and hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed and ‘disappeared’ to US torture camps.

The assassination of Osama Bin Laden was not worth the legacy of destruction which Western bombers have imprinted on the region. The escalation of US military involvement to include special forces operating independently in Pakistan, alongside Libya proves the US is still determined to impose its will on the region.

The willingness of western governments to impose their imperialist agenda at any cost has turned the world into an increasingly volatile and dangerous place. Nowhere is this more true than the daily experience of the millions of workers and poor in revolt across the Middle East.

The death of Bin Laden has not made the world safer. It was not a victory for liberty, but a justification for imperialist arrogance and slaughter.

One thing is certain – his death will not bring an end to the ‘War on Terror’, or to the resistance by ordinary people at the sharp end of imperialist oppression and war.

Filed Under: Afghanistan War, International, Iraq War, News, War Tagged With: afghanistan, Bin Laden, Imperialism, pakistan, terrorism, US, war on terror

Middle East uprisings continue despite Royal Wedding

May 1, 2011 By Tom Guest Leave a Comment

With the blanket coverage of Wills & Kate’s Happy Day, and with so many Middle Eastern dictators invited to the wedding, it’s good to see that the wave of popular revolts sweeping the Arab world haven’t slowed at all. In fact, the Prince of Bahrain was forced to turn down his invitation because of the serious level of unrest in his Kingdom.Here is an overview on the protest movement which has emerged in Syria over the past month.

On the 29^th March President Bashar al-Asad of Syria accepted the resignation of his government. This was a shameless attempt to shore up support for his dynastic cult of personality and to deflect calls for change towards minimal reformist ends.

A new cabinet will be announced, a programme of reform begun and crowds in Damascus will cheer Asad: the great leader listens to his people! The example of Egypt has been inverted, the old leader remains, it is his government that is cast aside. Yet the revolts will eventually spell the end of the Ba’ath Party in Syria.

The revolutionary energy unleashed in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya has shaken the foundations of even the most entrenched Middle Eastern dictatorships.

The immediate focus for the current generation of protesters was to force the repeal of an emergency law, which had been in place since the first of a succession of Ba’thist coups in 1963, and an end to government corruption.

This law permitted summary imprisonment, limits public gatherings, censors and controls the media and grants free reign to the secret police. The repeal of this law was a key milestone for a protest movement which has been slow to join the wave of popular unrest sweeping the Arab world.Despite being lifted on 19th April, the protests escalated with thousands, focused mainly in the poor, majority Sunni town of Deraa, taking to the streets to show their anger at the rule of Asad; chanting for ‘dignity and freedom.’ Protests have also taken hold in the northern town of Latakia, itself the main centre of Asad’s own Alawi minority sect. In the last month over 250 people have been killed by the security forces.

Hafez al-Asad ruled Syria from 1970 until his death in 2000. He was succeeded by his son Bashar in the first example of an Arab republican hereditary regime. Outright repression, arrest, imprisonment and violence, was coupled with a policy of economic liberalisation that appealed to the Sunni merchant class and ensured a smooth handover of power to Bashar.

Brutal state repression has a long history in Ba’thist Syria. In 1982 Asad senior slaughtered an estimated 30,000 people in the western town of Hama to quell a Muslim Brotherhood uprising.

Asad pursued regional Syrian hegemony over Lebanon and the Palestinian diaspora as a means to heighten Syrian prestige and to shift attention from his minority status as members of the Alawite sect in a majority Sunni nation. He successfully built up a depoliticised layer of bureaucracy and a state security apparatus reliant upon the regime for their comparatively privileged status. It is a highly personal and patrimonial state built around systems of patronage.

Total internal control and a militarised society was justified by the argument that Syria was engaged in an existential struggle with Israel on behalf of all Arabs, notably for the reclamation of the Golan Heights, an area lost to Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Young Asad in contrast to his father has some how been characterised as a “reformer”, notably by President Sarkozy of France and latterly US Secretary of State Clinton: western educated, urbane and with a forceful line critical of Israeli action in Gaza and US regional imperialism.In 2008 Sarkozy gushingly stated that there could be no peace in the region without talks with Bashar. Yet as with many dictators appearances are deceptive. The brutal underside has again revealed itself in full force.

One Deraa activist stated that ‘serious reforms won’t be made because they would involve sacrificing people in the narrow circle around Assad (sic).’Yet this argument can be developed. For the people of Syria, as elsewhere, to be free, would require the total removal of the current regime: to denounce four decades of “leadership”, of repression and disappearances, and overthrow Asad himself.

The memory of Hama remains strong in Syrian popular consciousness. Yet the persistence and pervasiveness of the current revolt is a sign that many people have lost their fear of the regime.If the past forty years of Syrian history has proven anything it is that there can be no meaningful top-down reform from the Ba’ath party: Asad, as with his father, offers in the main brutal repression. His legitimacy is ultimately built upon force, on the ability to murder and repress any opponents to Alawite-Ba’thist rule.

Revolt in Syria as elsewhere demonstrates that oppression can only carry a leader so far. The yearning for emancipation cannot be suppressed indefinitely. Yet history also shows that the reactionary forces of the Asad regime will not give up even the slightest degree of meaningful power without a protracted and bloody struggle.

Filed Under: International, Middle East Revolts, News

Yemen in revolt

March 28, 2011 By Joana Ramiro

Rebellion has reached one of the poorest countries of the Middle East. Joana Ramiro reports on the revolutionary movement in Yemen. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Middle East Revolts Tagged With: Revolution, Yemen

Tunisian Revolution Detonates Arab Struggles

March 8, 2011 By Max Darcy

The Tunisian revolution was the product of decades of poverty, unemployment and political repression, worsened by IMF-inspired privatization processes, austerity measures and the reduction of subsidies on fuel and staple foods.

The country, which was ruled by President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, was pointed to as an example of the good work the IMF did, despite its brutal oppression of political opponents, rampant corruption and staggering youth unemployment, which has remained around 40% since Ben Ali came to power in 1987.

Since the beginning of the economic crisis Tunisia has seen a huge fightback against Ben Ali, the ruling RCD (Rassamblement Constitutionelle Democratique) and the crushing poverty that millions have endured for so long. Massive demonstrations which clashed with the police took place in 2008 in Gafsa, Shkira and Ben Gourdans, with dozens killed by savage police brutality. In the build-up to the recent uprising Tunisia was in dire straits; 52% of 18-19 year olds were unemployed, 200,000 unemployed graduates and a shift in government subsidies fanned the flames of anger felt by the population.

The movement was kick started on December 17^th by the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old graduate from Sidi Bouzid who was trading illegally to support his family of 8, for which he was the only provider. Bouazizi had his goods confiscated by a policewoman who slapped him and spat at him when he attempted to pay his fine of 10 dinar (roughly $7USD or a day’s wages). In response he went to the municipal office to make a complaint and was ignored by the staff there. He returned an hour later and set himself alight.

This act of desperation inspired protests across Sidi Bouzid, as well as similarly tragic suicides, including Lahsi Najeen, who electrocuted himself on an electricity pylon. By the December 27th protests had spread throughout the country and two days later Ben Ali reshuffled his cabinet in an attempt to pacify the demonstrators. It didn’t work. On January 3^rd protesters in Thala were assaulted by the police and responded by attacking the RCD office in the city. By January 11^th lawyers and teachers were on strike and the military had been deployed in Tunis.

After weeks of revolt and the threat of a general strike Ben Ali was forced to flee the country, taking $60million USD worth of gold with him to Saudi Arabia. The same day Mohammed Ghannouchi, the prime minister under Ben Ali, declared himself to be leader of the government and appointed Fouad Mebazaa, a member of the RCD central committee and President of the Chamber of Deputies, as interim President. He has 45-60 days to hold elections.

Ghannouchi quickly put together a coalition cabinet with RCD ministers and opposition figures, including 3 members of the UGTT (Union Generale Tunisienne de Travail). These were quickly forced to withdraw due to immense pressure from rank-and-file activists. Anti-RCD rallies continued across Tunisia, which led to the dismissal of all RCD members from the cabinet on January 27th, excluding Ghannouchi who resigned from the RCD. This was followed by anti-Ghannouchi protests outside his office the next day.

On February 7^th the Defence Ministry called up recently retired soldiers for service, the same day that the RCD was banned. This does not mean that the RCD is finished. It will reform to contest elections and has former members in the highest positions of power; the President, Prime Minister and within the Army. The RCD is still exerting power through the police and military presence, alongside the curfews which they put in place. These give the Army a dominant position across the country and are being used in an attempt to demobilize protesters.

All of this raises one simple question – who will take control? The most widely recognized opposition parties are the Parti Democrate Progressiste (PDP – Progressive Democratic party) and the Congres Pour la Republique (CPR – Congress for the Republic). Both are happy to work within the hand-picked Ghannouchi cabinet, have done little to mobilize demonstrators during the uprising and are certainly not interested in taking power away from the IMF or the French and American multi-nationals that control the economy.

There is also a workers’ party, the Parti Communiste Ouvrier Tunisien (PCOT – Worker Communist Party of Tunisia), but unfortunately it has similar flaws; it adheres to a stagist, Stalinist approach to the revolution, arguing that a period of parliamentary democracy must come about before socialism is possible. However, this leaves power in the hands of the bosses during this period, meaning that workers will continue to be exploited in the workplace beaten by the police and suppressed by the bourgeois state whilst the government of Tunisia bends a knee to the IMF and the imperialist interests it represents.

REVOLUTION advocates a policy of Permanent Revolution in Tunisia. We recognise that the democratic gains of the Tunisian revolution can only be defended and extended if the working-class takes power. The Tunisian workers must not accept a return to a weak parliamentary democracy which is controlled by capitalist parties and leaves the state bureaucracy unchanged.

Only the establishment of a workers’ state, based on the popular committees of workers, unemployed and poor farmers which have built the revolution, will ensure its gains are maintained and not rolled back by the Tunisian ruling-class and their imperialist backers. The popular committees must convene a constituent assembly, with delegates elected directly from the popular committees to draft a new constitution and form a new government. This government must immediately task itself with addressing the burning needs of the masses – providing work, housing and services to the working-class, unemployed and youth.

This can only be accomplished by seizing the wealth and land of the capitalists, and beginning the construction of socialism. Solidarity should be given to all the other peoples of North Africa and the Middle East who have risen up against tyranny.

The Tunisian revolution is spreading. We have seen it inspire the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and huge demonstrations and strikes in Algeria, Yemen, Jordan, Syria and Bahrain. Libya is only the latest country to rise up against oppression, with large areas of the country liberated from the control of dictator Muammar Gadaffi.

These truly historic protests show the strength of workers and young people; we need to follow suit and make a revolution in Britain!

Filed Under: International, Middle East Revolts Tagged With: Middle East, Revolution, Tunisia

5 reasons we oppose foreign intervention in Libya

March 2, 2011 By John Bowman

Libyan revolutionaries oppose foreign intervention

With two US warships ordered to sail closer to Libya, and various countries discussing the introduction of a “no-fly” zone over the country, the possibility of foreign forces entering Libya is becoming increasingly likely.

So why, when dictator Col. Gadaffi is launching such a brutal war against his own people, would socialists oppose foreign armies – be it a unilateral US led force, NATO or UN intervention – entering Libya?

[Read more...]

Filed Under: History & Theory, Revo 108, War Tagged With: Gadaffi, Imperialism, Libya

No Nato! Sussex student Tom Wills hammers new Nato lecturer Jamie Shea

November 1, 2010 By Luke Cooper

Sussex University student Tom Will launches a political attack on International Relations lecturer Jamie Shea, an apologist for Britain’s wars overseas. Sussex university have faced protest after hiring him, so students attending his first lecture decided to challenge his views.

Tom Wills takes on Jamie Shea

Filed Under: Afghanistan War, Education, Iran, Iraq War, War