THE vote by the United Nations security council to impose and police a no-fly zone over Libya is a declaration of war by imperialism against the Libyan people and the entire Arab revolution.
With its usual nauseating hypocrisy, the UN cloaked this decision in words dripping with concern about the risk to innocent civilians.
Contrast this concern with the fact that the UN Security Council has sat back and passively looked on as Israel has murdered literally tens of thousands in Palestine, while the US and UK have done the same in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Equally, the shooting down of unarmed protesters in the streets of Bahrain by security forces backed up by an invasion force from Saudi Arabia has not even met with crocodile tears, with Cameron refusing to back the democracy demonstrators while praising the regime for its willingness to compromise!
There was no talk of restraint when the counter-revolutionary forces in Benghazi appeared to be winning. It was all gung-ho, let’s go and kill Gadaffi.
The reason why Libya is under attack, and a blind eye is being turned to Bahrain, is that the imperialists are determined to extinguish the Arab revolution as soon as possible and grab Libya’s oil.
They hope to be able to keep the Kings and Emirs in the Gulf and at the same time install some new ‘King Idris’ in Libya to replace the Gadaffi regime.
The policy of imperialism in the region is entirely consistent – support for the embattled dictators and reactionary feudal monarchies, and military intervention to overthrow the nationalist revolutionary regime of Libya and replace it with a counter-revolutionary government that will hand the oil over and provide a secure base for imperialism in North Africa.
To achieve this, the forces of the US, France, Italy and Britain, along with the reactionary gulf states, will not just impose a no-fly zone – an action that requires a protracted bombing campaign of Libyan infrastructure and the inevitable loss of life that entails – but will invade the country. Any ceasefire is temporary – a Benghazi-sponsored incident will put an end to that at the appointed time.
US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is touring the Middle East organising forces to invade Libya on the ground, with Saudi Arabia a prime candidate for supplying forces, along with Oman, the Lebanon and Egypt.
However, none of this would be happening if the counter-revolutionary Chinese and Russian Stalinist leadership had vetoed the Anglo-French resolution at the UN. They abstained and made yet another counter-revolutionary deal with imperialism.
Likewise, Miliband yesterday could have stopped the UK adventure in its tracks. He chose, once again, to back imperialism.
Stalinism and reformism are tied completely to the coat-tails of imperialism and as such stand as the enemy of the revolutionary masses throughout the world and the working class at home.
The working class will be expected, of course, to pay for this imperialist war.
It will not be the bankers who foot the bill for the massive increase in military expenditure that will inevitably result from invasion. As military expenditure goes up, even more savage cuts will be necessary for the working class and the middle class to pay the huge bill.
The imperialist adventure will inevitably sharpen the class struggle at home.
Our policy is simple. The enemy is at home. We stand for the defeat of the imperialist powers in their war with Libya, and for a general strike to overthrow the Cameron-led coalition, to bring in a workers government and a socialist revolution.
