ANGLO-US-FRENCH forces have killed over 100 Libyans and wounded hundreds more in their opening onslaught of cruise missiles, launched from the sea, and bombs and missiles launched from the air.
The imperialist war aim remains the overthrow of the Gadaffi regime and the installation of a regime of imperialist puppets, either monarchist or secular, despite the fact that regime change was not the subject of the resolution that they moved as a smokescreen for the operation.
With remarkable cynicism, even for them, the imperialists are seeking to involve the leaders of the Gulf oil states – to whom they have given a licence to kill their own people for seeking democratic rights – in the air attack and war on Libya.
The reaction of the Libyan government to this aggression has been to open up the country’s arms depots so that every Libyan will have access to weaponry to fight the invaders and their allies. (The SAS has been operating on the ground in Libya for the last three weeks).
There is not the slightest doubt that the air war will develop into a ground war. The French have already begun to attack Libyan ground forces, and soon troops will have to be sent into Benghazi to try and prevent the counter-revolutionary bands in the city being defeated, or ‘retreating’ across the Egyptian border.
At the time of a great energy crisis that has been intensified by the Japanese nuclear disaster, Gadaffi’s removal is vital for grabbing Libya’s oil and privatising it, as the spoils of war, and also to restore the former US and UK bases in the country to put down the North African revolution.
In this struggle, the issue is very simple. Victory for Gadaffi will be a huge blow to UK-US and French imperialism, which would be the beginning of the end for imperialism and Zionism in North Africa and the Middle East.
On its own, it would be a colossal victory for the working class of the world.
Conversely, the removal and defeat of Gadaffi by the imperialists would be a defeat for the workers of the world and give new hope to the imperialist powers.
It is the duty of every socialist and every worker and young person to be for, and call for, the victory of Gadaffi and the defeat of the imperialist powers. Any other course is a betrayal of socialism.
There is a certain similarity between the situation today and that in 1982 when Thatcher resolved, at the height of her unpopularity, with three million unemployed, to make war on Argentina after it reclaimed the Malvinas (Falkland) Islands.
We told the ‘confused’ ones then that they must support Argentina, since if Thatcher won she would return to the situation in Britain with the military 200 per cent with her to have it out with the working class.
This is what happened. Thatcher returned as the war heroine to make all-out war on the miners and the working class.
Thatcher’s position was stronger than is Cameron’s.
He is already fighting a war on the home front, and is preparing for mass strikes in the summer over pensions.
The war on Libya will require financing and refinancing. It is not the bankers who will pay the price, it is the working class and the middle class who will be forced to finance the war with ever more savage cuts.
In fact, the war with the Libyan people will enormously sharpen the class struggle at home.
This is why it must be recognised that the Libyan people and the working class in the UK are in the same trench as far as the vicious attacks by imperialists and capitalists are concerned.
A victory for the Libyan people will be a victory for the UK workers and vice versa.
Our message is – the enemy is at home. Victory to Gadaffi! Bring down the Cameron-Clegg coalition with a general strike and go forward to a workers’ government and socialism!
