Links til fakta, sites, artikler (dansk + engelsk)
Marts 2011, revideret juni 2022.
Indhold
Se også på Socialistisk Bibliotek:
- Tidslinjen 19. marts 2011 om FNs flyveforbudszone og debatten om Enhedslistens tilslutning.
- Linkboxen Oprøret i Egypten om det folkelige oprør vendt mod Mubaraks regime.
- Linkboxen Oprøret i Tunesien om den forudgående og inspirerende folkelige opstand i Tunesien.
- Linkbox: Yemen – Ungdommens revolution
- Linkbox: Det arabiske forår om oprørerne i Nordafrika og Mellemøsten foråret 2011.
Leksikalt
- Den Libyske Borgerkrig (Denstoredanske)
- Oprøret i Libyen 2011 (Wikipedia.dk)
- 2011 Libyan Civil War (Wikipedia.org)
- Libyan no-fly zone (Wikipedia.org)
- Timeline of the 2011 Libyan uprising (Wikipedia.org)
- Casualties of the 2011 Libyan uprising (Wikipedia.org)
- History of Libya under Muammar al-Gaddafi (Wikipedia.org)
Sites
- Information: Sektion: Libyen
- Socialister.dk: Tema: Libyen. Artikler på dansk og engelsk.
- Democracy Now!: Topics: Uprising Libya
- The Guardian: World News: Libya
- Informed Comment/Juan Cole: Categories: Libya
- International Viewpoint: Index: Libya NFZ + Libya
- Al Jazeera: Spotlight: Libya Uprising
- Links: Full coverage: Libya
- Middle East Research and Information Project: Articles by Subject: Libya
- Workers Liberty: Libya, the Left and Intervention: a debate
Artikler på dansk (og nordisk)
Autonom Infoservice
Flugten fra libysk statsradio til ‘Radio Frit Libyen’ (21. august 2011)
“Den 45-årige Amina al-Wahashi har i 24 år arbejdet for den statslige libyske radio. Med propagandatekster som blev kaldt for information. Amina har idag skiftet side og har tilsluttet sig rebellerne.”
Den møjsommelige vej til friheden: en reportage fra Benghazi (10. juni 2011)
“I en stemningsreportage fortæller nogle folk fra det venstreradikale Berliner ugeblad ’Jungle World’ om deres indtryk fra et nyligt ophold i oprørernes hovedstad Benghazi.”
På de libyske oprørers side: en kommentar til den aktuelle debat på venstrefløjen. Af Alfred Lang (29. marts 2011)
“Det man kan måske undre sig over er, at kammeraterne fra Enhedslisten ikke har overvejet at indtage en taktisk holdning til Vestens militære aktion, ved hverken at forhindre gennemførelsen eller give koalitionen carte blanc i dens uforudsigelige militære strategikoncept.”
Libyens folkeopstand – point of no return. Af Alfred Lang (1. marts 2011)
“Libyens diktator Muammar al-Gaddafi klamrer sig til magten. Sammen med de tre altdominerende klaner for- søger Gaddafi-regimet ved hjælp af eliteenheder fra hæren at forsvare de privile- gier og den rigdom, de igennem 41 år har tilranet sig.”
Demos
Alle nødvendige tiltag. Af Robert Fisk (13. april 2011)
“Først var det Saddam. Så Gaddafi. Nu er der et ledigt vikariat som vestens foretrukne bindegale tyran.”
Enhedslisten
Hovedbesyrelsens beretning om Libyen (4 s., pdf). Vedtaget på Enhedslistens årsmøde 2011.
“Beslutningen om at støtte en FN militær intervention i Libyen har været en af de sværeste i Enhedslistens historie og har naturligt affødt en del debat i partiet. Derfor har Hovedbestyrelsen besluttet at udarbejde en særskilt beretning om denne sag.”
Information.dk
Derfor stemte Enhedslisten for aktionen i Libyen. Af Frank Aaen, Per Clausen, Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen og Line Barfod (26. marts 2011)
“Bekymringen for en massakre på civilbefolkningen samt FN’s opbakning har været helt afgørende for Enhedslistens beslutning om at bakke op om indgrebet i Libyen. Hvis indsatsen udvikler sig til en besættelse af landet med landstyrker, trækker partiet sin støtte
Et kleptokrati fylder 40. Af Fred Halliday (20. september 2009)
“Nok er Libyen ikke længere en pariastat, der støtter terrorisme og søger at anskaffe sig masseødelæggelsesvåben, men indadtil er det fortsat et benhårdt og menneskeretskrænkende diktatur.”
Se også sektion: Libyen
Kildén & Åsman
Libyen skapar debatt. Av Göte Kildén & Benny Åsman (Blog, 29. marts 2011)
“Det stora problemet som splittrar den självständigt tänkande vänstern är hållningen till FNs resolution 1973 som bland annat gav grönt ljus till en no-fly zon och de flygbombningar av Khaddafis militära positioner som följde. Tyvärr råder det en viss förvirring i debatten. De olika positionerna känner inte igen varandra.”
Libyen – en revolution i våra hjärtan. Av Göte Kildén & Benny Åsman (Blog, 25.3.2011)
“I dag för en vecka sedan hade den libyska revolutionen varit likviderad – om inte USA, Frankrike och Storbritannien hade satt in sina luftangrepp mot Khaddafis flyg- och stridsvagnskrafter. Det är en sanning som en del människor med anspråk på att vara socialister vägrar att ta i sin mun.”
Kritisk Debat
Vedrørende krigen i Libyen, det arabiske forår og de spørgsmål, som situationen rejser. Af Bjarne Mortensen (15. juni 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Der er her ingen indlysende og tilfredsstillende rigtig beslutning at træffe på kort sigt. Hvilket absolut ikke betyder, at en stillingtagen, der bevidst tager udgangspunkt i magtforhold og klasseinteresser i verden, ikke på længere sigt kan vise sig bedst at tjene demokrati og menneskerettigheder.”
Ude af kontrol. Af Jan Helbak (2. april 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Læren for en venstrefløj i forvirring må være, at en befolknings opgør med sine undertrykkere – uanset omfanget af ofre – er og bliver dens eget anliggende, og at en forståelig smerte ved tab af så mange menneskeliv aldrig kan retfærdiggøre tilslutning til de gamle imperialistiske magters anvendelse af konceptet for ‘humanitær militær intervention’, som aldrig og heller ikke denne gang har haft andet formål end at opretholde deres fortsatte dominans med andre midler.”
Marxistarkiv.se
Libyen i backspegeln – böcker om Libyen (pdf) (maj 2014)
“Redovisar 3 böcker om Libyen [av Vijay Prashad, Maximilian Forte och Horace Campbell], med utdrag och recensioner.”
Varthän går Libyen? Vänsterpress om Libyen (pdf) (oktober 2013)
Vänsterpress om Libyen (pdf) (november 2013).
Modkraft.dk
Tiden rinder ud for Gaddafi-regimet. Af Alfred Lang (Kontradoxa, 19. marts 2011)
“Befolkningen i de byer oprørene kontrollerer hilser FNs sikkerhedsråds beslutning om etableringen af flyveforbudszoner velkommen. Oprørene fastlår samtidig, at de på ingen måde ønsker udenlandske styrker på Libyens jord.”
Mortens blog
Libyen er endnu et eksempel på Vestens selvtægt. Af Tariq Ali (16. april 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Kynismen i det FN-sanktionerede forsøg på fordrive Libyens diktator, Muammar Gaddafi er tydelig, når en bombeaktion mod Tripoli gennemføres samtidigt med, at andre despoter i den Arabiske Verden fortsat nyder Vestens opbakning.”
Socialistisk Arbejderavis
Imperialisme og revolution i Mellemøsten: Baggrunden for Libyen-krigen (nr.309, 19. maj 2011; online på Internet Archive). Uforkortet udgave online.
“Vesten har en lang og blodig historie i Mellemøsten. Richard Seymour afdækker, hvordan de seneste revolutioner har fremtvunget en ny strategi fra imperialistiske magter i deres forsøg på at styre regionen.”
Socialistisk Information
Hvad sker der i Libyen? (22. marts 2011)
Stephen R. Shalom interviewer Gilbert Achcar: “Så for at opsummere, så mener jeg ikke, ud fra et anti-imperialistisk perspektiv, at man kan eller skal gå imod no-fly-zonen, eftersom der ikke er noget plausibelt alternativ til at beskytte den truede befolkning.”
Ikke i vores navn! Af Mogniss H. Abdallah (22. marts 2011)
“Om krigen i Libyen, den udenlandske militære besættelse i Bahrain og ødelæggelsen af de arabiske revolutioner.”
Socialistisk Standpunkt
Efter Gaddafis død: Revolution og kontrarevolution i Libyen, del 1. Af Alan Woods (3. november 2011) + del 2 (11. november) + del 3 (29. november)
“Gaddafis død og hans regimes endelige kollaps lukker et kapitel. Det er dog blot et vendepunkt i situationen. Nu hvor det gamle regime endeligt er væk, vil der åbne en kamp om Libyens fremtid. I denne kamp vil vi se, at både revolutionen og kontra-revolutionens kræfter vil prøve at få overtaget.”
Efter Tripolis fald: vejen frem for den libyske revolution. Af Alan Woods (24. august 2011)
“Artiklen er skrevet, da nyheden om Tripolis fald først kom ud, efterfølgende er det kommet frem at det ikke var hel så enkelt, at kampene fortsatte og Gaddafi var forsvundet.”
Gaddafi-regimets karakter og baggrund. Af Fred Weston (5. maj 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Vi giver her et kort historisk oprids af udviklingen af Gaddafi-regimet fra den borgerlige arabiske nationalisme i de tidlige dage over perioden med såkaldt islamisk socialisme og til den nuværende periode med åbning for udenlandske investeringer … og begyndelsen på omfattende privatiseringer.”
Libyens revolution og imperialistisk indblanding. Af Fred Weston (22. marts 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“En våbenhvile betyder, at den ene side ikke kan angribe den anden. Det betyder samtidig, at man holder den libyske revolution tilbage, hvilket netop er, hvad Gaddafis regime ønsker, men samtidig også hvad imperialisterne ønsker.”
Libyens revolution: hvad nu? Af Fred Weston (18. marts 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Denne artikel blev skrevet inden FN’s sikkerhedsråd stemte for et flyveforbud. Det ændrer intet ved analysen og de politiske konklusioner – spørgsmålet er blot blevet endnu mere presserende.”
STS International Solidarity
Oppositionsledere i Libyen. Af Vagn Rasmussen (17. april 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Hensynet til de libyske oprørere, som stod i fare for at miste deres sidste bastioner til Gaddafis styrker ‘med et blodbad til følge’, spillede en vigtig rolle for beslutningen om dansk deltagelse i krigen. Men hvem bestod oprørets ledelse egentlig af?”
Se også Vagn Ramussen: Glæden over drabet på Gadaff (Modkraft.dk; Blog, 22. oktober 2011)
Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
Libyen – motsägelser, dåraktiga antaganden & missriktad humanism. Kunde Sverige verkligen inte komma på något bättre? Av Jan Øberg (21. mars, 2011; online på Internet Archive)
“Här följer i telegramstil en kort uppräkning av motsägelser, dåraktiga antaganden och missriktad humanism. En likaledes kortfattad slutsats med förutsägelse följer efter uppräkningen.”
Artikler på engelsk
Campaign for Peace and Democray
We support the Libyan democratic revolution and oppose Western military intervention and domination. By Thomas Harrison and Joanne Landy (April 6, 2011; online på Internet Archive)
Statement by the Campaign for Peace and Democracy. See Endorser list.
Counterfire
The way it starts: Libya and the disaster of humanitarian intervention. By Chris Nineham (27 February 2014). Review of Horace Campbell, Global Nato and the Catastrophic Failure in Libya (Monthly Review Press, 2013)
“Horace Campbell’s account of the war effectively demolishes the notion that the intervention had even traces of humanitarianism about it.”
Oil rush in Libya. By Joseph Daher (24 August 2011)
“Control of Libya’s oil will be one of the main issues for the Libyan people and the future of the country – and it must be used to benefit people in Libya and not imperialist and corporate interest.”
CounterPunch
NATO’s agenda for Libya: Qaddafi, from beginning to end. By Vijay Prashad (October 21-23, 2011)
“The manner of Qaddafi’s death is a synecdoche for the entire war. NATO’s bombs stopped the convoy, and without them Qaddafi would probably have fled to his next redoubt. The rebellion might have succeeded without NATO. But with NATO, certain political options had to be foreclosed.”
Qaddafi has lost; but who has won?: Now what in Libya? By Patrick Cockburn (August 23, 2011)
“Libya does have several advantages over Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not a country with a large and desperate part of the population destitute and living on the margins of malnutrition. It does not have the same blood-soaked recent history as Afghanistan and Iraq.”
In Defence of Marxism
Five years after Gaddafi’s death: The balance sheet of imperialist intervention. By Roberto Sarti (3 November 2016)
“Five years ago, on October 20, 2011, Muammar Gaddafi was caught and shot dead by the militias of the Libyan National Transitional Council, with the active support of the French Intelligence services. But what have the imperialists achieved?”
After the death of Gaddafi: Revolution and counterrevolution in Libya. By Alan Woods (21 October 2011)
“The death of Gaddafi and the final collapse of his regime closes one chapter. However, this merely marks one turning point in the situation. Now that the old regime is finally gone, a struggle will open up over the future of Libya.”
Libya: the struggle intensifies. By Alan Woods (23 August 2011)
“Twenty four hours ago, the streets of Tripoli were full of the sounds of rejoicing. Now they are filled with the sounds of gunfire. The real battle for Tripoli has commenced.”
The nature of the Gaddafi regime – historical background notes. By Fred Weston (6 April 2011)
“We provide a brief historical outline of the development of the Gaddafi regime from the bourgeois Arab nationalism of the early days, to the period of so-called Islamic socialism, to the recent period of opening up to foreign investment, with major concessions to multinational corporations and the beginnings of widespread privatisations.”
Libyan revolution and imperialist meddling. By Fred Weston (18 March 2011)
“Unfortunately, among many on the left there are big illusions in what the United Nations can achieve. There is this idea that somehow the UN is an organisation that stands above society, i.e. stands above class and national interests as some kind of ‘democratic’ or ‘humanitarian’ referee. It is nothing of the sort.”
Uprising in Libya: tremble, tyrants! By Alan Woods (23 February 2011)
“Power is rapidly slipping out of the hands of Muammar Gaddafi, as anti-government protests continue to sweep the African nation despite a brutal and bloody crackdown. As city after city falls to the anti-Gaddafi forces his only base is now Tripoli.”
Informed Comment/Juan Cole
Top ten myths about the Libya war. By Juan Cole (22 August 2011)
“Given the controversies about the revolution, it is worthwhile reviewing the myths about the Libyan Revolution that led so many observers to make so many fantastic or just mistaken assertions about it.”
An open letter to the Left on Libya. By Juan Cole (27 March 2011)
“I am unabashedly cheering the liberation movement on … On the surface, the situation in Libya a week and a half ago posed a contradiction between two key principles of Left politics: supporting the ordinary people and opposing foreign domination of them.”
See also: The case of Professor Juan Cole, by David North (World Socialist Web Site, 1 April 2011)
International Socialism
Libya at the crossroads. By Simon Assaf (Issue 133, Winter 2012, p.127-149)
“The revolution in Libya rose under difficult circumstances. Unlike Tunisia, where trade unions, which could operate within the bounds of the regime, became a focus for discontent, or Egypt, where opposition coalesced around the political movements and a powerful working class, Libya had no organised domestic opposition. Libya’s revolution had to start with the most rudimentary form of organisation.”
See also Gilbert Achcar: Letter to the editor: Libya (Issue 134, Spring 2012)
International Socialist Review
Libya’s revolution, U.S. intervention, and the left. By Lance Selfa (Issue 77, May–June 2011)
“The challenge for the left in the West is how to provide support and solidarity with the popular movement against the Qaddafi dictatorship while opposing Western imperialism’s attempts to misdirect or squelch it under the guise of intervening to support it.”
Hypocrisy, ideology, and imperialism. By Michael Corcoran and Stephen Maher (Issue 77, May–June 2011)
“This article seeks to dismantle the arguments made by apologists for U.S. imperialism in Libya by examining the true nature of U.S. foreign policy and its concern (or lack thereof) for human rights, the illegality of the Libyan invasion through the lens of both domestic and international law, and by demonstrating how corporate media complicity has helped to sell this narrative, serving, as always, as an arm of official ideology.”
International Viewpoint
The revolution seen from the inside (Issue 440, September 2011)
“Jamal Jaber visited Libya in June 2011 for International Viewpoint [and] spoke to Azeldin El Sharif. El Sharif is an opponent of the Gaddafi regime who took refuge in London in 2001. He continued his activity there until the rising on 17 February 2011 when he returned to Benghazi. Today he is president of the ‘Network of National Solidarity’.”
After Gaddafi (5 September 2011).
“Gilbert Achar’s recent interview with New Left Project, published in International Viewpoint in August 2011 elicited, like his previous articles, a lot of discussion. Here, NLP’s David Wearing asks Achcar a series of follow-up questions on the criticisms of his position, and on the emerging situation in Libya.”
Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective. By Gilbert Achcar (March 25, 2011)
“The call of the Libyan insurrectonists in Benghazi for a ‘no-fly zone’ and the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution 1973 that claimed to implement such a zone in order to ‘protect the civilian population’ provoked a sharp discussion among anti-imperialists on what attitude to adopt. Here Gilbert Achcar responds to the debate following his remarks in an interview published in International Viewpoint and elsewhere arguing that it was not possible to oppose the UN motion.”
Bombs over Libya. By Bertil Videt (Issue 434, March 2011)
“Is the military action against Libya necessary and helpful in order to stop Gaddafi’s regime’s onslaught on its opponents or is it an imperialist aggression driven by strategical self-interest, which only will make things worse for the Libyan people? The international left is split on this question.”
What’s happening in Libya? Gilbert Achcar interviewed by Stephen R. Shalom (Issue 434, March 2011)
“The [UN] resolution is amazingly confused. But given the urgency of preventing the massacre that would have inevitably resulted from an assault on Benghazi by Gaddafi’s forces, and the absence of any alternative means of achieving the protection goal, no one can reasonably oppose it.”
Jacobin
10 years ago, NATO intervened in Libya — and created a complete disaster. By Matt Willgress (March 22, 2021)
“Ten years ago, NATO forces intervened in Libya’s civil war with promises to liberate the country. The disaster they left behind offers a lesson on why imperialist wars must be resisted.”
Jadaliyya
NATO’s ‘conspiracy’ against the Libyan Revolution. By Gilbert Achcar (August 16, 2011)
“Many sympathizers of the Libyan insurrection – some of them, myself included, expressing understanding for the fact that Benghazi asked ‘the devil’ for help against a massacre foretold – warned the rebels from day one against portraying this devil as an angel on that occasion, and against fostering illusions about the Western powers’ real motives.”
League for the Fifth International
Should socialists support the Libyan revolution? By Dave Stockton (22/08/2011)
“It would be ridiculous to give up on the Libyan revolution because of the crimes of its leadership or the manoeuvres of the imperialists in Washington, London or Paris – we must fight for a revolution within the rebellion, a struggle for consistent democracy and internationalism.”
Links: International Journal of Socialist Renewal
Imperialist nature of war is now clearer. By Michael Karadjis (June 23, 2011)
“Renfrey Clarke has written a very detailed and thoughtful piece of discussion, and despite my disagreement with it, I welcome the fact that people are willing to put forward unpopular positions (among the left) and have them thrashed out, especially when it is done in such a careful and thorough way.”
The Libyan revolution, imperialism and the left. By Renfrey Clarke (May 3, 2011)
“If imperialism were somehow to heed our pleas and cease bombing Gaddafi’s forces, then the Libyan insurgency would more or less inevitably be smashed, and its participants and sympathisers would be killed in large numbers.”
Left debates Libya: Juan Cole’s open letter to the left on intervention; Phyllis Bennis and Vijay Prasad respond (March 29, 2011)
“On March 27, 2011, prominent US anti-Iraq-War writer Juan Cole posted an ‘Open letter to the left on Libya’ on his website, Informed Comment. The article argued for support for the UN Security Council authorised military intervention in Libya. In the interests of left discussion, Links posts Cole’s article, along with a reply by Phyllis Bennis and a debate between Cole and Vijay Prashad, that appeared on Democracy Now!”
Solidarity and intervention in Libya. By Aslı Ü. Bâli and Ziad Abu-Rish (March 16, 2011)
“In what follows we argue that embracing the call for solidarity requires a much more careful appraisal of the interventionist option, precisely because the potential risks will be borne by Libyan civilians.”
Libya: How Gaddafi became a Western-backed dictator. By Peter Boyle (February 25, 2011)
“What has led to this new Libyan revolution is the degeneration of the regime born of the 1969 revolution into a crony capitalism. The popular character of the new revolution is undeniable, it is far from clear what sort of regime will emerge out of it.”
Marxist Left Review
Confronting the Stalinist legacy. By Corey Oakley (No.2, Autumn 2011)
“It is important to document the history of left support for Gaddafi, which we will do below.”
Middle East Report
The globalized unmaking of the Libyan state. By Jacob Mundy (Issue 290, Spring 2019). “Since the NATO-led intervention, various forms of overt and covert assistance—military, financial, ideological and otherwise—have enhanced growing divisions within Libya’s post-revolutionary polity.”
Libya, the colonel’s yoke lifted. By Nicolas Pelham (September 7, 2011)
“In a country where hitherto decision-making was routed through one man, new local coping mechanisms have emerged to address the hardships caused by an absent government … The sense of local ownership of the revolution is important: No one has stripped the electricity cables from pylons for their copper, as Iraqis did after the US invaded their country.”
The colonel, the rebels and the heavenly arbiter. By Nicolas Pelham (April 20, 2011)
“Which way will the battle in Libya go? Following initial setbacks under US and allied bombardment, the forces loyal to Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi have now retaken the positions they held before the Western intervention began. The challenges facing the rebellion based in Libya’s east are immense.”
Of principle and peril. By the editors (March 22, 2011)
“Given the multiple crises occurring on the planet at any given time, intervention is a political choice rather than a purely moral one. The hortatory sentences that start off, ‘We should’, ought in all honesty to begin, ‘We can’.”
Libya in the balance. By Nicolas Pelham (March 15, 2011)
“The rebels did little to help matters. Drunk on euphoria, they fatally abandoned their peaceful protests and resorted instead to arms, naïvely believing they could outsmart Qaddafi at his own game.”
Le Monde Diplomatique
No good choices. By Serge Halami (April 2011)
“The democratic Arab revolts are redrawing political, diplomatic and ideological boundaries in the Middle East. Repression in Libya threatened this dynamic process, and we do not know where the UN-approved actions of western forces in support of the Libyan rebels will lead.”
New Left Project
Popular rebellion & imperialist designs (26 August 2011; online at Internet Archive)
“Gilbert Achcar spoke to Tom Mills about the rebellion in Libya and the motives behind NATO’s intervention.” Also online at International Viewpoint (26 August 2011),
New Politics
Libya under Gaddafi (Issue 65, Summer 2018)
“Clay Claiborne reminds us of just what Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya, particularly in terms of racism and immigration, actually looked like so that we can build an actually effective anti-imperialism.”
Red Pepper
Libya: war is not the answer (March 2011)
“Phyllis Bennis argues that foreign military intervention in Libya has little to do with humanitarian concerns, and protracted militarization could threaten the country’s chance for real democratic development.”
Socialism Today
Post-Gaddafi Libya: still volatile and violent. By Robert Bechert (Issue 163, November 2012)
“Just over a month since the death of the US ambassador, developments in Libya illustrate the instability, even chaos, gripping many parts of the country. Although elections passed off peacefully in July, in reality, the General National Congress is powerless in the face of the competing militias.”
Socialist Review
Libya: The West’s new client? (Issue 362, October 2011; online at Internet Archive)
“The uprising in Libya was inspired by the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. But the intervention of Nato forces changed the situation dramatically. Simon Assaf asks if Libya is now destined to become a client state of Western powers or whether its revolution could revive.”
Imperialism and revolution in the Middle East (Issue 358, May 2011; online at Internet Archive)
“Richard Seymour looks at the way in which the revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa have provoked Western powers to adopt a new strategy to try to maintain their power in the region.”
Libya: at the crossroads (Issue 357, April 2011; online at Internet Archive)
“Libya’s revolution faces stark choices. Simon Assaf looks at the roots of Gaddafi’s regime and the danger posed by Western intervention.”
Socialist Worker (UK)
West’s role in dictator’s downfall shouldn’t stop us celebrating. By Alex Callinicos (Issue 2275, 29 October 2011)
“… we should have no qualms in joining the Libyan people’s celebrations of the tyrant’s demise. But we should warn them against trusting the Western powers that were content to work hand-in-glove with him while they suffered.”
After the death of Gaddafi: Where next for Libya? By Simon Assaf (Issue 2275, 29 October 2011)
“The Libyan people have fought a long struggle for liberation and their future is still deeply uncertain.”
The myth of Gaddafi the radical (Issue 2267, 3 September 2011)
“He claimed to be a champion of the oppressed but, says Phil Marfleet, the Libyan leader was a tyrant whose policies increasingly mirrored those of the states he said he opposed.”
Should the left back intervention in Libya? By Alex Callinicos (Issue 2245, 2 April 2011)
“Western intervention in Libya has caused some divisions on the genuine left. This isn’t surprising. If we look at the Arab world, a combination of the widespread loathing of Muammar Gaddafi and support for the revolutions has limited opposition to the use of Western firepower against his forces.”
SocialistWorker.org
Washington celebrates Qaddafi’s death. By Alan Maass and Lance Selfa (October 24, 2011)
“Muammar el-Qaddafi was a tyrant despised by the mass of Libyans – but the U.S. helped to overthrow him for very different reasons.”
What’s next after Qaddafi’s downfall? (October 13, 2011)
“Lance Selfa and Alan Maass trace the development of the revolt against the Qaddafi regime, describe the role of NATO military operations in his downfall and analyze the forces contending for power in post-Qaddafi Libya.” With links to previous interviews and articles by Gilbert Achcar, Richard Seymour and Anand Gopal.
Who really won in Libya? By the editors (August 23, 2011)
“Another dictator is being toppled in North Africa – but the regime that will replace his will be beholden to imperialist powers that don’t care at all about democracy.”
See also letter from a writer in Tripoli: A thoroughgoing popular revolution (September 20, 2011)
The revolution must stay in Arab hands. By Kevin Ovenden (March 30, 2011)
“Left-wing voices like Gilbert Achcar’s are badly mistaken to give their support to Western intervention against the Qaddafi regime in Libya.”
Is U.S. intervention justified in Libya? By Lance Selfa (March 29, 2011)
“Several important figures on the left have mistakenly joined the chorus of support for Western military intervention in Libya.”
Nothing humanitarian about U.S. intervention (March 21, 2011)
“The claims of Western governments that their war on Libya is ‘protecting civilians’ is a cover for pursuing imperial interests, write Eric Ruder and Tom Arabia.” See also reply from Chris Wright: Is intervention a necessary evil? (April 5, 2011)
Qaddafi’s barbaric war on the uprising. By David Whitehouse (March 17, 2011)
“Qaddafi’s immediate and unrestrained ruthlessness is one of several factors that has helped the regime to mount a counterattack on rebel forces.”
Qaddafi’s bid to crush a revolution. By Eric Ruder (February 22, 2011; online at Internet Archive)
“The regime of Libyan dictator Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi is trying to drown an anti-government uprising in blood.”
Solidarity
Libya: Revolution, intervention and crisis. By Solidarity National Committee (April 4, 2011)
“Solidarity supports the struggles against dictatorships in Libya and throughout the Arab world, and does not believe imperialist intervention can resolve the problems that have led to the revolts. We found ourselves in disagreement, however, on whether to oppose the Libyan rebels’ demand for a ‘no-fly zone’ over Libya. Therefore, we are publishing two statements … representing the two main views of the Solidarity leadership.”
The Libyan revolution and the Arab spring. By Kit Weiner (April 3, 2011)
“The situation [have] produced a gut-wrenching debate on the left. Leftists have correctly been suspicious of the motives of the great powers, and skeptical that they have any interest in promoting a democratic revolution in Libya. However, in the third week of March the only options left were a victory of Qaddafi’s counter-revolution or the prevention of that victory by western air strikes.”
STRATFOR
Libya’s opposition leadership comes into focus (March 20, 2011)
“One of the biggest problems faced by Western governments has been identifying exactly who the rebels are.”
The Libyan War of 2011. By George Friedman (March 19, 2011)
“The long-term goal, unspoken but well understood, is regime change – displacing the government of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and replacing it with a new regime built around the rebels.”
How a Libyan no-fly zone could backfire. By George Friedman (March 8, 2011)
“In evaluating calls for a no-fly zone, it is useful to remember that in war, Murphy’s Law always lurks. What can go wrong will go wrong, in Libya as in Iraq or Afghanistan.”
The Unrepentant Marxist
Edward Herman’s slipshod writing on Libya. By Louis Proyect (April 13, 2011)
“People like Edward Herman worked hard to scrutinize the charges against the Serbs in accordance with the higher standards of investigative reporting that are so crucial when American imperialism is on the warpath. That is why it is so disconcerting to see such a precipitous decline in his recent reply to Gilbert Achcar over NATO intervention in Libya.”
The Juan Cole/Gilbert Achcar controversy. By Louis Proyect (April 3, 2011).
“Perhaps the reason people on the left are so upset with Juan Cole and Gilbert Achcar’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ arguments is that they are widely considered ‘one of us’. In Achcar’s case, the pain is even more acute for the Marxist wing of the left since his credentials are so well establishe.”
The anti-anti-Qaddafi left. By Louis Proyect (April 1, 2011)
“Basically, the anti-anti-Qaddafi left is straining to fit Libya into a pattern that should be familiar to us by now. The Benghazi fighters are like the Nicaraguan contras or the Kurdish rebels who are, as MRZine put it, ‘traitors’ to their country.””
U.S. Marxist-Humanists
Libya: Who’s side are we on? By Richard Greeman (April 1, 2011; online at Internet Archive)
“A critique of the narrow forms of anti-imperialism that have emerged on some parts of the Left in the face of US and NATO intervention in Libya and a call for solidarity with the people of Libya and the wider Arab world.”
Weekly Worker
The long road to the Arab revolution. By Moshé Machover (Issue 859, March 31, 2011)
“It is my view that the Libyan revolution is already defeated. From the moment the Interim Transitional National Council felt it had to invite this intervention it became clear that it was unable to overthrow the regime. As Marx observed a long time ago, revolution is needed not only to overthrow the powers that be, but also to transform the people who are making it.”
You are useful idiots (Issue 859, March 31, 2011)
“The imperialist assault on Libya has rallied many on the liberal and socialist left in its defence. James Turley argues that this makes an anti-imperialist perspective even more urgently necessary.”
Workers Liberty
Libya: the return of hope (Solidarity, Issue 214, 24 August 2011)
“The NATO intervention helped them by preventing the crushing of the uprising at a critical point. That is a good thing. But this victory does not belong to NATO, who intervened for their own reasons. It belongs to the Libyan people who fought and died to get rid of Qaddafi and who remained resolute in the face of conditions far worse than any more-anti-imperialist-than-thou demagogue on the British left will ever have to face.”
Libya, the Left and intervention: a debate (28 May, 2011)
“Gilbert Achcar, Ira Berkovic, Clive Bradley, Barry Finger, Martyn Hudson, Dan Katz, Sean Matgamna, Solidarity [US] National Committee, Peter Taaffe, Martin Thomas debate the proper socialist attitude to the conflict in Libya and UN-sanctioned outside intervention.”
Should we denounce intervention in Libya? By Jack Cleary (Solidarity, 3/198, 23 March 2011)
“The would-be left is yet again tying itself in knots over a political dilemma: the belief that in order not to give general support to the British-France ‘liberal intervention’ in Libya, they must stridently oppose them on this and on every specific thing they do or at least on every military action. In fact it is a dilemma of their own making.”
World Socialist Web Site
US and NATO murder Muammar Gaddafi. By Bill Van Auken (21 October 2011)
“The savage killing Thursday of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi served to underscore the criminal character of the war that has been prosecuted by the US and NATO over the past eight months.”
25 years ago – the first US attempt to murder Gaddafi. By Patrick Martin
28 April 2011)
“Reagan decided on the air strikes in response to the Libyan role in the April 5, 1986 bombing of a West Berlin disco, in which two American off-duty soldiers were killed.”
A tool of imperialism: France’s New Anti-Capitalist Party backs war on Libya. By Alex Lantier (25 March 2011)
“The New Anti-Capitalist Party and its co-thinkers in the Pabloite United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) have declared their support for the unprovoked military aggression against Libya by the US, Britain, and France. They have shamelessly aligned their policies with those of the major powers …”
Libya and the bankruptcy of Arab nationalism. By Bill Van Auken (23 February 2011)
“Gaddafi’s evolution over his four-decade-long rule of Libya saw his transformation from the leader of an anti-colonial movement with mass popular support into a butcher of his own people. This did not develop overnight.”
ZNet
NATO’s ‘conspiracy’ against the Libyan Revolution. By Gilbert Achcar (August 17, 2011)
“The paradoxical character of Western intervention in Libya has been underlined by various observers who saw its rationale as centered around securing control over post-Gaddafi Libya.”
The Libyan insurrection between Gaddafi’s hammer, NATO’s anvil and the Left’s confusion: results and prospects. By Gilbert Achcar (April 23, 2011)
“Major anti-imperialist forces in the Arab world took a position similar to the one I expressed on March 19, putting the blame on Gaddafi, and warning of Western forces’ designs without condemning the no-fly zone or calling to demonstrate against the Western intervention.”
Stephen Shalom & Michael Albert answer questions on Libya (April 7, 2011)
“We take the position that protection of the rebels from imminent slaughter by means of a no-fly zone and a no-drive zone was justified in principle despite the sordid hypocrisy of the intervening powers. However, the actual UN Security Council resolution 1973 was far too open-ended and imposed too few constraints on the intervening powers to ensure that the moral and human benefits would exceed the moral and human costs.”
Barack Obama’s Libya speech and the tasks of anti-imperialists. By Gilbert Achcar (March 31, 2011)
“Now that the no-fly zone has been implemented in NATO’s typical heavy-handed manner and that Gaddafi forces’ ability to threaten civilian concentrations with a large-scale massacre has been severely weakened, we should concentrate our campaign on two main inseparable demands addressed to the NATO-led coalition: Stop the bombing! Deliver arms to the insurgents!”
On Libya and the unfolding crises. Noam Chomsky interviewed by Stephen Shalom and Michael Albert (March 31, 2011)
“An interview on U.S. motives in international relations, intervention in Libya, and Libyan self-determination.”
Libya: a legitimate and necessary debate from an anti-imperialist perspective. By Gilbert Achcar (March 25, 2011)
“The interview I gave to my good friend Steve Shalom on ZNet March 19 provoked a storm of discussions and statements of all kinds – far larger than anything I could have expected, all the larger because it was translated and circulated into several languages. If this is an indication of anything, it is that people felt there was a real issue at stake. So let’s discuss it.”
Stop Bombing Libya. By Marjorie Cohn (March 22, 2011)
”The United States is ostensibly bombing Libya for humanitarian reasons. But Obama refuses to condemn the repression and government killings of protestors in Bahrain using U.S.-made tanks and weaponry because that is where the U.S. Fifth Fleet is stationed. And Yemen, a close U.S. ally, kills and wounds protestors while Obama watches silently.”
Gaddafi, moral interventionism, Libya, and the Arab revolutionary moment. By Richard Falk (March 21, 2011)
“As many credible exile Libyan voices attest, it would seem highly likely that a rebel victory would benefit the people of Libya and would be a step in the right direction for the region, especially the Arab world, but does this entail supporting Western-led military intervention even if it is backed by the United Nations? I think not.”
A humanitarian intervention? By Richard Seymour
(March 21, 2011)
“I think we should look to the revolutionary forces in the Middle East. Volunteers from surrounding states have already been joining the Libyan revolution, and people have made comparisons to the Spanish civil war. That’s a model of solidarity and ‘interventionism’ that has a proud history on the Left.”
Venstrefløjen og Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi (Wikipedia.org). Længere leksikal artikel på engelsk.
Falliterklæring for Chavez?: Latinamerika og den arabiske revolution. Af Ataulfo Riera (Socialistisk Information, 5. marts 2011)
“Hvis Castro og Chavez blev taget fuldstændig på sengen af det arabiske oprør, så lader de i øjeblikket til at være ude af stand til at forstå karakteren, omfanget og sammenhængen i den revolutionære proces, som nu ruller hen over hele regionen.”
Hugo Chavez alene om støtte til Libyens regime. Af Rune Eltard-Sørensen (Modkraft.dk, 4. marts 2011)
“Oprørsbevægelsen i Libyen afviser Venezuelas præsident Hugo Chavez’ forslag om at mægle mellem befolkningen og Gadaffi’s regime i det borgerkrigshærgede land. Chavez’ opbakning til Gaddafi kritiseres også i Danmark.”
Ciao, Ciao Chavez. Af Pelle Dragsted (Modkraft.dk/Blog, 2. marts 2011)
Med mange kommentarer om både Chavez og Gadaffi.
Confronting the Stalinist legacy. By Corey Oakley (Marxist Left Review, No.2, Autumn 2011)
“It is important to document the history of left support for Gaddafi, which we will do below.”
Chávez and the Arab dictators. By Lance Selfa (SocialistWorker.org, May 17, 2011)
“Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez is respected as a left opponent of U.S. imperialism – but he is lending support to Middle East despots who are trying to suppress popular uprisings.”
The anti-anti-Qaddafi left. By Louis Proyect (The Unrepentant Marxist, April 1, 2011)
“Basically, the anti-anti-Qaddafi left is straining to fit Libya into a pattern that should be familiar to us by now. The Benghazi fighters are like the Nicaraguan contras or the Kurdish rebels who are, as MRZine put it, ‘traitors’ to their country.”
Libya and the world left. By Immanuel Wallerstein (Wallerstein.com, Commentary, No.301, March 15, 2011)
“The most neglected aspect of the situation is the deep division in the world left. Several left Latin American states, and most notably Venezuela, are fulsome in their support of Colonel Qaddafi.”
The facts about racism in Libya (SocialistWorker.org, March 14, 2011)
“The claim that the Libyan uprising is motivated by racism should be rejected as a slander against a revolt against a dictatorship, writes Rayyan Ghuma.”
Don’t give Qaddafi ‘anti-imperialist’ cover. By Colin Foster (Solidarity, 3/195, 2 March 2011)
“From the Cuban and Iranian governments, and from sections of the international left, the US and UN sanctions against the Qaddafi regime, imposed on 25 and 26 February, have triggered an outcry against ‘imperialist intervention in Libya’.”
Taking sides about Libya (SocialistWorker.org, February 28, 2011)
“Todd Chretien examines the attitude of the Workers World Party and Party for Liberation and Socialism toward Muammar el-Qaddafi’s dictatorship in Libya.”
How can Latin America’s ‘revolutionary’ leaders support Gaddafi? By Mike Gonzalez (The Guardian, 28 February, 2011)
“Those who came to power on the back of mass democratic movements cannot deny Libyans the right to topple a dictator.”
Qaddafi and the Monthly Review. By Louis Proyect (The Unrepentant Marxist, February 27, 2011)
“MRZine appears to be the latest entrant in the anti-anti-Qaddafi current on the left. The use of the term ‘anti-anti’ is appropriate since the grounds for being “pro”-Qaddafi nowadays are so tenuous.”
Goodbye to Gaddafi (Weekly Worker, Issue 854, February 24, 2011)
“He may still be admired by sections of the left, writes Eddie Ford. But we would wholeheartedly welcome the fall of Gaddafi in what is the first armed uprising in the Arab revolution.”
Qaddafi and the left. By Louis Proyect (The Unrepentant Marxist, February 24, 2011)
“However, some forces on the left have adopted an entirely different attitude toward events in Libya. While not exactly having the temerity to endorse Qaddafi without reservations (who could, at this point?), they tend to focus more on what they perceive as threats to the ‘Libyan revolution’ from a combination of external threats such as NATO and an internal fifth column.”
Gaddafi, Ken Livingstone, and the left. By Sean Matgamna (Socialist Organiser, Issue 343, 28 January 1988; online at Workers’ Liberty)
“In the 1980s, fervent – and paid – supporters of Gaddafi were accepted by many as a respectable section of the British left!”
