Global crises lead to rare spat between Obama and Cameron.

Bombers unite. Are we still friends?

By Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

You have to hand it to them, these heads of the major imperialist powers.  Barak Obama, the head of the one with the big stick and the most prolific producer of weapons of mass destruction on the planet, attacked British Prime Minister and British and French imperialism in particular for leaving Libya in a “mess” after their 2011 military invasion and assassination of Gaddafi.

Let’s see now.  What is the record of US imperialism in the region?  Oh yes, Iraq.  Now that’s an example of how to help a country in to stability isn’t it? Prop up a dictator, help him crush the unions and workers’ political parties and any other party that threatened the one party state and if he got too cocky, bomb the place.  “Just Do It” is the motto of the arrogant US bourgeois.

In fact, Iraq no longer exists really it is a failed state in the true sense of the word.  The US invasion destroyed what was once one of the more secular Arab/Muslim states in the region, cost the US taxpayer millions, trillions when Afghanistan is included and both ventures have been miserable failures. The cost in lives runs in the millions. But as Madeline Albright once said, “It’s worth it.”

Then there’s Somalia, Afghanistan, the never ending bombing of Pakistan which is opposed by the vast majority of Pakistani’s and is an excellent recruitment tool for terrorist groups. I guess making sense doesn’t apply when you have the big stick.

US workers and the middle classes are getting a little restless.  The costs of fighting wars on behalf of US corporations and the few thousand people that own them is considerable. Wages, benefits, social services have all been savaged over the past period. The social infrastructure in the US is falling apart and has been described by some as the third deficit.  Students leave college heavy indebted and without a possibility of a job. Working class people are being priced out of public education.

Numerous disasters often attributed in the media to “acts of god”, from Katrina, to the poisoning of a section of the Elk River in West Virginia that left people without water for nine days, to the poisoning of the entire population of Flint Michigan and the relocation of an entire community due to a gas leak in Southern California not to mention the explosion in West Texas and many others, are beginning to be seen as what they are, a failure of the system, a breakdown of society and a by-product of their precious market.  This is of some concern to the ruling class. No one trusts the government.

The rise of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are a product of this anger that exists beneath the surface of US society. They reflect a complete disdain for the present body politic and the millionaires and billionaires that fill its ranks, Trump and Sanders are popular because they attack it.

The US ruling class is under pressure. Their two political parties are in disarray and the Republican Party could split as the right wing religious fanatics they brought in to the party are out of control. They fear social unrest as the conditions for it ripens. Social unrest of a confused, unorganized and violent nature that occurs in leaderless situations. So US imperialism and Obama as its representative wants the Europeans to contribute more to the misnamed North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), wants them to “pay their share”.  The UK was particularly targeted and Obama warned that the “special relationship” that the two countries have would be at risk if the UK didn’t commit to spending 2% of its national income on defense.  He basically accused them of being free riders. “We will apply the military capabilities that are unique to us, but we expect others to carry their weight.” Obama said. The military capability Obama is talking about is air power. All of US capitalism’s wars are unpopular and only tolerated if Americans don’t die in significant numbers. The burden of these corporate ventures falls on the shoulders of a minority of US families.

The problem is that Cameron and no doubt all the European leaders are feeling the same pressures. Here in the UK, resistance is growing to vicious cuts being imposed by the conservative government as the capitalist crisis is also shifted on to the backs of workers and the middle class.  The refugee crisis weighs on them all like a ton of bricks.

Libya is indeed a “mess” as Obama puts it, just like Iraq, Afghanistan the entire Middle East and Africa, and indeed the entire planet in which we live.  We are in an unprecedented period in history. The most important thing for workers to understand is that there is no solution to it within the framework of capitalism. Obama, the antiwar alternative to the imbecile Bush, has continued and cannot but continue heading down the same destructive road, so will Clinton and Sanders as representatives of capitalism.  It is worth reminding Sanders’ supporters who see him as the new FDR that Roosevelt’s efforts to save capitalism from itself failed. It took a world war and the death of some 50 million people to do that. Roosevelt was an astute bourgeois who had used the troops against striking workers many times. It is important to recognize that limited as his reforms were, they were a response to the rise in militancy and organization of the working classes at the time.

Obama Cameron, Merkel, all of them, are all headed to the abyss and are taking us with them.

The refugee crisis in Europe is a direct result of US meddling in the Middle East. It is US foreign policy that is at the root of this crisis including its unconditional support for the Zionist regime that must never be referred to when discussing the region.  ISIS is also a product of decades of failed attempts by western powers to impose western style governments on nation states created by western imperialists out of tribal communities across continents. As Robert Fisk wrote in an excellent articlelast year:

“The bloody repercussions of the borders that the British and French diplomats, Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot, drew in secret during the First World War – originally giving Syria, Mount Lebanon and northern Iraq to the French, and Palestine, Transjordan and the rest of Iraq to the British – are known to every Arab, Christian and Muslim and, indeed, every Jew in the region. They eviscerated the governorates of the old dying Ottoman empire and created artificial nations in which borders, watchtowers and hills of sand separated tribes, families and peoples. They were an Anglo-French colonial production.”

The experiment has failed miserably and the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. Not by the British, French, US and certainly not by capitalism.

ISIS is no significant threat to the US. As Andrew Bacevich the retired US colonel and historian said in a recent interview on Democracy Now, “But by any realistic measure, ISIS poses only a modest threat to the United States of America. It doesn’t have an air force. It doesn’t have a navy. It consists of a relatively small number of fierce fighters, not particularly well armed. And the notion that ISIS somehow threatens us, I think, is really absurd.”

But it is a threat to the stability of the region, the flow of oil and the global economy as a whole.  At some point as we have stated before on this blog, some type of nuclear device could fall in to the hands of these characters and add another element to the situation.

I am convinced the international working class and a democratic socialist system will offer humanity a real future where all human beings can be free to develop the creativity and potential within us. But it is not guaranteed and time is not on our side.

Cats may have nine lives, we don’t.

West sets out plans for massive invasion of Libya

Libyan women raise red cards during a protest against the national unity government proposed by United Nations envoy Bernardino Leon on October 9, 2015 in Tripoli's central Martyrs Square.

by Stephen Morgan

If you think back to 2011, we were all told that the sole aim of NATO's bombing campaign in Libya was to help establish democracy by helping rebels bring down Gadaffi. If anyone was taken in by this propaganda, then the following news should clarify the real aims of the West in Libya.

It has been reported that British special forces will spearhead a 6,000 strong army of European and US troops to invade Libya in the coming months. The goal will be to take control of Libya's oil fields and defend them from attack by ISIS fighters. At the present moment, ISIS are conducting an attack to take control of the oil ports of Siddra and Ras Lanouf, as well as Brega, which is home to the biggest oil refinery in North Africa.

Quite clearly, the capitalists in the West are furious that their opportunities to profit from Libya's large oil reserves could be taken away from them. Hopes that the NATO intervention would stabilize the country and provide the basis for Western companies to make rich pickings have been dashed.

Oil production and Western profits have already been severely disrupted, since post-Gadaffi Libya disintegrated into waring militia groups. However, for the West to have intervened before now, would have been blatantly motivated by profits alone. Now fighting ISIS has given them the  perfect opportunity to dress up their real aims and interests.

The West has been eying the opportunity to take control of Libya's oil production ever since the civil war began in 2011. Before Gadaffi fell, Libyan oil was supplying 14% of Europe's oil fields. In particular, it supplied 22% of Italian oil, 16% of French and 13% of Spanish. The French and British also had long-term energy interests in exploitation rights and other investments in the country. In the oil sector, France's Total, British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell, as well as Italy's ENI were making substantial investments in what were potentially the richest reserves of oil and gas in Africa.

But under Gadaffi, the oil industry was controlled by the state, effectively cutting off the possibilities for Western companies to make huge profits. Therefore, removing Gadaffi was the key to unlocking the door to unhampered exploitation of Libya's natural resources.

The US had less direct interests in Libya than other Western countries, and that was the main reason it handed over the responsibility for intervention in the civil war to NATO – principally its two largest military powers, France and Britain. Ever since then, a smaller version of the Sykes-Picot Agreement – by which France and Britain divided up the Middle East into spheres of interest at the end of the 1^st World War – has been secretly agreed by the two powers, whereby Libya comes under the control of Britain, and France maintains its dompination in the Mahgreb and West Africa.

France has interests in neighboring Niger, which are threatened by a further de-stabilization of Libya and the growth of ISIS. There is a massive porous and ungovernable border between the two countries which allows extremists to spread through the region. There are rich natural resources to be exploited, including potential oil fields, in both Niger and neighboring Mali, which France invaded in 2013. French mining firms Areva and Vinci control the uranium mines around Arlit in Niger, and it has an estimated that Mali has 5,200 tonnes of untapped uranium sources to tapped.

Of course, this is not to say that there aren't political aims behind the invasion as well, but they tend to overlap with the underlying economic concerns. Increasing production from Libya would not only be a valuable source of profits, but it could also reduce European reliance on Russian oil, in the event of a disruption to supplies caused by increasing tensions between Europe and Russia.

Were Libya and its oil to fall entirely into the hands of ISIS, or even a large part of it, this would enormously strengthen ISIS internationally; The oil fields would be a handsome addition to its funding, which already makes it the richest terrorist group in history.

It was also give ISIS a firmer base to expand into the region and threaten French and British interests elsewhere. ISIS would be in a far better position to increase its activities in Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and, indeed, they could destabilize the whole of Northern Africa.

Southern Libya borders on the Sahel region, of which Niger and Mali are part, and which stretches from the west to the east coast of Africa. It encompasses regions of Senegal, Mauritania, Burkina Faso, northern Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea. Its deserts and mountains have provided perfect bases for extremist groups, and the virtual impossibility of policing its borders has the potential to allow jihadist organization to link up across the whole of North Africa, from the Al-Shabaab in Somalia and Sudan, to Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Boko Haram in Nigeria.

As always, Western Imperialism will dig its own grave if it intervenes further. Libya is another failed state, which is unlikely to achieve any lasting political and economic stability. In fact, it could disappear altogether. In this context, even if the oil fields are protected from ISIS, and it is forced into retreat, the conditions will continue to exist for it to rebuild, as it did in Iraq.

The Western invasion force is destined to become another army of occupation. Its very presence will be an enormous recruiting sergeant for ISIS. Given the cooperation of many of the other Libyan militias with the West, ISIS will be in a situation where it can put itself forward as the true fighters against Western Imperialism. Defeating the Western invaders will become a cause célèbre of jihadists everywhere and, like Syria, it will attract tens of thousands of more foreign volunteers willing to go and fight there for ISIS. 

Libyan women raise red cards during a protest against the national unity government proposed by United Nations envoy Bernardino Leon on October 9, 2015 in Tripoli's central Martyrs Square.

Wikileaks' Julian Assange on NATO 's Libyan invasion

More documents show close ties between US, UK and Gaddafi torturers

The thugs at the CIA and M16 must be running around like chickens with their heads cut off right now.  As the various forces that make up the Libyan rebels gain ground, more and more documents revealing the friendly and cooperative relationship between these two torture agencies and their junior partner, Muammar Gaddafi are surfacing. 

It is now revealed that the CIA isn’t the only organization that goes around the world kidnapping whomever it deems a suspect but Britain’s M16 also has an independent program of its own.  Just before the war criminal Blair’s visit to Libya a few years ago, the British secret service, working with Gaddafi’s security operations, kidnapped a Gaddafi foe in Hong Kong and handed him, his wife and four children over to the Libyan security forces.  Both British and US intelligence were well aware of Gaddifi’s notorious torture centers.

Documents found in the office of Gaddafi’s intelligencechief in Tripoli show how the latest victim was living in China and tricked by M16 in flying to Hong Kong for a meeting supposedly to allow him to return to live in London where he had previously been living in exile.  According to the Guardian UK, a previous kidnap victim who was held for 6 years was first tortured by the CIA before being handed over to Gaddafi where he “suffered abuse for several years being hung form walls and immersed in ice baths.”  The victim is considering suing the British government who he claims knew about his situation but did nothing.  Associates of the latest case cannot understand why the individual was taken as they didn’t consider him as having any “value” for British intelligence.  They assume he was simply a “gift” from the British to Gaddafi to strengthen the new friendship.

Prior to the uprising that began in Benghazi, western business interests, the forces that the CIA and M16 represent, were building stronger links with Gaddafi as he was clearly moving to privatize more of the state’s assets, particularly oil.  Anglo/Dutch Shell had signed a $550 million oil exploration contract with Gaddafi just days before the most recent rendition.

The British government’s response to these revelations is the usual stuff saying it has a “longstanding policy not to comment on intelligence matters.” , and that M16 was complying with, “ministerially authorized government policy.” . The government is declining to say which “department’s ministers authorized the operations”  You can see why they hate Wikileaks and why Bradley Manning is being treated the way he is.

No one can doubt the murderous history of British intelligence or any of the intelligence services of the capitalist state.  It took 25 years for the truth to come out about the Derry “Bogside Massacre” in 1972 when 26 catholic civil rights marchers were assassinated by the British Parachute Regiment, an elite arm of the British ruling class.  The soldiers had been given the authority to shoot to kill.

The CIA’s role in assassinations, kidnappings and other forms of torture and mayhem in the interests of US corporations is well documented and it includes the importation of cocaine in to US inner cities to undermine political developments and radicalization amongst the black youth.  Guantanamo, the torture center that Obama pledged to shut down is just one example in a long history of abuse waged on the peoples of the world by the CIA.  (see the movie, The Road to Guantanamo).

We can see why the frantic efforts to kill Gaddafi as an old partner in crime. Lke Sadaam Hussein, he goes back a long way in his dealings and thuggery with western intelligence.  The western capitalist class are not afraid of Gaddafi, they were comfortably welcoming him back in to the fold and were pleased with his recent overtures to open up Libya’s oil wealth to western interests. The CIA and M16 as representatives of the US and British bourgeois have a lot of blood on their hands and any thinking worker must surely wonder why it is never a British or US politician or military figure that is taken to world court in The Hague as a “war criminal”.  The only official “war criminals” are lesser stooges of these masters of mayhem; what we call “small potatoes”.  Henry Kissinger, one of the most prolific killers in the modern era is the only US culprit that has to avoid some foreign travel as he is wanted in some countries for his role in the overthrow of Chile’s democratically elected government in 1973 and the murder of its present, Salvadore Allende.

It is almost impossible when one has no one on the ground and limited resources to gauge exactly what is going on in Libya.  The leadership of the National Transitional Council is clearly dominated by US, British, and French interests.  We have pointed out in earlier blogs the composition of the leadership, privatizers and flunkies of western capital. So as we have stated before, we believe workers should oppose NATO’s invasion of Libya.  The forces of French, US and British capitalism are not in Libya in the interests of the Libyan or international working class.

But despite the composition of the leadership of the NTC, there must be in the ranks of the thousands of people who are trying to caste off a ruthless dictatorial regime workers and middle class elements struggling for genuine democratic rights and reforms.  People have died in the struggle for an end to the torture and repression, the lack of democratic rights.  I have been informed this weekend that Unions and political formations are springing up in Libya.  Under Gaddafi you could be put to death for trying to form a Union.

It is inevitable that among what are called “the rebels” are genuine working class fighters and youth who have expectations that either NATO or the stooges of western capitalism can or will fulfill. It is these forces workers must support.  So in many ways, if and when the Gaddafi regime is finally crushed, the real struggle begins; the struggle against imperialism, its representatives, the Libyan bourgeois, many who have lived in exile and will return,  and Islamic fundamentalism.

For more reading on this subject check the “Libya” and “Middle East” labels.

The CIA, M16 and Gaddafi: Terrorism's triumvirate

No worries Muammar, we've got your back

It comes as no surprise that the CIA and Britain's M16  intelligence agencies had dirty dealings with the Gaddafi regime.  They worked together kidnapping  people and M16 gave Gaddafi thugs information on Libyan dissidents living in Britain.

This cooperation between the CIA and the Gaddafi regime is "a very dark chapter in American intelligence history, and it remains a stain on the record of the American intelligence services that they cooperated with these very abusive intelligence services", Peter Bouckaert, the emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, is quoted as saying in the British Guardian newspaper.

With all due respect to Mr. Bouckart this is far from the first time the CIA has cooperated with nasty regimes.  It is actually the other way round, the nasty regimes are cooperating with the CIA, the mother of nasty regimes.  The CIA were wreaking havoc in Vietnam before the first troops arrived, creating mayhem and busy laying the groundwork for a more formal and overt intervention that ended up costing some 3 million Vietnamese their lives as well as 67, 000 young Americans.  If we include the effects on families and loved ones in the US, the figures go much higher.  And Vietnamese children are still being born today with deformities and diseases due to the chemicals the US government sprayed over them, their food, and US troops.

US intelligence also gave their friend Saddam Hussein vital information on dissidents in Iraq.  Liberals, socialists, communists, labor activists, Hussein wiped a lot of them out with the help of US intelligence.  Then there's Iran in 1953, Chile, Argentina, panama, you name it.

"It can't come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats. That is exactly what we are expected to do." says Jennifer Youngblood, a CIA spokeswoman. This is more doublespeak.  The CIA operates not to protect us from terrorism, but to defend US corporations and their plunder of the resources of the particular country they are operating in.  This institution is a master of terrorism.  US foreign policy and the CIA's execution of it is the cause of terrorism and anti-American hostility.  The more we as Americans openly condemn and separate ourselves from these murderous thugs, the safer we'll be.  We hate what corporations do to us and our economy, what do you think they do in a country where workers have almost no rights?  Accusations of being unpatriotic and un-American will fly but these are a smoke screen.

Dictators, one party states, and absolute monarchies make good allies for the CIA in suppressing democratic rights, trade Unions and free speech, many of the ideals Americans claim to honor. And one only has to consider its role in Northern Ireland to understand the ruthless nature of Britain's M16, the CIA's junior partner. Britain trained and armed Libyan security services and, according to the Guardian, new evidence reveals that they even helped Gaddafi with his speeches.

In response to these findings, British  foreign Secretary, William Hague, said that, "On the subject of these apparent disclosures, first of all they relate to a period under the previous government so I have no knowledge of those, of what was happening behind the scenes at that time." We're supposed to believe that a seasoned British bourgeois politician has no clue what goes on in the halls of power.

The first question Americans should have asked ourselves after 911 was: "What on earth is our government doing to generate such hostility?"

Clinton, Sarkozy, Obama, eager to plunder Libya's resources

World leaders want to "map" Libya's future. And we see who they are, Hilary Clinton and Nikolas Sarkozy among others.  The struggle will now begin as the map they have in mind is privatization of the oil industry and the selling off of as much of the state assets as possible. Gaddafi was a ruthless dictator but much of the state wealth that wasn't syphoned off provided certain benefits that will no longer exist as western oil companies get their dirty hands on it. And when it comes to murder and mayhem, Gaddafi comes way behind, Rumsfeld, Bush, Blair, Obama, Clinton, Cheney and others. Goldman Sachs stole one billion dollars of the Libyan people's money.


Let's remind ourselves which elements within the National Transitional Council US capitalism is promoting and who it is handing over the Libyan people's money to:

One is Mahmoud Jibril who is chairman of the NTC. He served in the Gaddafi government before defecting and was head of the  NEDB (national economic development board) His role included projects to “pave the way” for private sector development, and to create a "strategic partnership between private companies and the government." A US State Department cable released by Wikileaks said of Jibril that "With a PhD in strategic planning from the University of Pittsburgh, Jibril is a serious interlocutor who “gets” the U.S. perspective." (My added emphasis)  

Vice Chairman is Dr Ali Al Issawi who is described on the NTC website as a "Holder of a Doctorate in privatisation. In 2005 he was appointed as Director General of the Ownership Expansion Program, (a government privatisation fund)."  He was Libyan Ambassador to India under Gaddafi when the revolution broke out and switched sides.  The doctorate of privatization will please Goldman Sachs and the whole Wall Street crowd.

Then there is Mahmoud Shammam. Shammam is the owner of Libya Al-Ahrar TV, a Libyan TV station headquartered in Doha. It is funded by Libyan capitalists in exile.  Shamman is also the editor of the Arabic language edition of Foreign Policy magazine.  Foreign policy is  major theoretical journal of the US bourgeois and is owned by the Washington Post. 

The struggle for change in Libyan society and against imperialism and religious extremism is about to begin.

Libyan Dreams and NATO’s New Model ‘Revolution’

Video uploaded by this site, not connected to the article

Libyan Dreams and

NATO’s New Model ‘Revolution’
by Heiko khoo

The Libyan ‘revolution’ will forever be remembered by the image of an anti-imperialist statue -of a fist crushing a US fighter jet -being smashed by ‘rebels’. These images of victory were no doubt pre-planned by NATO’s Information Warfare experts. A few hundred rebels dancing with machine guns in Tripoli’s Green Square, were presented in the Western media as if the ‘masses’ of the capital city had come out onto the streets crying, ‘free at last…free at last!’

The same scene was manufactured on the day that US forces took Baghdad in 2003. It later transpired that the ‘rebels’, who tore down Saddam Hussein’s statue with the help of a US tank, were specially shipped in for the media occasion. Excited Western journalists declared the moment to be ‘historic’; they probably felt a sense of collective pride in the US mission to remake the world in its image.

The Tunisian and Egyptian mass movements this spring were revolutions, in the sense that the urban masses, took destiny into their own hands. They toppled the long standing Western backed dictators, Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, through mass street demonstrations.

During the Egyptian revolution, even when hundreds of protestors were killed and thousands injured, Barack Obama and other Western leaders refused to call for Mubarak to stand-down, until the last minute; and instead they called for ‘restraint on all sides’. The same diplomatic call for ‘restraint’ was made when the Saudi military invaded Bahrain to crush the Arab Spring there.

When an uprising in Libya’s Eastern city of Benghazi swept away Gaddafi’s local apparatus of power, the gleeful cheers in Western capitals indicated that something is rotten in the state of this particular ‘revolution’. The fact that the rebel flag was that of the old monarchy was indicative of the reactionary nature of this ‘rebellion’. Western secret services and military forces immediately opened lines of communication with the ‘rebel base’. Western arms and money flowed to the Libyan rebels despite austerity at home. The rebels were declared to be the legitimate government and provided with all their needs.

Although Gaddafi had made some deals with the West e.g. providing oil and gas contracts, the Libyan economy remained overwhelmingly in public ownership and private capitalism played an insignificant role in economic life. The administrative and power structure was not that of a capitalist state, even though Gaddafi and his entourage engaged in kleptocratic activities.

No regime in history has survived for long periods simply on the basis of tyranny. Although Gaddafi maintained his rule by brutal repression he also used the nation’s vast oil and gas revenue to secure the acquiescence of the majority, and the support of a significant minority by offering social, health and welfare rights, funded by the state. This material base also helps to explain why Gaddafi’s regime was able to hold out during NATO’s five-month bombing campaign.

At the start of the war we were told to expect a rapid victory for Western backed forces. We were informed that Gaddafi has no supporters and only maintained power by terror and fear. He was said to rely on mercenaries from Mali or Chad, and later it was falsely claimed that he ordered large quantities of Viagra to encourage his military forces to rape, truly a classical war fable!

Some analysts are raising the call for Western troops to ‘keep the peace’ in the era of transition to a parliamentary democracy. It is certain that an army of Western NGOs who specialize in creating the political machinery to manipulate and control ‘democratic’organisations, will soon open shop in Tripoli, as they already have in Tunis and Cairo.

With proven reserves of 42 billion barrels of oil and 1.3 trillion cubic meters of gas, a cynic might see the ‘democratic transition’ as a process that will be specially designed to facilitate Western access to these resources. French, Italian and British firms have already covertly made deals with the ‘rebels’ and they now expect the real contracts to be signed. In their rush to grab whatever they can from the smashed up ruins of a burning country, Western rulers bear an uncanny resemblance to hooded looters of London.

Indeed the reason for the success of the ‘rebel’ advance on Tripoliwas NATO bombing from the air, and British mercenaries commanding on the ground. Of course France, Italy, the US and Qatar, will all claim they played a key role and deserve appropriate rewards.

The curse of oil rich states has so often been the temptation of the rulers to enrich themselves and their foreign partners, and to foster a parasitic elite. As their wealth springs forth from the earth, there is little incentive to promote development aimed at genuine progress for the masses. However with such an abundance of natural resources, Western rulers hope they can create a relatively stable regime, whose resources can subsidize Western capitalism.

Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez is one of the few cases of an oil rich state using its natural wealth to serve the people. Chavez correctly points to the reactionary hand of NATO in the so-called ‘Libyan Revolution’ but the internal corruption and dictatorial methods of Gaddafi’s state, provided moral ammunition to the NATO backed rebellion.

Western Imperialism has once again found its feet after being disoriented by the street revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Based on the lessons of Libya, NATO and US military analysts will now be playing simulated war games modeled on ‘revolutions’ in Syria, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela. Even though Europe and the USA are experiencing severe economic and social crisis, no-one should underestimate their determination to maintain their position and to exploit each and every opportunity to extend their global reach.

The Western frenzy to grab a piece of Libya’s natural wealth, recalls the phrase ‘buy when there is blood on the streets’ attributed to the first Baron Rothschild. Libyan dreams of democracy, and the rule of law, sovereignty and freedom, are mere tools in NATO’s new model
revolution.

US/Nato supported NTC winning in Libya (video)

If the US/NATO supported NTC successfully defeats the pro Gadaffi forces which seems increasingly likely, the real struggle begins as the NTC is composed of some unsavory characters, former Gadaffi cohorts and Libyan exile businessmen that want, along with the NATO/US alliance. to privatize Libya's oil industry as well as US stooges like Mahmoud Shammam. Goldman Sachs stole one billion of the Libyan people's money, these are the characters the Libyan people are up against as we all are.
More on Libya here and  here

NATO/US intervention in Libya not in the interests of Libyan working class

The NATO/US alliance is involved in Libya for one reason and one reason only, to maintain the plunder of the region's resources and, as the speaker says, to maintain a foothold in the Middle East in the face of an unprecedented uprising of the Arab masses.  The US had its flunkies. the Saudi thugs invade Bahrain to crush a movement for reform and a Republic there.  US capitalism has lost some of its most trusted dictators in the region and is on the defensive. Once Gadhafi has gone then the struggle for power begins and the battle lines will become a little clearer. But history teaches us, from Northern Ireland to Iraq, that imperialist forces are not progressive forces. He who pays the piper.......

No support for NATO's war in Libya

Mahmoud Jibril with Clinton

by Richard Mellor

The US government has now officially recognized the National Transitional Council, the umbrella group containing the Libyan opposition forces as the " Legitimate governing authority" in Libya, the Wall Street Journal announces this weekend. So after much trepidation, US capitalism has found forces that at the very least, it deems worth supporting, forces that will, if in power, defend its interests in the region.  This recognition of the NTC as the real government of Libya will allow some of the $30 billion in frozen Libyan funds sitting in US banks to flow to the opposition, either directly or through loans using the funds as collateral.

I don't know enough about the composition of the opposition to go in to details but it is clear it is very diverse as any rising movement is.  There will be competing factions and interests within it that want to be rid of Gaddafi but there will be differences on what will replace his regime and the relationship to Wall Street and US/EU capitalism.  So which elements workers support within the NTC; which groupings we should help strengthen is important.  We know the US will not be supporting the revolutionary youth, or the most combative layers of the working class in Libya.

So let's look at who some of the dominant characters are in the NTC and who the US is promoting.

One is Mahmoud Jibril who is chairman of the NTC. He served in the Gaddafi government before defecting and was head of the  NEDB (national economic development board) His role included projects to “pave the way” for private sector development, and to create a "strategic partnership between private companies and the government." A US State Department cable released by Wikileaks said of Jibril that "With a PhD in strategic planning from the University of Pittsburgh, Jibril is a serious interlocutor who “gets” the U.S. perspective." (My added emphasis)

Vice Chairman is Dr Ali Al Issawi who is described on the NTC website as a "Holder of a Doctorate in privatisation. In 2005 he was appointed as Director General of the Ownership Expansion Program, (a government privatisation fund)."  He was Libyan Ambassador to India under Gaddafi when the revolution broke out and switched sides.  The doctorate of privatization will please Goldman Sachs and the whole Wall Street crowd.

Mahmoud Shammam

Then there is Mahmoud Shammam. Shammam is the owner of Libya Al-Ahrar TV, a Libyan TV station headquartered in Doha. It is funded by Libyan capitalists in exile.  Shamman is also the editor of the Arabic language edition of Foreign Policy magazine.  Foreign policy is  major theoretical journal of the US bourgeois and is owned by the Washington Post.

Also within the NTC are former Gaddafi military men and other former government officials.

What the US is trying to accomplish is install a regime that will allow the imperialist plunder of the region to continue unabated.  We only have to consider Bahrain, Yemen, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and so on to remind ourselves that US capitalism cares not about the ruthless nature of regimes or their religious affiliation as long as its interests are maintained.  Libya has the largest oil reserves on the African continent.

US capitalism also demands a regime that, like their former stooge Hosni Mubarak, will be pro-Israel.  There is no way that the forces it is promoting in the NTC have not pledged to maintain a neutral position on the Zionist regime at least and it's inconceivable the the exiled Libyan capitalist class has not built considerable ties with their Israeli colleagues as well as Zionist Jewish and Christian capitalists abroad.

US capitalism would not release funds to a group that it thought for one minute would fight for Palestinian rights, Arab workers' rights or for the unity of Arab and Israeli workers.  It would not support a regime that could or would fulfill the aspirations of the Arab masses throughout the region.  How could it?  So the US has sent in its stooges, decided that there is a force in the opposition movement that will protect its interests and is now prepared to fund it.

If this US/EU intervention in support of the Libyan bourgeois is successful the new regime will then have to deal with the Libyan workers and youth whose aspirations are of a different nature.  It is in the interests of all workers to oppose this invasion by NATO.

What's the Alternative?
It is very difficult to comment in any great detail when one is not on the ground or have forces on the ground in situations like these so I can only comment in general way.  From the limited information I have received about the situation, there has arisen in the course of the civil war neighborhood committees of self defense and other embryonic formations based on the Libyan working class, the youth and their communities.  I am sure that there have been committees of workers and youth arise also in various forms and locations perhaps around workplaces or former workplaces; I do not know for sure.  In other words, there has been some bottom up organizations that have arisen in the course of the struggle. This will not have been reported much if at all in the capitalist mass media.

The Gadaffi regime also had revolutionary committees that as far as I can see were organs of state repression and feared by the mass of the people.  Whether these can be reformed or taken over I have no idea.

The NTC talks about democratic reform but emphasizes the "rule of law"."rule of law" is being exercised as the bankers and investors exercise their rights under this "rule of law" and evict millions from their homes. After all, as a renter, the landlord owns your home and in most cases as a homeowner the moneylender does. They are simply exercising their rights a rightful owners.

So generally my alternative to supporting the pro US/EU Libyan bourgeois alliance, is that workers must support the strengthening of already existing community, workplace and youth communities that have arisen and expanding these formations.  The demand must be for a national constituent assembly to which these committees which would obviously be dominated by workers and youth , would send elected delegates for the purpose of drawing up a new constitution.  This would be a constitution that would represent different class interests than one drawn up by editors of US theoretical journals and businessmen, most who played no role in the heroism and sacrifice that the Libyan workers and youth have shown.

Obviously this is a broad general approach as not being there or part of a group that is active there, my knowledge of the facts on the ground is limited.  But one thing is clear: supporting the NATO invasion will result in disaster.

More blog posts on Libya:
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2011/06/us-britain-and-france-not-nato-fighting.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2011/06/united-states-of-goldman-sachs-libyan.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2011/06/privatizing-libya.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2011/05/icc-goes-after-gaddafi-what-about-bush.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2011/03/it-is-not-in-us-workers-interests-to.html
http://weknowwhatsup.blogspot.com/2011/03/gadhafi-libya-un-need-independent.html

US, Britain and France, not NATO fighting a war in Libya,

The argument for going in to Libya was to protect civilians through a no-fly zone.  Obviously the weapons of mass destruction argument, the one that Powell used so eloquently has entered the history books.  These excuses are like bee stings, they can only be used once then they die.

But it cannot be denied at all at this point that Britain, France and the US are involved in a civil war and, as the video explains, a side in a civil war are combatants not civilians.  A marvelous things geography.  The North Atlantic appears all over the globe, from the Indian Ocean, to the Bay of Bengal, the Persian Gulf, Serbia who knows where next. This will increase the tendency to split NATO.

President Obama turned out to be a real man of his word.  Don't forget folks, get those bumper stickers off those cars, the US war in Libya will cause more problems

Privatizing Libya.

It is an important point that this guy makes in this interview, that what is at stake here is state property. The love affair that the west has with Gorbachev was due to him handing over state assets to the private sector, many of them former KGB thugs.  But fellow capitalists are very forgiving.  What the US did in Iraq was privatize by the bomb and that is what the UN is doing in Libya through NATO.  NATO, stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which is now dominated by US capitalism as it is the most powerful economy up to now and the world's most prolific arms dealer. NATO also stretches from Pakistan and the Indian Ocean to the western Mediterranean; some ocean that North Atlantic.

A huge percentage of the Libyan population are against this invasion and the consequences of this action will be a very volatile future in that country.

Tunisians attack refugee camp at border with Libya

ICC goes after Gaddafi. What about Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld and co?

Blair and Gaddafi:making money and killing people

The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court says he will recommend that the ICC judges issue arrest warrants for Gaddafi and his son for "Crimes against humanity".

According to reports I read, this is happening due to pressure from British, French and US capitalism.  These three imperialist powers want the UN to conduct an investigation in to Gaddafi's crimes which are considered to include murder, unlawful detention, the use of cluster bombs and rape. Amnesty International is also supporting the investigation.

The UN passed a resolution in February, Resolution 1970, that gave NATO the authority to use force to protect civilians. The resolution also forbade Gaddafi and his family from leaving the country, froze their assets and instituted an arms embargo.  The weapons that the British have been selling him will have to find another home.

The ICC is a capitalist tribunal.  A tribunal where the former members of this exclusive club that have overstepped their bounds or have become an embarrassment are given the appropriate punishment.  The US supporting this trial would be a bit of hypocrisy as it pretty much ignores this court as it too has been found guilty of some serious infractions on occasion such as the mining of Managua's harbor.

Had Bin Laden been put on trial, something that would have been good for all of us to see and witness, US capitalism would certainly not have entrusted him to the World Court.  The US military industrial complex does not even allow its own citizens to try those it considers criminals and against US national interests for fear that the evidence obtained by torture might not hold up in a trial by civilian jury.  Trusted military officers from the ruling class are best suited to make these decisions in private.

Gaddafi is a nasty character of that there is no doubt.  But many of the allies and friends of US, British and French imperialism are nasty characters.  We have to see how our own class sees this; how the workers of the world who are our potential allies in the struggle to maintain our own standard of living and freedoms judge such actions.

Before British or US workers support Gaddafi being tried by any agency, we would have to ask what about the bigger fish?  Gaddafi, as far as I am concerned is a murderer and thug.  But before him must come Bush, Obama, Rumsfeld, Powell, Blair, Wolfowitz, the master killer Kissinger and a few others who make Gaddafi look like small potatoes. If we don't raise this, we will not have any credibility in the eyes of millions of workers throughout the world.  As I have written many times before; what about the three million Vietnamese?  The US military dropped dioxin on their food and their communities. On civilians!   Vietnamese children are  being born deformed today because of this, and Kissinger was in the thick of it, bears a huge responsibility for it.  600,000 civilians were killed by the US carpet bombing in the illegal war on Cambodia. Kissinger said of the Iraq Iran war that the US and other powers instigated that it would be great of they could "both lose".

What about the Israeli siege of Gaza and the concentration camp itself?  This is a crime against humanity yet the US president Barack Obama is wishing the Zionist regime a "happy birthday" today and gives it arms, the most sophisticated weaponry and money that allows it to perpetuate this crime against humanity.

These memories are not foremost in our minds because it didn't or isn't happening to our families, our children; 911 did and look at the response. Countless thousands, more than a million civilians have died due to the US invasion of Iraq that was based on complete lies.  Where are the liars?  They are wealthy, safe and living a prosperous secure life in these United States.

If we do not condemn these killers and openly recognize them as such then our condemnations of the Gaddafi's and Bin Laden's of this world will have no credibility, will win no support and we will be seen as hypocrites, that our "killers" are not killers at all but freedom fighters, that the lives of Americans, British, French people are worth more than others.

All of these murderers should be put on trial including Gaddafi and other less influential ones.  But they should be tried by workers, by workers' tribunals. The diplomacy of the bourgeois is a farce.  The trials, the justice the morality of the bourgeois is a farce.

This is what we must raise as we struggle to build a genuine democratic socialist world, a global federation of socialist states, because it is only by ending the rotten system of production we call capitalism can we end permanently the wars, poverty and environmental degradation that is a product of this system and the rise of the Kissingers, Bin Ladens and Gaddafis of this world that accompany it.

NATO assassinates Gaddafi's youngest son and three grandchildren

Left: Clinton with Gaddafi son Mutassim who became head of national security.  It's OK when it suits them.

As Democrats are joining Republicans in curbing Union rights and attacking workers in Massachusetts to save $100 million dollars, three US missiles landed in the home of Gaddafi's youngest son killing him and three of Gaddafi's grandchildren.  These cost a few bucks and the vast majority of the missiles fired in Libya are US weapons.  Couple that with the $30 billion Obama spent sending 30,000 more young workers to Afghanistan at  a million apiece and we might just be able to set the deficits on the right track. And lets not forget that the invasion in Afghanistan was to go after Bin Laden and al Qaeda and the CIA says there's only about 100 of them in Afghanistan.  100,000 US troops are chasing 100 men and there's a drone war in Pakistan.

The US has now  assassinated two of Gaddafi's kids and three of his grandchildren, the second batch under the NATO umbrella.  The UN was supposed to set up a no fly zone to protect civilians. But Saif al Arab, the youngest son, was a civilian as was his grandchildren. Saif was studying in Germany and not considered to be too much of a terrorist threat to do that unharmed.  The US kidnaps people in other countries all over the world so if Saif had been a threat to US interests, the CIA would have nabbed him, or murdered him. I am no fan of Gaddafi or his family but this will increase support for Gaddafi throughout the Arab world to a certain extent.

The Libyan government spokesperson had this to say:

"How is this helping in the protection of civilians? Mr Saif al-Arab was a civilian, a student... He was playing and talking to his father and mother and his nieces and nephews and other visitors when he was attacked and killed for no crime he committed."

And a statement that is as close to the truth as any, he added, "Nato does not care to test our promises. The West does not care to test our statements. They only care to rob us of our freedom, our wealth, which is oil, and our right to decide out future as Libyans."



The view that western capitalism is only interested in plundering the wealth of the region is accurate and held by many people in the Arab world. The US is criticizing Syria and waging war on Libya, the largest oil producer in Africa but it is not bombing Bahrain or Yemen where its stooges are murdering protestors. The US has 30,000 troops in Bahrain and sent in its Saudi stooges to defend the absolute monarchy there.

And Egypt will be opening Gaza's eastern border so food and other supplies can enter which is angering the Zionist regime. The Egyptian military has told Israel that what Egypt does on its borders is not Israel's concern. Things are not going to well for the Pentagon and its flunkies in the region.

When struggle breaks out in to the open, truths are harder to hide. The US and its NATO allies were unsure who these Libyan rebels were and what they might be representing and have been working on developing relations with them and influencing that movement, especially undermining the revolutionary elements, workers and youth.

The assassination of Saif shows how little NATO cares about civilian life and its invasion of Libya is not about that.

Confiscating Libya's Sovereign Wealth Funds

Financial Heist of the Century: Confiscating Libya's Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF)

by Manlio Dinucci

Reprinted from Global Research, April 24, 2011

Il Manifesto (translated from Italian) - 2011-04-22

The objective of the war against Libya is not just its oil reserves (now estimated at 60 billion barrels), which are the greatest in Africa and whose extraction costs are among the lowest in the world, nor the natural gas reserves of which are estimated at about 1,500 billion cubic meters. In the crosshairs of "willing" of the operation “Unified Protector” there are sovereign wealth funds, capital that the Libyan state has invested abroad.

The Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) manages sovereign wealth funds estimated at about $70 billion U.S., rising to more than $150 billion if you include foreign investments of the Central Bank and other bodies. But it might be more. Even if they are lower than those of Saudi Arabia or Kuwait, Libyan sovereign wealth funds have been characterized by their rapid growth. When LIA was established in 2006, it had $40 billion at its disposal. In just five years, LIA has invested over one hundred companies in North Africa, Asia, Europe, the U.S. and South America: holding, banking, real estate, industries, oil companies and others.

In Italy, the main Libyan investments are those in UniCredit Bank (of which LIA and the Libyan Central Bank hold 7.5 percent), Finmeccanica (2 percent) and ENI (1 percent), these and other investments (including 7.5 percent of the Juventus Football Club) have a significance not as much economically (they amount to some $5.4 billion) as politically.

Libya, after Washington removed it from the blacklist of “rogue states,” has sought to carve out a space at the international level focusing on "diplomacy of sovereign wealth funds." Once the U.S. and the EU lifted the embargo in 2004 and the big oil companies returned to the country, Tripoli was able to maintain a trade surplus of about $30 billion per year which was used largely to make foreign investments. The management of sovereign funds has however created a new mechanism of power and corruption in the hands of ministers and senior officials, which probably in part escaped the control of the Gadhafi himself: This is confirmed by the fact that, in 2009, he proposed that the 30 billion in oil revenues go "directly to the Libyan people." This aggravated the fractures within the Libyan government.

U.S. and European ruling circles focused on these funds, so that before carrying out a military attack on Libya to get their hands on its energy wealth, they took over the Libyan sovereign wealth funds. Facilitating this operation is the representative of the Libyan Investment Authority, Mohamed Layas himself: as revealed in a cable published by WikiLeaks. On January 20 Layas informed the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli that LIA had deposited $32 billion in U.S. banks. Five weeks later, on February 28, the U.S. Treasury “froze” these accounts. According to official statements, this is "the largest sum ever blocked in the United States," which Washington held "in trust for the future of Libya." It will in fact serve as an injection of capital into the U.S. economy, which is more and more in debt. A few days later, the EU "froze" around 45 billion Euros of Libyan funds.

The assault on the Libyan sovereign wealth funds will have a particularly strong impact in Africa. There, the Libyan Arab African Investment Company had invested in over 25 countries, 22 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, and was planning to increase the investments over the next five years, especially in mining, manufacturing, tourism and telecommunications. The Libyan investments have been crucial in the implementation of the first telecommunications satellite Rascom (Regional African Satellite Communications Organization), which entered into orbit in August 2010, allowing African countries to begin to become independent from the U.S. and European satellite networks, with an annual savings of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Even more important were the Libyan investment in the implementation of three financial institutions launched by the African Union: the African Investment Bank, based in Tripoli, the African Monetary Fund, based in Yaoundé (Cameroon), the African Central Bank, with Based in Abuja (Nigeria). The development of these bodies would enable African countries to escape the control of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, tools of neo-colonial domination, and would mark the end of the CFA franc, the currency that 14 former French colonies are forced to use. Freezing Libyan funds deals a strong blow to the entire project. The weapons used by "the willing" are not only those in the military action called “Unified Protector.”

Il Manifesto, April 22, 2011

Translated from Italian by John Catalinotto

US launches first unmanned drone strikes in Libya

Despite the record of blowing up guests at wedding and countless other deaths of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, further de-stabilizing those countries, the US launched its first unmanned drone strikes in Libya yesterday.  "The drones can hit military targets more easily in urban areas, minimizing the risk of civilian casualties." says the BBC. The Predators, as they are called, have the  "ability to get down lower and therefore, to be able to get better visibility, particularly on targets that have started to dig themselves into defensive positions," Says Gen James Cartwright, the vice-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The US military, that is the public sector side of it and not the growing private army of mercenaries that go under the name of  various security companies, is under strain and the other two wars the US is engaged in are not popular domestically. Americans are not too supportive of wars where US casualties are involved in any significant numbers.  The Drones are a way of avoiding this.  The resolution at the UN seems to be more than a no fly zone it appears.

I walked downtown last night to get something to eat and saw a former school board member who was doing the same.  He was going to a fundraiser for one of the public schools in the area.  While the victims of US foreign policy runs in to the millions, they include millions at home also who suffer through the destruction of education, lack of health care, lost jobs, homes, and even society's infrastructure as money is used for more important ventures abroad that are needed to defend the interest of the multinationals.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Yugoslavia, now Libya from Obama, the anti-war candidate.  Another fine mess you've gotten us in to Ollie.

Battle for Misrata Libya (video)

I am not supporter of Gadaffi but I am confused a bit as to the situation on the ground.  The rebels that the  reporter speaks to in this video are both from the middle or upper middle class, a businessman and a scientist. He described the city as cut in two with rebels fighting for freedom on one side and "Gadaffi" forces on the other.  But Gadaffi forces must consist of of more than just Touregs and mercenaries, or is it that Gadaffi and mercenaries control the other part of the city and the population there all support the rebels but are basically being occupied and in fear?

Is the Gadaffi presence and ability to remain a force to be reckoned with simply an issue of more weaponry against a poorly armed resistance?  Or is it that there is genuine support for Gadaffi against another invasion of this country by  western imperialist powers.  It is not such a strange thing that Libyans might support a murderous nut like Gadaffi, Americans support them all the time, Bush, for example.  And given the two choices, relative autonomy under Gadaffi as opposed to a deeper control of the economy and theft of the county's resources by US imperialism and the oil companies Gadaffi would be the lesser of two evils, like Democrats as opposed to Republicans.

Those of us writing on this blog oppose the NATO/US invasion of Libya and have put an alternative to it.  We do not believe the imperialist countries are there to help workers.  In fact, if the opposition is unable to protect the interests of US imperialism and the energy corporations in the area then it will be with Gadaffi that a deal will be made. But it is a complex situation.

Obama administration and Saudi's made deal on Bahrain and UN resolution on Libya

You'll make more money with me

you'll make more money with me

We have pointed out numerous times on this blog that there is no way the Saudi thugs invaded Bahrain to suppress the uprising there without the go ahead from US imperialism and the Obama administration.  These are some nasty bastards.  The Asia Times reports now that the Obama administration and the "House of Saud" struck a deal where the Saudi's would go in to Bahrain and the US would "take out" Gaddafi. 

"Two diplomatic sources at the United Nations independently confirmed that Washington, via Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, gave the go-ahead for Saudi Arabia to invade Bahrain and crush the pro-democracy movement in their neighbor in exchange for a "yes" vote by the Arab League for a no-fly zone over Libya - the main rationale that led to United Nations Security Council resolution 1973" the Times reports.

Furthermore, the view that the Arab League supported the western invasion is a myth, the Asia Times says.  There were even protesters in Libya carrying banners thanking the western forces and the Arab league for supporting the UN resolution.  But according to the Times report only nine of the 22 members of the Arab League voted for the no fly zone calling the affair a "House of Saud led operation".  

There were only 11 of the 22 members of the League present at the voting. Six of them were Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members.  These are the outright stooges of US capitalism and the corporations and the Saudi's are the head honchos of that group.  Syria and Algeria voted against the no fly zone and all the Saudi's had to do was "seduce" three votes, the Times adds.  A combination of the heavily US armed Saudis and US imperialism in the region is a formidable force.

So only nine of the 22 members of the Arab League voted to wage a war on Libya. The Egyptians had every reason to vote for it, the Times adds because the Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa is bootlicking the US, that arms and trains the Egyptian military in the hopes of receiving some favors in his bid to become the next Egyptian President.

Non of these forces are acting in the interests of Arab or US workers.  The only real way forward is  through the building of a united international working class movement.  Such a  movement can shut down Gadaffi and remove all the stooges of western imperialism in the region.  Being part of such a movement is what will drive back the capitalist offensive here in the US also and open the doors to the creation of a world of democratic socialist states that can determine on a collective basis how the resources of the earth and our labor are utilized based on human need not profit. This small example of the lies from the likes of Obama and Clinton about the Saudi intervention in Bahrain being a decision of the Saudi's alone that the US cautioned against, stresses the need for an independent working class alternative to the strategy of global capitalism..

And now Obama, the Nobel peace laureate is looking to increase the presence of the notorious CIA thugs in the Libyan campaign.  The very organization that set the first "boots on the ground" in Vietnam; the same organization that had one of its operatives present at the murder of Che Guevara and countless other revolutionaries. The same organization that hounded harassed and eventually assassinated Malcolm X.

They did a great humanitarian job in Vietnam didn't they?

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD02Ak01.html

As millions in the world starve and workers in the US lose their shelter, their jobs and a future, Obama bombs another third world country

I was just reading about a school in North Carolina that is being closed due to a lack of funds.   There is also a piece in today's Wall Street Journal about Detroit.  Detroit is a famous US city with great history.  Today it is a shell of what it once was, a poverty stricken, urban dump.  It's population has declined significantly as both blacks and whites have fled. 

As Obama takes the US in to a series of thirds, a third predatory war in to another third world country I thought of the 199 Tomahawk missiles the US had launched on Libya as of last evening.  If my memory serves me correctly, these weapons cost about $1 million apiece. So in the past few days, the US has thrown $109 million over Libya.  Of course, this is nothing compared to the $2 billion a year the US has been paying the Egyptian dictator Mubarak up until his removal through a popular uprising.  And there's the cost of arming and supplying the Yemeni dictator, the Israeli regime that doesn't allow all of the ethnic groups within its borders citizenship as, say, Muslim Turkey does. The equally worthless thugs that run Saudi Arabia are also recipients of billions of dollars in US weaponry.  And they need it in these times especially as this regime is one of the most repressive and brutal in the third world. Given the uprisings that have taken place in the Arab world over the past few months there is not much likelihood of the $28 billion arms deal for the Saudi's agreed last November of being halted.

The US arms arms industry, and the US is the largest supplier of arms to the world, welcomes with gusto the news that 199 missiles meet their end in the way they were meant to. It means more have to be made. Arms expenditure is inflationary when there are no conflicts after all, it is money spent on a commodity that workers just don't go out and purchase.  So society has a whole section of the working class producing a commodity that no one buys---peace is definitely not profitable for this section of the capitalist class.

As schools are closed, houses taken from their owners as well as their jobs, the 400 people in the US who have more wealth than155 million of the rest of us continue to do very well indeed. Warren Buffet has just bought the chemical company Lubrizol for $9 billion. I wrote something about this company before but can't find it.  Anyways, the Wall Street Journal reports that the "deal will be a tidy windfall for shareholders" as the shares are being bought for 18% higher than they have ever traded on the open market.  Company executives are likely to collect $148.5 million cashing out their stock options, a figure that will rise to $249 million if they leave the company after the sale says the Journal.

Lubrizol's top dog, CEO James Hambrick, will most likely receive $97.3 million and if Buffet decides not to keep him on he'll get another $33.5 million severance.

In times like these the words of Marx can have such profound meaning.  I do not believe in prophecy in the religious sense, or that Marx was incapable of mistakes. But a scientific study of any phenomenon can reveal great truths, can predict future events based on analyzing them as they exist in an embryonic form in the belly of an beast not yet expired.  In 1948 Marx wrote of the capitalist system of production that one of its dominant features is the:

"Constant revolutionising of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind."

Capitalism, borne out of the womb of the feudal system of production, Marx adds, has, "left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous “cash payment”.
What we are witnessing in Japan, in Africa, in Detroit and the rural and urban poverty of the US, is global capitalism at work; it is the normal state of affairs at this stage in the game.  By understanding how it got here, and how it works, we can rid ourselves of it.  The CEO's above are simply the product of it, they benefit from it in ways that millions don't and many will defend it to the death, but their demise is equally guaranteed if it continues..