Obama's "humanitarian" intervention*

Obama's "humanitarian" intervention*

April 21, 2011

On March 28, nine days after joint forces from the United Kingdom, France and the US bombed Libya, US Pres. Barack Obama detailed his "humanitarian" foreign policy. It was forthwith called the "Obama doctrine" and touted as "more just" compared to the "Bush doctrine" of unilateral militarist intervention.

Obama justified the use of force against Libya, an independent country, invoking the need to "defend civilians." The US cannot turn a deaf ear, he said, in the face of the imminent massacre of civilians. Neither should the US hesitate to use force against an enemy of humanity, he added, if this was what the situation warranted.

Within this framework, Obama ordered the bombing of Libya in March using US warships and planes. The objective was to provide support to armed groups fighting Moammar Gaddafi's government. Contrary to declarations of "defending civilians," the bombings conducted by the US and its NATO allies resulted in the widespread loss of civilian lives and infrastructure.

Obama strained to portray his aggression towards Libya as "humanitarian military intervention by a broad democratic coalition" to differentiate it from the previous Bush regime's "war against terror." But apart from the difference in name, there is no distinction between the two. Both the "humanitarian military intervention" and the "war against terror" were launched to defend US interests in the region--namely, the vast oil resources. They both resorted to the same "shock and awe" tactics of former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. They both inflicted civilian casualties and damaged civilian infrastructure in a desperate attempt to crush the defenses of regimes in power.

At first, Obama said that his "doctrine" did not include the overthrow of the existing regime in Libya. But after weeks of bombing raids that had no clear objectives, direction and results, the US let the cat out of the bag, saying that it was impossible to have "genuine reforms" in Libya as long as Gaddafi remains as president. The US and its allies had earlier violated Libya's sovereignty when they recognized anti-Gaddafi forces as "legitimate representatives" of the Libyan people despite their small number and the fact that they were based only in three to four cities.

Obama and his allies claim that they are against despotic leaders. France and the US cite their armed intervention in the ouster of Ivory Coast's despotic leader Laurent Ggabo even if it is well known that the man they installed, Alassan Outtara has also been involved in the large-scale slaughter of the people of Ivory Coast.

The real objective of US armed intervention is the removal from power of leaders who refuse to submit themselves to US control.

Contrary to Obama's declarations, the US government supports dictators for its own interests. The US has, for instance, approved the Saudi Arabian king's use of force to suppress the growing protest movement in the country. It did not lift a finger when the US' puppet government in Kuwait violently suppressed protest actions.

In Bahrain, the US supported Saudi Arabia's move to send troops to violently suppress protests against its monarchic allies (who allow the presence of the US' biggest naval base in the region). In the same vein, the US has expressed little interest in the just protests taking place in Yemen, Oman and other parts of North Africa.

* Url:http://www.philippinerevolution.net/cgi-bin/ab/text.pl?issue=20110421;lang=eng;article=12

CPI (M) Call against imperialist aggression in the middle east

Condemn the war of occupation on Libya by US-France-Britain!

Express solidarity to the people of countries like Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco and Jordan who are fighting for democracy and independence!

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release

March 31, 2011

Oppose the intervention of imperialists, particularly of US, Britain and France in the internal matters of Arab countries!

For the past few weeks, the people's upsurges in Arab world are shaking the imperialists, particularly US imperialists while at the same time greatly influencing the people of the world. Starting from Tunisia this spread to many Arab countries. Ben Ali, the President of Tunisia who has been suppressing the people of Tunisia since 23 years and Hosni Mubarak, who was ruling Egypt since 30 years had to step down and run away dreading these mass upsurges. The mass movements in countries like Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan etc are ongoing in the same vein. The Arab population is demanding with one voice that their rulers who have been carrying on dictatorial rules since decades colluding with the imperialists should step down. Lakhs of Arab people, particularly the youth are defying ban orders and are pouring into the streets. Streets and squares have become seas of masses for weeks together. Hundreds have laid down their lives and thousands were injured in the crackdown by the governments. But now with the war on Libya by NATO countries led by US, the entire Arab world phenomena took a crucial turn.

In the name of stopping Libya from using its armed forces to suppress the rebels opposing Qaddafi's rule, the Security Council made the 'No fly zone' resolution. The NATO countries led by US voted in favor of the resolution while Russia, China, Germany, Brazil and India abstained from voting. Nor did the ones with Veto power use it to stop this resolution. Obviously these countries had indirectly condoned the military action by not opposing the resolution. The Manmohan Singh government is deceiving the people of India and the world by shedding crocodile tears in the aftermath of the attacks without even caring to condemn the attacks formally. US which had never condemned the arbitrary killings of Palestinians carried out by the Zionist Israel umpteen number of times by confining dozens of UN resolutions to the dustbin and which had used its Veto power for Israel most indiscriminately and other western powers have immediately started bombing Libya as soon as the UN resolution was made. On the very first day of this attack which is said to be part of an international campaign, 18 bomber jets belonging to France had rained at least 40 bombs on several targets. The US and Britain navies have targeted the security systems in Libya and have launched missiles. 18 Air Force B-2 war planes of US launched more than a hundred missiles on Libya and bombed several targets. In this war launched in the name of preventing massacres that could be perpetuated by Qaddafi forces, hundreds of civilians have lost their lives. Nothing could be more callous than asking the world people to believe that the value of the lives (deaths) of the Libyans change according to which bombs took their lives! The very media houses which have been relaying badly twisted news items supporting this NATO war on Libya hiding the facts on the ground had to admit that in the first attacks many children had died. They have once again nakedly displayed their class nature in the reportage of this one-sided war.

The UN which calls itself a neutral organization has once again proved itself to be a puppet in the hands of imperialist countries like US, Britain, France etc. Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon is behaving like their poodle. In the inhuman attacks on Gaza launched by Israel in December 2008, nearly 1,417 Palestinians (most of them women and children) lost their lives and many thousands of them were injured; Israel illegally used white phosphorus on the Gaza people and many of them became cancer patients due to this; it used F-16 bombers and resorted to 'targeted killings' and virtually made 15 lakhs of Gaza people live in conditions of an open jail without even drinking water or electricity – but all these were not enough for the UN to make a no-fly-zone resolution. The neo-Nazi Rajpakse government launched a genocidal war on Tamils to decimate LTTE and rained tonnes of bombs on residential areas and civilian targets and had killed 20,000 Tamils just in the last two days of the war; the atrocities committed by the Sinhala chauvinist army on the captured women tigers not sparing even their dead bodies have horrified the world – but the UN did nothing. In the past quarter of a century the Indian government through its army had crushed to death more than 80,000 Kashmiris under its iron heel – but the UN could not be woken from its slumber. And now the UN wants the world people to believe that this war on Libya is indeed being fought to protect the Libyans from Qaddafi forces. Shame on it! There is not even one instance where it had acted for the interests of the oppressed nations or the people while we can quote dozens of instances where it had jumped to save the US, Israel or other western countries' interests even if there is so much of a scratch.

The war on Libya defies the very spirit of the no-fly-zone resolution of the UN too. In the name of implementing the UN resolution made to prevent Libyan planes from bombing the rebels US, Britain and France are indiscriminately bombing Libya. This is nothing but a war of occupation. The real motive is to oust Qaddafi and replace him with their favorable ruling clique and loot the oil resources there. Nobody is so innocent as to believe that Obama is bombing Libya to protect Libyan rebels while he had sent Saudi Arabian troops into Bahrain through the back door to suppress the people's rebellion there. This blood-thirsty 'Nobel Peace Prize Laureate' who is killing hundreds of innocents in drone attacks in Afghanistan and western Pakistan has no moral right to utter even the words 'lives of innocents'. The western countries which never bothered about the lives of people when the armed forces of the dictators of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan etc, whom they had been supporting all these years, fired upon people killing them in scores are now bent upon dethroning Qaddafi – mind you, not for any selfish interests but 'to save the Libyans'. Unadulterated imperialist hypocrisy!

Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen, Isa Al Khalipha of Bahrain and King Abdullah of Jordan are the dictatorial rulers who have been suppressing the people of their countries since decades colluding with the western imperialists, particularly the US imperialists. The façade of democracy and elections in these countries can be gauged from the fantastic statistics that Ben Ali always got 97 to 99 percent of the votes?! There was no semblance of any democratic or civil rights. The police and intelligence departments were developed to monstrous proportions and they had been controlling the lives of people suppressing even an iota of dissent. Unemployment is on the rampage. Yemen alone has 40% unemployment. On the other hand the rulers are amassing immense wealth due to the rich oil resources there. Countless billions of dollars are stashed away in foreign banks. The world was astonished to find that Ben Ali had actually carried one and half tonne of gold physically with him while running away. Tip of an 'oilberg'? The ill-effects of the worldwide financial crises on the Arab people since 2008 are as severe as in any other part of the world. More than half the population there is living on less than two dollars a day. These dictators are spending people's money indiscriminately in the 'War on terror' launched by US in the name of suppressing Al Qaeda. Yemen started a counter-terrorist training programme with 750 millions of dollars. Such misuse of people's exchequer while cutting subsidies on essential services etc earned the wrath of the people. All these years the imperialists have stood in support of all the exploitation, oppression and repressive measures of these dictatorships on the people of their countries and have been cashing in on the several contradictions between various religions, tribes, nationalities and between sects like Shias and Sunnis. Now seeing the scale of the upsurges the imperialists have decided to trade new horses getting rid of the old ones. They made Ben Ali and Mubarak step down and had the power transferred to the military generals. In other countries the western powers are still supporting the dictators. The 22 nation Arab League is behaving like a stooge of the western powers in this entire episode and is neither displaying any shades of Arab nationalism nor giving voice to the anti-imperialist aspirations of the Arab people.

Only those rulers who fulfill the democratic aspirations of the people and unite them and oppose imperialism unequivocally can defend and preserve the independence and sovereignty of their countries. Any ruler, whether it is Qaddafi or any other, who resorts to autocratic rule over his people can never fight imperialism uncompromisingly. He can never unite people against imperialism.

The imperialists have been resorting to many conspiracies and scheming right from the beginning to establish their authority in West Asia and North Africa which are home to immense oil resources. They have stood in support of the dictators who bent their knees and preserved imperialist interests. If they think that he is a hindrance to their interests they are not hesitating to 'use and throw'.

Call of CPI (Maoist) to the Arab people

The Arab people should continue their agitations against dictators and imperialists with great determination. They should firmly oppose the attempts of imperialists, particularly US, Britain and France to hijack their movements. They should stay alert towards the military councils which came to power in place of the dictators. We are cautioning the whole Arab population not to get deceived by believing that the military generals who had all along supported the dictators would now guarantee democracy. All the anti-imperialist, democratic, patriotic sections including workers, peasants and middle classes should unite. The only path before the Arab population is to fight uncompromisingly with imperialism under the leadership of the proletariat. The recent phenomena in the Arab world has once again proven clearly that guidance of Marxist ideology and leadership of the vanguard of the proletariat, i.e. of a revolutionary communist party are inevitable for the true liberation of the oppressed masses. The namesake independences won by these countries from colonialism has given way to neo-colonial exploitation resulting in unbearable living conditions and the Arab people are direct victims of this since the past 40-50 years. If the Arab people have to win real independence then they have to stand on their own legs, destroy neo-colonialism and fight imperialism firmly. They should fight a united war against US, Britain and France imperialists who are waging an unjust war on Libya. CPI (Maoist) is hopeful that the struggles against the comprador bureaucratic rulers supported by the imperialists would definitely grow into determined resistance struggles against imperialists, against their intervention and against the unjust wars imposed by them. Only then could the Arab world be liberated from the clutches of dictators and imperialists.

Call of the CPI (Maoist) to the people of India and the world

The upsurges of the Arab people for freedom and democracy are entirely just struggles. Though there are some reactionaries like religious chauvinists among the agitators, these movements are democratic and progressive. Express solidarity to these movements. Condemn with one voice the unjust war imposed on Libya by the Western imperialists and the intervention of the imperialists in the Arab world.

Stop immediately the unjust war on Libya by NATO forces led by US!

The imperialists have no right to intervene in the internal matters of Libya!

Expose the interventionist policies of imperialists, particularly of US, Britain and France in the Arab world!

Support the just people's movements in the Arab countries!


(Abhay)

Spokesperson,

Central Committee,

CPI (Maoist)

Rebellions continue across North Africa, Middle East

Rebellions continue across North Africa, Middle East*

By Gene Clancy

Published Mar 21, 2011 9:42 PM

The ferocious storm of uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East continues to stymie the efforts of the U.S. and other Western powers to suppress or contain them. There are ongoing significant protests in Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq, all places with a substantial U.S. military presence.

Also ominous for the Pentagon planners are protests in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, countries which at this time lack the presence of large numbers of U.S. troops, but whose rulers have been long-time clients of U.S. imperialism.

As Rami Khouri, a professor in Beirut, Lebanon put it: “The U.S. doesn’t know how to deal with freedom-loving Arabs.” (CNN, March 13)

Tens of thousands of protesters marched in Yemen on March 11, drawing record crowds in Sana’a, the capital, to show President Ali Abdullah Saleh that his reform offers failed to weaken their demand for his immediate departure.

A Wikileaks document recently revealed that Saleh told his people that his own government had carried out drone attacks that were really U.S. military actions in Yemen in violation of Yemeni sovereignty. (BBC, Dec. 10, 2010)

Yemenis flooded streets and alleys around Sana’a University in the biggest protest to hit the capital since demonstrations began in January. The protests followed by only one day a deadly predawn raid by the security forces on an encampment in a central square in the capital which killed three people and wounded 250.

In the southern port city of Aden, police fired on thousands of marchers, trying to disperse them. They wounded three people. Six were overcome by tear gas.

Aden is a strategic port near the Straits of Hormuz which control the entrance to the Persian Gulf and is an important port of call for the U.S. Navy. The USS Cole was attacked there in October 2000.

Unidentified armed men killed four soldiers on patrol east of Mukalla city in Hadhramaut province in southeast Yemen. About 30 people have been killed in Yemen since January.

Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, has been gripped by the worst unrest since the 1990s when protesters took to the streets last month, inspired by uprisings that unseated entrenched autocratic rulers in Egypt and Tunisia.

Thousands of opposition activists stormed toward Bahrain’s royal court. Carrying Bahraini flags and flowers, the protesters began walking from the Aly area to Riffa, a district of Manama, the capital, where many of the wealthy and members of the royal family live.

More than 200 riot police armed with batons blocked off the road with barbed wire. Medical sources said one person was seriously injured. Seven people have been killed in clashes with security forces, and thousands of the February 14 Youth Movement still occupy the Pearl roundabout, a busy intersection in the capital.

In Kuwait, the launching point for two major invasions of Iraq by U.S. forces, elite anti-riot police used tear gas to disperse hundreds of stateless Arab protesters who were demanding citizenship and other rights.

Demonstrators took to the streets in Jahra, west of Kuwait City, the capital, following Friday prayers on March 11, despite a stern warning against protests from the new interior minister. “Stateless since 50 years, we demand citizenship” read a huge banner in English as protesters chanted, “We will not leave without a solution.” (Reuters)

There were other protests in Sulaibiya, southwest of Kuwait City, and in the oil-rich city of Al-Ahmadi, south of the capital.

Stateless Arabs, known locally as bidoons, protested last month for three consecutive days until officials gave them assurances that their grievances would be addressed. As in many of the smaller Gulf states, in Kuwait a large proportion of the population (often a majority) are foreign-born workers with practically no political or economic rights.

But on March 8 parliament refused to debate a draft bill that would give the bidoons civil rights.

In the latest challenge to the government in Iraq, thousands of protesters are demanding jobs and better basic services. Protesters turned up in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on March 11, with similar demonstrations in the cities of Fallujah west of the capital, Sulaymaniyah in the north and Basra in the South. Iraq’s government has been shaken by a string of rallies across the country since the beginning of February.

The Arab revolt spilled over into Burkina Faso in Central Africa, which has been wracked by student protests and strikes ever since Justin Zongo, a student in Koudougou, a city in the west of the country, died while in police custody in February.

As of March 10, according to the Bourkinabé internet news service Senego, at least six people died in the protests, including three university students, a high school student and a cop. Many people have been seriously hurt. Four police stations have burned, allowing prisoners to escape. Protests have taken place throughout the whole country. (LeFaso.net)

At a March 11 mass protest in Ougadougou, the capital, which went to National Police headquarters, signs called for “Truth and Justice,” “No to injustice,” “Cops and untenable unemployment, both kill!” and “Cops = armed bandits.”

G. Dunkel contributed to this article.

* Url:http://www.workers.org/2011/world/rebellions_continue_0324/

March 19th, "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"

March 19th, "A Date Which Will Live in Infamy"*

The world's true freedom-loving people strongly condemn US/UK/French imperialism's criminal aggression against Libya, which was launched today (March 19, 2011) on the eighth anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq. The timing is no coincidence. The bombings represent an imperialist message to the planet that "Nothing has changed!" since 2003.

The Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya is one of only a few Arab governments not controlled by US imperialism (along with Syria and Algeria, who also oppose this war). Therefore, this attempt to seize control of Libya and its oil is simply a continuation of Wall Street's project for global domination. Their strategy involves controlling the world's fossil fuels (critical for modern industrialized economies) by establishing an empire of overseas military bases, harbored by repressive client regimes. Anti-war leaders must organize against this latest war.

The "Arab League" regimes that voted a week ago for the "no fly zone" are hated by their own people and have seen massive protests against them in the past two months. Meanwhile, those same regimes (Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, and Yemen) continue to slaughter peaceful protesters. As this message is being typed, Western planes and missiles murder innocent Libyan civilians. However, USA's "human rights experts" are not concerned by those deaths, only Libya's oil.

During the "UN Security Council" vote two days ago for a "no fly zone resolution" (UNSCR 1973), Russia, China, India, Brazil, and Germany abstained. On the one hand, this shows that most of the world's population (who live in these five countries) opposes NATO military aggression against Libya. On the other hand, it also reveals the submissiveness and subservience to the US by Russia's current Medvedev government for failing to veto it.

The UN, headquartered near Wall Street in New York City, has proved itself once again to be controlled by US imperialist puppets. The world's progressive forces must recognize that the UN, at present, is fundamentally no different than the IMF, the World Bank, or NATO – which are imperialist instruments. Internationally, protests should be held against not only the NATO-aggressor governments, but also the UN's pro-imperialist leader, Ban Ki-moon. He obviously does not represent humanity.

In addition, any self-proclaimed "left-wing" organizations that do not fully denounce this Western aggression will simply be proving themselves to be imperialist quislings. US progressive voters must remember this infamous day when they head to the polls in November, 2012: "Nobel Peace Prize" winner Barack Obama kills Libyan civilians while allowing Wisconsin's fascist governor to practically ban unions! Finally, it goes without saying that anti-imperialists uphold Libya's sovereign right to defend itself against foreign aggression.

* Url:http://fosterhall.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-19th-date-which-will-live-in.html

"Invading Libya (in the name of Democracy) means suicide for the United States and the International despotic system"

"Invading Libya (in the name of Democracy) means suicide for the United States

and the International despotic system"

"Last March 20, 2011 US and UK cruise missiles from both fleets hit more than 20 Libyan air defence targets, as Pentagon officials said that the intention of the combined American, British and French actions is to enforce a UN-mandated no-fly zone."

"Pentagon officials say the US and the UK have fired more than 110 missiles, while French planes struck pro-Gaddafi forces attacking rebel-held Benghazi."

"Cruise missiles hit air-defence sites in the capital, Tripoli, and Misrata."

These actions manifests how the rotten global system, to be led by the Imperialist United States, wanted such measures to destroy the struggle of the Libyan people against Imperialism. It also meant supporting Libya's domestic enemies against those who fought for the well being of the people, to be led by the Caid Qaddafi.

But despite the firing of missiles and alleged Imperialist support for the "Libyan Republic", we've also witnessed how these actions also resulted to massive deaths and disaster to the Libyan nation, that, in a guise of a so-called "Revolution", lays 48 deaths and 150 wounded in the attacks. It manifests such dangers as we've wittnesed Imperialist support to a regime jealous of the achievements laid by the Jamahriyya.

There are some people who may have against Qaddafi's leadership, but it doesn't mean that they are also in favor of Imperialist action against the regime. Sad so to speak about it, but then once I even think that if Americans wanted "Democracy" be institutionalized all over the world, and destroy all dictatorships "left" and "right", why not also destroy the Single-Party state of Singapore and pursue their attacks against Military-ruled Burma? Of a massive scale attack against Juche Korea and Islamic Iran? Yes, America simply wanted everything according to their own plan-that is to dominate in the name of their so-called "Life, Liberty and Happiness".

But,

Is that the will of the American people to set forth another conflict after Afghanistan and Iraq? They even used Great Britain and even France to join in their conflict, and speaking of that France how come they shifted differently from their Gaullic stances to those of Sarkozy? Is this also the will of the French people, who professed "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" to do so?

And as the battle continues in Libya, people around the world felt so dismayed that Uncle Sam again raised up the banner of war in the middle east-that every news reports are tackling about the events concerning the so-called "revolutions" that in fact, initated by members of a certain order wanting to impose a worser one. But as for the missiles firing over Tripoli, Berenice (Benghazi), and other towns and cities in that desert land "all in pursuit of having a no-fly zone" will they fire again Qaddafi's abode and kill every household living there-like the youngest daughter being killed by an air strike years ago?

Too bad so to speak upon noticing these hell-of-a-kind events erupting over Libya. That the forces of reaction under the star sprangled banner supported the so-called 'revolutionaries' who blindly followed them. The conservatives around us in our respective societies kept on justifying the actions most of the time regardless of its absolute tendency that is, suicidal. One post even speaking much about Republicans and Democrats and their actions concerning "war and peace", here it goes:

"Republicans have been reticent to commit American forces to combat operations, and have acted decisively when they have."

"Democrats and liberals commit American forces to war promiscuously because they are arrogant and cocksure that their gassy ideals about 'democracy' and the 'international community' are correct and everybody else is stupid. "

"By contrast, Republicans have been concerned with concrete American interests. When Bush invaded Iraq, making sure that Saddam did not possess weapons of mass destruction that could be given to terrorists was indeed a concrete American interest. He went "off the reservation" when the mission morphed into creating an Iraqi democracy."

But,

Regardless of its justifications, causes, and any other similar sentiments a Republican or a Democrat would say, they simply wanted nothing but putting everything "In order" according to their interest. By the way, isn't it the Republican who initiated occupying the Philippines and commit a series of atrocities there? Isn't it also the Republican who initiated occupying Nicaragua that made Sandino famous in resisting their actions? Democrats even supported dictatorial regimes like those of Somoza and Castillo Armas, and Republicans who supported Franco, Pinochet and Marcos! They may still kept on justifying it, but whether directly or indirectly, it was and is still these people, fueled by their Ayn Rand-like sentiment, Benevolent Assmilation and Expansionism obviously created this hell-of-a-kind mess what the world hath witnessed nowadays and so forth.

But despite of the tanks, the bombs, the missiles and any other war materiel these people kept on trying to put on, it is still the people who are dictating and not the weapons which are being launched and fired by. They may have misunderstood about the dictum and kept on continue doing it, and this makes more conflicts come regardless of casualties, that, as according to the leader of the great Al-Fateh Revolution:

“We are going to fight for all of our land inch by inch...We will die as martyrs.”

But as expected much by many, that long noisy shooting war is not just situated around Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, or in the entire Arabiyya-but rather the whole world. Protests and armed mass strikes will come-for the global people's war of International Liberation hath commenced.

And America itself, along with its die-hard followers and allies are starting to dig their own graves, performing what Emile Durkheim's highest form of escapism: SUICIDE.

Role of U.S. imperialism from Egypt to Libya to Yemen

Role of U.S. imperialism from Egypt to Libya to Yemen

Perspective on the People's Uprisings against autocratic regimes in North Africa & Middle East

Perspective on the People's Uprisings

against autocratic regimes in North Africa & Middle East

Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson,
International Coordinating Committee
International League of People's Struggles
February 27, 2011

The International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) steadfastly stands in solidarity with and supports the peoples of the North African and Middle East countries in their mass uprisings and revolutionary struggles for national liberation and democracy against the autocratic regimes long maintained by imperialist powers and local reactionary classes.

At the same time, the ILPS is keenly aware that the overthrow of a dictator by a rapid spontaneous surge of the masses does not necessarily result in the revolutionary overthrow of the ruling system. In the absence of a strong revolutionary party of the proletariat and revolutionary mass organizations, the imperialist powers and its puppets among the competing political and military factions of the local exploiting classes can arrange a new regime that pretends to be better than the previous one.

Are peoples perpetually and hopelessly trapped in ruling systems controlled and manipulated by the imperialists and their reactionary agents? No. The crisis of each ruling system and the mass uprisings can result not only in the overthrow of the autocratic regime but also in the further development of revolutionary parties, mass organizations and alliances for the continuous advance of the people's cause for national and social liberation.

The peoples' uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East are not the deliberate creation of the imperialists, their mass media and smart political agents. They are the people's resistance to the oppression and exploitation that they have long suffered. Their suffering has been made more than ever intolerable by the crisis of the world capitalist system and domestic ruling systems under the bankrupt US-imposed policy of neoliberal globalization and the US global war of terror characterized by state terrorism and aggression.

While the revolutionary strength of the people in a country is not yet sufficient to overthrow the ruling system, the US and its puppets deck themselves out as democrats by trying to forge new constitutions and instituting periodic elections and term limits for elective officials even as variable balances of political and military factions continue to make the ruling system apparently stable but really more unstable, remaining ripe for the next corrupt autocratic regime or servile to monarchies most favored by the US as in Saudi Arabia and the emirates.

The big prize for the US and its imperialist allies and its biggest local puppets in North Africa and the Middle East is the stepped-up superprofit-taking from the cheap labor of the working people, exploitation of oil and other natural resources, the huge sales of armaments to the oil producing countries and many other kinds of businesses.

The imperialist powers headed by the US are hell-bent on tightening their control over all the major sources of oil and gas and cannot tolerate the degree of national independence or anti-imperialism that Iraq and Libya exercised in extended periods in the past and that Iran is striving hard to maintain. The US is now flagrantly seeking to grab and tighten its control over the oil resources of Libya as in Iraq. It is taking the lead in applying sanctions and threatening to unleash the aggression and atrocities that it used to take over the oil resources of Iraq.

Once more, the irony of autocrats subservient or pliant to US imperialism but eventually junked by it is being demonstrated in North Africa and the Middle East. New sets of puppets are being arranged to further exploit and oppress the people. But through perseverance in revolutionary struggle in the long course of history, the people can develop their own strength to realize their national and social liberation.

On the scale of North Africa and the Middle East and particular countries, the course and outcomes of the peoples' uprisings follow the law of uneven development. Under any circumstances, the ILPS stands in solidarity with and supports the broad masses of the people and the anti-imperialist and democratic forces, and encourage them to be vigilant and militant against machinations to maintain and prolong imperialist domination and subservience by the local reactionary forces.

The International League of Peoples' Struggle looks forward to far greater revolutionary struggles now and in the future. Whatever are the temporary arrangements that can be made by the imperialists and their reactionary agents, the revolutionary energy and forces already released by the peoples' uprisings will find fertile ground to grow in strength and advance against the crisis-stricken world capitalist system and the local ruling systems.

Are the Arab protests inculcate Arab Unity?

Are the Arab protests inculcate Arab Unity?

By Katleah Iskre Ulrike

To the ruling class, it is Anarchy, but to the protesters, it is Revolution.

AS news around the world featured the protests in the promised Al Watan al Arabiyya with tremeandous praise and criticisms as it's replies. Yes, since most Arab people, from Maghreb (Algeria, Tunisia), Libya, Egypt, even Bahrain and Yemen are experiencing protests against regimes that is, supposedly "progressive" in its character.

First and formost, how come there will be protests since all of it are "progressive?" Well... most protesters tell that rampant corruption, plutocracy, nepotism, to the rise of bread and call for bigger salaries and benefits caused major protests and outmost opposition all despite countless casualties coming from them. But to the West, they call it much as "Pro-Democratic", but the fact is-wanting systems and orders agreeing to their policies and other related matter.

In Libya, I fairly notice that the protests signified the People trying to reclaim what the first part of "Green Book" stating about the The Authority of the People', and according to the author, the Caid Qaddafi, told about that the winner in the struggle for power is always an instrument of government - an individual, party, class; and the loser is always the people, which is, according to the author of the book, a true democracy. With the political struggle often leads to the rise to power of the guns of government, which is a minority. That is, all existing political regimes falsify genuine democracy and are dictatorships. If so, then the Caid, and even the people itself seemingly faced what the scripture foretold in it- and the protests, mass actions, defections, responses from the system and the like signified how "power struggle" and the "Authority of the People" really is.

So is Egypt, still in the middle of a chaos, the remnants of the old system tried enough to restore order, yet still protests continue to dominate in the streets of Cairo crying for bread and freedom! Same as in Yemen wherein the actions laid by the people, are obviously out of economic and social conditions prevailing all after the reunification of two Yemens under Ali Abdullah Saleh in the late 20th century.

And upon looking at every event in the video, I notice that will these events inculcate Arab unity according to their aspirations? Remember, most Arabs, aside from wanting "Freedom", "Justice", "Democracy", "Peace", "Bread", they wanted genuine unity as they themselves, people of the desert, wandering for years and populating the fertile crescent and the African desert north, wanted a nation that is, greater than their current ones, of what Nasser hath wanted aside from dreaming an Arab homeland free from repression and despotism both domestic and foreign. However, as we dig deeper, seems that foreign interests tried much to turn the spontaneous actions of the masses into an action that as if fit for their own taste. Remember Nicaragua?

Well...

To a writer, these events, despite its call for freedom, may rather lead to submission than to its supposed premonition. The world, especially the west are looking at them and as if taking it as an opportunity for these nations to submit to an order that is theirs. We all remember that America is against Qaddafi, that through a hodge-podge of propaganda coming from the west urges them to "take revolt" but in fact, the West itself wanted a conspiracy due to having not enough concessions from a Caid whose distaste for American Imperialism and advocating Pan-Arab unity meant turning against the oil barons. They even want a government that they can "own" outright, lock, stock and barrel-as they have never forgiven Qaddafi for overthrowing the monarchy and nationalizing the oil industry.

We must also remember that, according to Fidel Castro of Cuba in his column "Reflections" takes note of imperialism's hunger for oil and warns that the U.S. is laying the basis for military intervention in Libya. Yes, we've seen the revolts-some are justified, others are unjustified that as if all are supposedly made in the 1980s! For sure Reagan and the "Christian Right" are starting to laugh over about the events happened this time, but it also doesn't mean that these countries may possibly turning themselves over to the almighty west, to be led by the United States.

As we sum all of these, these actions are rather a premonition, a dress rehearsal for a greater rebellion that may greatly harm the West and its stooges in every country like this oil rich Al Watan Al Arabiyya. Like the past, for sure they still cling for Unity aside from the "Freedom", "Justice", and "Democracy", but will they accept the might of the great West? They are all been victims of Imperialism for years, so how come will they accept the their treacherous hands again? Oh god! People call for freedom but the ones who as if really "supported" it for sure wanted Oil!

And thus, it simply all ends with this, as what Mao said:

"To rebel is to be justified"

And the actions in the Great Al Watan Al Arabiyya perhaps may pave way to another wave, this time around the world in midst of the crisis, this time pointing against the ruling gentries who kept on bannering "Freedom" and "Democracy" to justify their dictatorships.

Continue the protests! Continue the Storm!

Continue the protests! Continue the Storm!

By Katleah Iskre Ulrike

Last time, militant students around the Philippines celebrated the commemoration of the valiant resistance of the Students, Faculty, and members of the University of the Philippines, Diliman community against State Fascism and the crisis prevailing during the Marcos regime.

Known much by the media as the "Diliman Commune", the acts laid by the UP Diliman community, from the barricades to the creation of self-igniting Molotov cocktails and Pillboxes, shown opposition-first from the increase in oil prices, to the repressive actions laid by the rotten State. It even intensified interest in the study of Pilipino Nationalism and Revolution, all based from the conditions prevailing at that time.

And through the years had passed since the downfall of the Marcos regime, there are still same old problems continue to prevail in the Philippines-that as of 2011, most Pilipinos are affected by the crisis such as oil price hikes, tuition fee increases, increase in commodities, and even the increase in mass transport fares. Most students, and the people in general, respond it with sporadic protests, venting grievances against a regime whose leader nowadays brags his own Porsche and Lexus automobiles. The Philippines was and is, remained poor due to its conditions as a semifeudal, semicolonial country; and with the intensification of Commercialization, Globalization, and State Terrorism, all sponsored by the oligarchs lies enough reasons to continue the protests and armed struggle against them similar to the Diliman Commune and earlier, the First Quarter Storm.

Also last time, people also wittnessed the events in Tunisia and in Egypt, as protests erupted against the regimes of Zine el Abidine ben Ali and Honsi Mubarak. The former had been toppled away but the latter still clings to his post as the head of state. These events, all in response from repression, corruption, price hikes and the like, unveils how people, being the creators of history and the society, and not the government dominated by the privileged few decides in regards to National affairs. And as expected, most are even solidarizing with their Arab comrades from statements to protests condemning the actions made by ben Ali and Mubarak-the way what the First Quarter Storm and the Diliman Commune solidarize with the Vietnamese, Chinese and even Cuban peoples for Antiimperialism and National Liberation.

In Egypt, we expect more and more protests to be seen-that may also manifest the revival of Arab liberation like the days of Nasser against Farouk. In Tunisia, the events after the downfall of ben Ali remained as-it-is as protests against the interim government continuously prevail in Tunis. These two Arab countries, like the actions laid by the Pilipinos, are not absolutely in response to their ruler's repressive actions, but of course, the conditions these people endured, but opportunists take it as a means to topple a ruler without changing the system in general!

After all, back to the topic, the actions of the people, whether in the Philippines, Egypt, Tunisia, even Nepal and India shows that the power will always be in the people-the way sovereignity is vested upon to them according to the laws, and of course, it is an inherent right to be rebellious against the order, therefore, to make the long story short:

IT IS RIGHT TO REBEL! BOMBARD THE HEADQUARTERS!

General anti-government strike begun in Tunisia

General anti-government strike begun in Tunisia*

Thursday, 27 January 2011

Initiated by the largest trade union - the Tunisian General Labour Union, the General anti-government strike began on Wednesday in the second-largest city, Sfax of Tunisia, which is considered the industrial capital of the country, according to Arab media.

The action was initiated in Tunisia's largest and most influential trade union - the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT), who played a crucial role in the recent change of government in the country.

Protestors gathered in the streets of Sfax on Wednesday demanding the resignation of the government of Mohammed al-Ghannouchi, as well as the dissolution of the rules at the deposed president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, Constitutional Democratic Party unity.

In addition, people's protests on Wednesday continued in other major cities in Tunisia, including in the capital, where demonstrators once again tried to break through a police cordon and break through to the building of the Tunisian government.

Previously reported that the teachers of secondary schools and lyceums of Tunisia on Monday began an indefinite strike, demanding withdrawal from the government in the country all members of the ousted regime. The strike coincided with the day classes resume in Tunisian schools and high schools, which were suspended in early January in connection with the riots.

In the morning in Tunis, children and their parents almost universally expected closed school doors with the announcement of the strike.

* Url:http://aucpbenglishwebsite.blogspot.com/2011/01/general-strike-tunisia.html

ILPS SALUTES THE PEOPLE OF TUNISIA FOR VICTORIOUS UPRISING AND WELCOMES THE SPREAD OF RESISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

ILPS SALUTES THE PEOPLE OF TUNISIA FOR VICTORIOUS UPRISING
AND WELCOMES THE SPREAD OF RESISTANCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson
International League of Peoples' Struggle
27 January 2011

The International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS) salutes the brave people of Tunisia for their great victory in rising up and toppling the corrupt and repressive regime of Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. This US-supported dictator who fled Tunisia on January 14 had ruled the country with an iron hand for 23 years.

The protests that eventually led to the ouster of Ben Ali were sparked by the sacrifice of a young college graduate, Mohamed Bouazizi. He had a college degree but unable to find work was selling fruits and vegetables in the streets of Sidi Bouzid, a city in central Tunisia. The police confiscated his wares saying he had no license. In protest, he set himself on fire in front of the city hall.

This act became the catalyst for the people’s uprising, igniting demonstrations and riots throughout Tunisia in protest against high unemployment, rising food prices, political repression and poor living conditions in the country. Weeks of street protests followed mobilizing broad sectors of society. Ben Ali declared a state of emergency in an effort to crush the uprising. But the people prevailed and Ben Ali was forced to flee into exile.

Tunisia suffers from high unemployment of more than 14%. The unemployment rate for young people is even higher at more than 31%. Tunisia’s economic problems stem from IMF-dictated neoliberal policies and aggravated by the rampant corruption of the ruling clique.

Ben Ali came into power in 1987 in a bloodless coup when a team of doctors pronounced the incumbent President Habib Bourguiba unfit to rule due to senility. Habib Bourguiba had led the struggle for independence against the French and introduced progressive socio-economic policies. The US found in Ben Ali a willing ally in carrying out the “free-market” policies that the imperialists have been trying to impose in Africa and the rest of the third world. He was also considered by the US as a key ally in the region in “fighting Islamic terrorism” and in maintaining “stability”.

The neoliberal policies promoted by the US and carried out by Ben Ali included attacks on the rights of labor, trade liberalization and privatization of public services. These policies have been responsible for the high unemployment and other economic problems in Tunisia these past years.

The protests continue despite the resignations of Ben Ali and his prime minister with the people demanding sweeping changes. They are demanding the complete clean up of government from the remnants of Ben Ali’s clique and the dismantling of Ben Ali’s party the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD).

The US and other repressive regimes in the region are now afraid that the social turmoil in Tunisia might spread to other countries. Protest actions have broken out in Algeria over lack of housing and high food prices. In Jordan, demonstrations led by trade unions and Left parties have called for the resignation of the Rifai government over high food and fuel prices. Protesters in Egypt demonstrating in solidarity with the Tunisian people chanted "Kefaya" (enough) and "We are next, we are next, Ben Ali tell Mubarak he is next."

The French, German and British ruling cliques had always praised Ben Ali for being a “friend” of civilized Europe for “keeping a firm hand on all those Islamists.” They are now hypocritically calling for democratic reforms in Tunisia and the rest of the region.

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle wholeheartedly supports the Tunisian people in their present struggle against unemployment, government corruption and repression and in their long-term struggle for national and social liberation from imperialism and local reaction. We welcome the spread of people's resistance to the US and oppressive regimes in the Middle East.

We call on all progressive forces and people in the world to give their support to the legitimate aspirations of the people of Tunisia and other countries in the Middle East for national liberation, democracy, social justice, development, international solidarity and peace.

'Liberation caravan' reaches Tunis

'Liberation caravan' reaches Tunis*

Hundreds of protesters overwhelm security forces surrounding office

of interim PM as they rally in the capital.

23 Jan 2011

Hundreds of Tunisians have defied a nighttime curfew and travelled hundreds of kilometres in what they call a "Liberation caravan" to join protesters in the country's capital, where anger at the interim government continues to grow.

The protesters entered the capital, Tunis, on Sunday, tearing through the barbed wire surrounding the office of Mohamed Ghannouchi, the interim prime minister, and demanding an end to his government.

The protesters began marching on Saturday night from Menzel Bouzaiane, a small town in the same province as Sidi Bouzid - the site of the self-immolation suicide attempt that set off a month of protests and ultimately ousted former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

The crowd walked on foot for about 50km before boarding buses to Tunis, where they arrived on Sunday and began assembling in front of the interior ministry - the site of many anti-government demonstrations.

'Security overwhelmed'

Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Tunis, said that the security service outside Ghannouchi's office were "completely overwhelmed".

"They're chanting the same slogan that has echoed across the country - 'Down with the regime, down with the former party, down with the interim president and with the prime minister,'" our correspondent said.

"They're saying that the fight will continue for as long as it takes, until they see a radical change in Tunisia."

Meanwhile, the country's state news agency reported on Sunday that allies of Ben Ali - Abdelaziz bin Dhia, Ben Ali's spokesman and chief adviser, and Abdallah Qallal, a former interior minister and head of Tunisia's appointed upper parliamentary house - had been placed under house arrest.

The agency said police were searching for Abdelwahhab Abdalla, Ben Ali's political adviser, who has disappeared and that Larbi Nasra, the owner of Hannibal TV and his son have been arrested on suspicion of "treason" for working on Ben Ali's return from Saudi Arabia (where the deposed president currently is currently in exile).

Nasra, the agency reports, is related to Ben Ali's wife, Leila, and while the channel was taken off the air for about two hours, no official reason was given for why its transmission was interrupted other than to say that it was an error.

PM under pressure

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin said that the fact that protesters - who in previous days have been joined by police officers and members of the national guard - have now defied a curfew and poured into the capital from the countryside is quite significant.

"It shows you that it's not an isolated, handful of people that are leading these protests," he said, reporting from Tunis.

"It's people from all different walks of life, from all different parts of the country."

Our correspondent also reported that Ghannouchi had defended his choice of ministers, however, in an effort to dampen the anger, Ghannouchi, a former ally of Ben Ali, pledged to quit politics after elections that he says will be held as soon as possible.

Follow Al Jazeera's coverage of the

turmoil in Tunisia

In an interview on Tunisian television on Friday, Ghannouchi said he would leave power after a transition phase that leads to legislative and presidential elections "in the shortest possible timeframe".

Despite resigning his RCD membership, he has been struggling to restore calm under a new multiparty government that the opposition complains retains too many members of the party. Fouad Mebazaa, the interim president, also resigned his RCD membership.

"My role is to bring my country out of this temporary phase and even if I am nominated I will refuse it and leave politics," Ghannouchi said.

He did not specify when the elections would be held, though the constitution requires a presidential vote within 60 days.

Ghannouchi also said that all of the assets held abroad by Ben Ali's government had been frozen and would be returned to Tunisia after an investigation.

The prime minister also announced that the state would provide compensation to those who died during the uprising, as well as their families.

The army and the justice department have been ordered to preserve any documents and evidence that can be gathered during the unrest in order to investigate the old government, our correspondent said.

Ban on political groups lifted

The transitional government has also said that it would lift a ban on political groups, including the al-Nahda (Renaissance) party.

The exiled leader of the formerly banned party, Rachid al-Ghannouchi, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that al-Nahda is democratic and should not be feared and rejected any comparison between him and Iran's late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

"We are a moderate Islamic movement, a democratic movement based on democratic ideals in ... Islamic culture. Some people pull Khomeini's robe over me, while I am no Khomeini nor a Shia," he said.

Mohamed Ghannouchi, the interim prime minister - of not relation to Rachid al-Ghannouchi - has said that the Nahda leader cannot return to Tunisia until a 1991 prison sentence is lifted.

* Url:http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011123124352723753.html

"Let Us Make the Awakening of the Movement our Central Task"

"Let Us Make the Awakening of the Movement our Central Task"*

11th Anniversary of the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia

April, 1997

The comrades of the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia have just celebrated the 11th anniversary of their Party. In the text "Let Us Make the Awakening of the Movement our Central Task" which we reproduce below, they take stock of the present situation of the social and revolutionary movement. Although the press in France rarely speaks of it, the repression against the members of their Party continues. Thus comrade Abdel Momen Bel Aanes, who was arrested last summer, then released, was arrested again by an appeals court at Monastir for an "offence against the President." To protest against this latest abuse of power, he began a 20 day hunger strike. On April 1st, he was acquitted by the court in another case that was pending.

If the communists are paying the heaviest toll of the repression, it does not spare those who dare to express any disagreement whatsoever with the policies of the regime. Many leaders of the main legal opposition party, the MDS (Movement of Socialist Democrats), have come to have a bitter experience. After the condemnation of their president in 1996 for "collusion with a foreign State" (Libya), the power has not stopped bringing back this party on to the right path. This is now a done deed. A forceful blow has been organized by one of the leaders of a tendency in favor of collaboration with the regime: at an extraordinary congress, convoked hastily and held under high police protection and in the absence of a good part of the national council of this party, the former leadership was deposed, and only the author of the putsch and one of his close collaborators regained their posts.

This has not stopped Ben Ali from being received in the European capitals. After Germany, several months ago, the French government has given him an official welcome from May 4 to 6. Together with the Tunisian democrats, we denounce this visit of the dictator Ben Ali.

Eleven years have passed since the foundation of our party, the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia. It is evident that this anniversary constitutes an occasion to take advantage of the experience of the past and continue the work of the party to achieve new gains on the road of overall revolutionary change in our society.

It is useful to evoke the conditions in order to link the past with the present. It is in these conditions that our party was founded and declared itself on January 3, 1986. The Bourgiba dictatorship was living through a suffocating crisis at all levels: economic, social and political. To confront this crisis, it could only resort to savage repression to put down everyone: political forces, professional, humanitarian, cultural and press associations. Thus the foundation of our party at that time constituted an important event, not only because it responded to the need of the working class and the people in general, the need for an organized and effective vanguard, but because our party knew what program it needed to propose and what tactics it needed to elaborate to confront this rotten situation. This permitted it to shine forth very strongly and to expand its influence. It was able to attract into its ranks a large number of vanguard elements from all sectors. Naturally this was not without many sacrifices, of which the most notable is the martyrdom of our comrade Nabil Barakati, who held up under torture to his death. At that period (May, 1987), B. Ali was Minister of the Interior. Dozens of members were also locked up in the fascist prisons after unjust trials. Finally, under the protection of imperialism, the reactionaries were obliged to dismiss Bourgiba by the coup d'etat of November 7, 1987, in order to save the regime and their interests, all in giving the illusion that they were going to satisfy the demands of the people regarding freedom and dignity.

Today our party is celebrating its 11th anniversary and the country is passing through an exceptional situation. In effect, the fascism of the November coup, the heir of the tyrannical Bourgiba regime, has continued the oppression of the people. It has imposed its dominance in all spheres, public and private. It has muzzled all free activity which is independent of or opposed to it. It has shut down the press. It has made torture a method of government. The country has become a large prison watched over by torturers and a crowd of informers of all kinds. This is the means of subjecting all the people to a ferocious exploitation under a capitalism in which the law of the strongest rules, a capitalism which profits only a handful of the rich, the foreign owners and the international financial institutions.

As before, such an exceptional situation imposes on our party equally exceptional obligations. It is true that the present situation is harsher than previously given the ebb through which the popular movement is passing. Political activity has receded, as well as that of the professional, humanitarian and cultural associations and organizations, due to the repressive policies which engender stagnation, resignation, despair and fear. But all these factors can only increase the responsibility of our party and its members.

Presently the crucial tactic is that which our party has defined in its document regarding "the general situation in the country and the tasks of this stage." This tactic relies on the necessity of awakening the popular movement of the masses of different sectors around their most urgent social, political and cultural demands. Any observation of the situation in our country can only affirm that the conditions are suitable to realize this central task, given the problems and contradictions which confront the November fascism and the internal and external isolation which places it in a position of weakness faced with every broad and deep militant movement.

If our party assumes this responsibility together with the democratic and progressive forces who refuse to collaborate with fascism, this will constitute a fundamental guarantee that the scenario of November 7, 1987, will not be repeated again. Our people will thus be finally freed from fascism. They will realize their ambitions of freedom and dignity. They will create suitable conditions to assure their self-determination. Our party, as well as all the democratic forces, are called upon to serve as an example in the anti-fascist struggle. They must address themselves to the people with clear and mobilizing slogans and proposals. We believe that our party, at its 11th anniversary, has the ideological, political and organizational force that will permit it to assume its responsibilities with a higher degree of experience, all the more since it has purged its ranks in the last years of opportunism which tried to change its revolutionary nature and to draw it into normal relations with the dictatorship. Our party is more determined than ever to struggle against all its weaknesses and to achieve, together with its members and its youth organization (UJCT [Union of Communist Youth of Tunisia]) a higher degree of organization, struggle and determination. Let us make this anniversary a starting point for a decisive stage in the struggle against fascism, basing ourselves on the militant legacy of our people and on the international support of our communist comrades and of the progressive and freedom-loving forces of the whole world.

Long live the Communist Party of the Workers of Tunisia!


This old document lays out the ideological views of the Tunisian Workers' Communist Party, currently in the center of the Revolutionary Movement that removed Ben Ali.

* Url:http://calebmaupin.blogspot.com/2011/01/1997-statement-from-tunisian-workers.html

Tunisia releases opposition Communist leader: party

Tunisia releases opposition Communist leader: party*

Tunisian authorities Friday released opposition figure Hamma Hammami, the leader of the banned Tunisian Workers' Communist Party, three days after arresting him, the party said.

"We've just heard that he's been released. He's at home," party official Adel Thabet told reporters in Paris, after family members had expressed fears for the 59-year-old leftist's life in government custody.

Hammami has been working underground to escape arrest since February last year, but in recent weeks has spoken to foreign media to support the protests against President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's authoritarian regime.

On Wednesday his wife, the lawyer Radia Nasraoui, said he had been snatched from his home in Tunis by officers of the political police and was being held incommunicado and without charge.

In the past 24 hours, amid unprecedented protests against his 23-year-long rule, Ben Ali has sent mixed signals: first promising to share political power and halt a violent crackdown, then declaring a state of emergency.

© 2010 AFP


* Url:http://www.expatica.com/fr/news/french-news/tunisia-releases-opposition-communist-leader-party_123299.html

Tunisia: The revolution will not be televised by Paul

Tunisia: The revolution will not be televised by Paul

A writeup made in an Anarchist site

concerning the state of Tunisia during the protests against the dictatorship

15 Jan 2011

A mass wave of riots by ordinary people against the government have swept Tunisia for the last three weeks under a near-total media blackout in the West. We look at what's been happening and why it's being kept off our TV screens. ---- On Saturday December 18th, the Tunisian police stopped Mohamed Bouaziz, an unemployed university graduate, and seized the hand cart of fruit and vegetables he had been selling to support himself and his family. Enraged by the injustice and despairing of any escape from destitution and starvation in Tunisia's impoverished economy, increasingly ravaged by rising food prices, the young man set fire to himself in protest, outside the town hall in Sidi Bouzid, 200km south-west of the capital Tunis. The young man was later to die in hospital.

Angered by the incident, several hundred local youth, equally suffering from unemployment and repression from the police and state of Tunisia's corrupt dictatorial regime, gathered to protest the incident. Local police responded with tear gas and violence. Since that time, mass rioting and violent clashes with the police have swept the country for the last three weeks. In Kesserine, another inland town, far from the tourist industry of the coastal region, the death toll estimated by local doctors and hospital staff has exceeded 50 over the last weekend alone.

But the savagery of the virtual civil war that has broken out between the people of Tunisia, from unemployed youth, school and university students, trade unionists, artists, intellectuals and even lawyers, against the corrupt cabal around dictator in all but name, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, may as well not be happening as far as the TV news schedules of RTE, the BBC or the rest of Western media. Commentators at Al Jazeera and other Arab language media have bitterly pointed out the hypocrisy of Western media that splashed the Iranian Green movement's resistance to Ahmedi Nejad's stealing of the last elections all over the nightly TV broadcasts, but is now censoring the biggest story in the Arab world today. Could this be because the Ben Ali regime is a "friend of the West"? The wall of silence imposed by our "fearlessly independent and even-handed" media speaks volumes.

Meanwhile in the Arab world, from Egypt to Syria, ordinary watchers and bloggers are seized with enthusiasm for what they are calling the Tunisian Intifada. The experience of being squeezed between corrupt, dictatorial and repressive regimes and rising food prices is common to most people in the region. Even though the Tunisian government has closed opposition newspapers and arrested and tortured journalists who dare cover the struggle, coverage is still passing out through Twitter (follow #sidibouzid ), although Facebook has fallen over itself to help the Ben Ali regime (and its CIA backers) by taking down the pages of any journalists or ordinary Tunisians covering the story.

The initifada is still carrying on, yesterday it reached the suburbs of the capital Tunis, and troops were deployed on the streets for the first time. Ben Ali has belatedly tried to signal changes by sacking his interior minister and promising that he will start a programme to create 300,000 jobs in the next two years. But members of his family have been reported as fleeing the coutry.

Victory and liberty for Tunisian workers! Down with the Ben Ali dictatorship!

* Url:http://ainfos.ca/en/ainfos24719.html

Rodong Sinmun Calls for Global Independence-KCNA

Rodong Sinmun Calls for Global Independence

Pyongyang, January 13 (KCNA) -- It is the common task of humankind to achieve global independence. Only when anti-imperialist independent countries and nations struggle, aware of being responsible for the cause of global independence, can they display strong will power and practical ability and boost solidarity and unity among them.

Rodong Sinmun Thursday says this in a signed article.

It goes on:

The progressive countries aspiring after independence, socialism and justice are the main force in the struggle to achieve global independence.

All the anti-imperialist independent forces should unite as one in order to prevail over imperialism.

What is important for achieving their unity is for all the progressive forces, including the socialist movement, the non-aligned movement and the world peace movement to unite close under the banner of global independence. The communist and workers′ parties advocating socialism and other revolutionary parties should firmly maintain their anti-imperialist stand and firmly unite on the basis of comradely relations of mutual respect and cooperation.

The Workers′ Party of Korea and the DPRK government have worked hard for global independence, regarding it as their noble task and international obligation to struggle for the cause.

The world socialist movement was saved from its temporary crisis and has since made dynamic progress under the banner of the Pyongyang declaration. The NAM has creditably performed its mission and role, augmenting its position as a strong independent force against imperialism in the present era. These would be unthinkable without positive activities and efforts of the WPK and the DPRK government.

They will as ever carry on the staunch struggle to achieve global independence, concludes the article.

TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION

TUNISIAN PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION

News from the front line last January 12, 2011

Tunisian protesters, many of them are now organized in several "People's Resistance Committees"(PRC) say they will continue demonstrating over unemployment, mass poverty and against the dictatorship in the North African country despite the government's deadly crackdown on them.

PRC announced they will hold mass rallies across the country for the next three days, starting today.

The trade union, General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) has also said it will call a general strike in several southern cities in response the police brutality, i.e the state terror.

Protests have been going on across Tunisia for almost a month now. The UGTT says more than 70 people have been killed in clashes with government forces since the last weekend.

"It's chaos here in Kasserine after a night of violence, sniper fire, theft and looting of shops and homes by policemen in civilian clothes," said Sadok Mahmoudi, an activist of the UGTT regional union describing yesterday's situation there. This story was corroborated by other witnesses.

"The number of killed has exceeded 50," Mahmoudi said, citing a report obtained from the medical staff at the regional hospital of Kasserine, where the bodies were transported.

This comes as UGTT has called on Tunisian President(resp. the dictator!!) Ben Ali to order an independent inquiry into the deaths of demonstrators. But the call was rejected by the regime!

Meanwhile, according to sources of the People's Resistance, in the last hours thousands of heavy armed Soldiers in APC and backed by tanks were deployed in the centre of Tunis after the People's Rebellion spread to the capital's center.

Almost at the same time "the gov't sacked the interior minister and announced it would free protesters", AFP reported a short while ago.

Photos from http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/?m=2006-02

Protest in Maghreb-Tunisian, Algerian people protested against anti-people conditions

Protest in Maghreb-Tunisian, Algerian people protested

against anti-people conditions

Last January 10, people in Maghreb (Muslim north Africa) rose up in revolt against the current anti-people conditions laid by the system upon them. In Tunisia since almost four weeks, in Algeria since last Wednesday: An increasing mass movement, initiated and joined by thousands of workers and the unemployed (young and old, both males and females), fights against exploitation and oppression...

According to Mohamed Zitout, a former Algerian diplomat, explained: "It is a revolt, and probably a revolution, of an oppressed people who have, for 50 years, been waiting for housing, employment, and a proper and decent life..."

Photos from http://blog.jinbo.net/CINA/