Why Does Healy Back This Dictator?

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Take a characteristically messianic press statement from the Libyan Embassy, sprinkle liberally with "Marxist" sounding phrases, and you get a fair picture of the latest depths plumbed by the British Workers Revolutionary Party's opportunist daily Newsline in its campaign in favour of the Bonapartist dictatorship of Colonel Gaddafi.

A "joint communique" signed by the Central Committee of the WRP and the Cieneral Peoples' Congress of the Socialist Peoples' Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah (a newly coined word roughly meaning Peoples State) appeared in the Newsline of August 10th. It was hailed as "a major step forward in the limited struggles of the colonial peoples and the metropolitan working class.

It praises the "vigilance and heroism"of Gaddafi's leadership, and pledges to defend this leadership against "imperialism and it's agents These agents, we are informed by the lande, rahd "s dictator"

ship DEATH Needless to say, there was not one word in either the "communique" or the "comment" along sidc it about the group of 40 people, reportedly "Marxists, Trotskyists and members of the Islamic Libration Parly." , condemned to life imprisonment or death in Libya in March.

This group, originally tried and acquitted in December 1974, were then re-tried on order of the "heroic" Gaddafi, and sentenced to up to 15 years imprisonment.

Not satisfied yet with this decision of his "Popular" court, Gaddafi personally changed them to either death or life imprisonment.

At the beginning of April some of these were among the 50 or more oppositionists exccuted by Gaddafi.

4 of thest were publicly hung in Benghazi on April 7, of whom = were students accused of "terrorist sabotage" after demonstrations in the university in April 1976 against government rigging of the student union elections.

Throughout the fourteen month long romance with Gaddafi's "revolutionland" the Newsline has mentioned neither this, nor the fact that 'parlies are treason" "Peoples Libya" • Membership of any political party other than the official Arab Socialist Union is punishable by death.

Acting in this way as an uncritical mouthpicce for Gaddati the WRI is betraying the oppressed Libyan Masses and turning its back on not only the Trotskyist theory of permanent revolution, but also the WRP's own history From the beginning of Trotsky's fight against Stalinism it has been necessary for the Trotskyist movement to fight against the illusions spread by certain "Marxists" in the "national" bourgeoisie of the colonial countries, and its capacity to resolve 1hs national and agrarian problems. One of the first struggles of the Trotskyist icement was lan The WRP today put; forward a similar liquidation, again under the guise of an "anti-imperialist front"

whilst cynically maintaining that "this is entirely in the spirit and tradition of Bolshevism".

The genuine tradition of Bolshevism stands for the independence of the working class from the bourgeoisie, with the working class and revolutionary party playing the leading role not only in resolving the national question, but in mobilizing the peasantry behind it to resolve the agrarian problem.

ALLIANCE IsI This essential point was forced Et home again and again by Trotsky, op against the revisionists and liqui- tal dators of the movement• sh:

*Without an alliance of the Fr W'RP Generul Secretari Gerri Hear proletariat with the peasantry the tasks of the democratic revolution cannot be solved, nor even seriously posed. But the alliance of these two classes can be realized in no other way than through an irreconcilable struggle against the influence of the national-Liberal bourgeoise. ...the realization of the revolutionary alliance between the proletariat and peasantry is conceivable only under the political leadership of the proletarian vanguard The Permanent Rerolution (Pathfinder Ed) p. 276-7 and again in the Transitional Programme, the tounding document of the Fourth International, in the section dealing with the colonial countries:

"On te. basis of the revolutionaty domocratic programme, it is necessary to oppose the workers to the "national" bourgeoisie... In defending the leadership of Gaddati, and nowhere putting forward the demand for the building uf a Trotskyist party to solve these tasks, the WRP leadership stand in sharp opposition to the interests of the Libyan workers and peasants. su re an th ist th Gadaffi e on the much lauded onism" of Gaddafi.

Undoubtedly Gaddafi has ipplied the PLO (with which the RP also have an uncritical lationship) with arms for the fight gainst the Zionist state: but this nc ore means that Trotskyists form 1 alliance with Gaddafi than with e Saudi's and American imperialn because they supply arms to e Eritrean Freedom Fighters! Gaddafi, of course, along with cael, is a supplier of arms to the hiopian dictatorship which 'presses the Eritreans while mainining an opportunistic relationip with the Popular Liberation ont in Eritrea). buck on W'RP's history Caddati bases his support for the PLO on the demand for an Islamic Palestine, in opposition to the Trotskyist demand for an independent secular Palestinian state, a demand which enables the active unity of Arab and Jewish workers to be fought for.

Also conveniently overlooked by the WRP leadership are the Libyan holdings in Fiat, which amount to 9.6% with 2 seats on the board.

Besides the manufacture of automobiles, Fiat also produce military devices and helicopters, which il supplies to, amongst other robber states. Israel!

In order to carry out these grotesque adaptations to the Libyan Bonapartist dictator, the WRP leadership have been forced to implicitly disown their own history: the predecessors of the Newsline. (W'orkers Press and the Newsletter) had it considerably different analysis of the Craddati regime.

del example the Workers Press 10.Under pressure from the NUM, Tribunite Overseas Development Minister, Judith Hart, has withdrawn a British government loan to the State Mining Corporation in Bolivia, ruled by General Banzer's murderous military regime. If this seems like progress, then check the small print. Hart intends to send the same amount of money to Banzer for other purposes (schools, hospitals, etc). And the NUM leaders say that is alright with them. This is then nothing more than a token gesture with nothing in common with the total economic boycott which should be imposed against Banzer's dictatorship.

SOUTH AFRICA

In spite of protest demonstrations, government bulldozers have destroyed the homes of 20,000 workers near Capetown. These workers were forced to live in these shanty towns by their economic oppression and by the racist housing laws. Now they are not immediately needed by South African capital they have been sent back to the poverty stricken Transkei where they, originally came from. In the rest of South Africa police have killed a number of school students in a renewed campaign against repression in the black" "townships"

around Johannesburg. The racist regime has further shown contempt for the black majority by new constitutional proposals for an elected assembly and executive for whites, , "coloureds" and Asians -but nothing of course for 12 million urban blacks who are supposed to be citizens of the poverty stricken "Bantustans"

HOLLAND

The long political crisis which has left Holland without a government for 3 months since the general elections has reached a new crisis. Labour Party leader Joop den Uyl finally abandoned his second attempt to form a coalition govern"Gaddafi's Mythical Theory"

"Details of this massive contribution to human thought were left a little cloudy. But Gaddafi did tell his audience: "The third theory means that in our moslem faith we need neither capitalism nor communism... .we are only slaves to God" ... all of which sounds very much like the old anti-communism masquerading as a new philosophical breakthrough. Bur Gaddafi had the last word: "We should confront capitalism strongly to show the evils of money when it is accumulated and used for evil purposes'"

Reports of panic among the Libyan bourgeoisie are said to be "much exaggerated!"

A more serious analysis appeared in The Newsletter, paper of the WRP's forerunner the Socialist Labour League shortly after the coup which brought Gaddafi and the "Revolutionary Council" to power in 1969.

It is quite clear that the SLL understood …Gaddafi's demagogy very well then:

"The first pronouncement of the revolutionary council' broadcast over Radin Tripoli on September 1, spoke on the one hand of 'building a revolutionary Libya, a socialist Libya', and of the efforts of the 'third world' to end social and economic under-development, and on the other hand promised to defend and maintain 'the moral values of the Koran'.

This is plainly the demagogy of a Bonapartist group attempting to balance between different political This kind of future {the kind promised by Gaddafi| can only be achieved by a real socialist revolution. led no 1 by nationalist army officers. but ment with the Christian Democrats.

This time the effort failed because of the Christian Democrats oppos ition to den Uyl's proposal to legalise abortion. The price that the Dutch working class may now have to pay for den Uyi's wretched attempts at class compromise is a coalition of the right wing bourgeois parties.

ITALY

The growing disillusion with the Italian Communist Party's support for the right wing Christian Democratic government shows up in the CP's recent confessions about its membership figures. Membership of the Party has remained static for the first year since 1971 (at 13 million) while membership of the CP youth organisation has declined by nearly 15% in the last 12 months.

SRI LANKA

The police of J. Jayawardene s new right wing government has unleashed a torrent of brutality against the Tamil community of the north of the island after demonstrations in favour of Tamil independence. Many demonstrators have been killed and injured, a curfew imposed and shops and markets set on fire by the police. Tamil workers have responded with strikes which have closed down public services in some northern cities.

PANAMA

General Torrijos, Panama's left-talking military dictator, has based his "anti-imperialism" on a demand for immediate American withdrawal from the Panama canal zone. He has now agreed with Carter that the US should retain control until the year 2000 after which it would still have the "right" to intervene if its interests were threatened. This imperialist deal (which has still to be ratified) was midwifed. according to American L..

ambassador Andrew Young by the Cuban government. It was proof. Young said approvingly, of Fidel Castro's moderation.

Although the WRP now dums to some (evidently secr et) ideoleg¡cal differences" with Gaddati. . i: has uttered no word of reservation about Gaddafi's latest dem ag z constitutional changes.

The Revolutionary ConcEr: Council has been abolished rather expanded to embrace whole people who are supposed : exercise their "power" thrauer "People's vommittees"

It is. Gaddati said in a spect = Tripoli on March 8. "the first :::= democracy since Athens" somewhat inconsistently that ..ithe first time in the history of world, power is in the hands :: masses. "wage carmers there are no ast ; exploitation impossible because all people i: equal.

Yet the capitalists still hol: :: to many of the means of produ:tion and the "General Secretaria: :: the General People's Congress turns out to be led by none than Gaddafi and his buns= cronies who previously come: the Revolutionary We continue is despise:= WRP gives an existen. present obsequiousress = regime whose hyperie ==_cracy is a smokescreer less dictatorship was ENE hostile to the rights o: tre man Can the WRP Cent:a Coroma be so gullible? O: ate see reasons for this creme: Trotskyism and is: the ester: -di the Arat masses?

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'age iS, Wednesday 31

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