OscailtThe Arab Spring and the Seduction of the Western Left<em>Paper given at the First Annual Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi Day School, at the Dublin Offices of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, 33 Gardiner Place, Dublin, on the 20th of October, 2012.</em>
<b>The "Arab Spring" and The Seduction of the Western Left </b>
<em>I wish to claim, in this paper, that the invasion of Libya set a new precedent in the co-option of Western Left into imperialist adventurism. Following the work of Jean Baudrillard, I will claim that the method used was the age old method of seduction. </em>
Breaking news: Italian MP, Sgarbi denounces the Statistical Fraud on COVID-19. The speech of the Member of Parliament Vittorio Sgarbi in the session of the Italian Camera, Meeting no. 331 of Friday 24, April, 2020. Vittorio Sgarbi, denounces the closure of 60% of the businesses for 25,000 COVID-19 Deaths, of which the National Institute of Health says 96.3% died NOT of COVID-19 but of other pathologies. That means only 925 have died of the virus. 24,075 have died of other things.2012-10-21T19:49:34+00:00Indymedia Irelandimc-ireland@lists.indymedia.iehttp://www.indymedia.ie/atomfullposts?story_id=102627http://www.indymedia.ie/graphics/feedlogo.gifA Handsome Black Face in the Whitehousehttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2927492012-10-21T19:49:34+00:00An Draighneán DonnI might also add to the above, that in terms of seduction, replacing the dopey a...I might also add to the above, that in terms of seduction, replacing the dopey and demented looking George W. Bush with a smart, handsome, young, Black lawyer was a master stroke. It was no accident that Wall Street backed Obama to the tune of 600 million dollars in the last election. Even today, many in the Left consider Obama one of their own - despite the fact that it is admitted by the Americans themselves that 99% of victims from drone attacks are completely innocent civilians, and despite the fact that Obama has not deviated from the so-called "Bush Doctrine" by one iota. Guantanimo has actually had more money spent on it.<br />
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For this reason, I actually think its better if Romney wins in the US election - if only to break this disastrous spell that has mentally castrated the Western Left. Re: The Arab Spring and the Seduction of the Western Lefthttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2927802012-10-24T00:09:07+00:00TThis is an excellent analysis and I completely agree the official Left has been ...This is an excellent analysis and I completely agree the official Left has been conned and seduced. It has been quite pathetic to see the lukewarm reaction. They are completely stuck in their thinking and refused to accept that they have been totally misled and fooled.
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I can't remember where it was that I saw it, but very soon after the start of the so called Arab Spring, there was one writer who predicted Libya, Yemen and Syria would be next and that Western capitalism had decided to throw all the cards up in the area with regards to the Middle East and to reshape their entire region to their own liking.
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A point should also be made about the TV station Al Jazerra who gave good coverage during the 2nd Gulf War and in Afghanistan and were prepared to show the carnage that was going on. They did seem like a real voice for the Arab people. However given they were owned and backed by the State of <b>Qatar</b> which has a medieval like monarchy and who are anything but regressive, it seemed odd. But they finally showed their true colours during the Libyan attack. (See for example comments in http://www.indymedia.ie/article/100382 ). And then in the past year there have been many resignations from the broadcaster in disgust at their twisted and outright propaganda in the case of Syria. But this makes sense because backward Qatar has been implicated along with Saudi Arabia that other bastion of democracy with being the main Middle Eastern financial backers of the mercenary terrorists in Syria that have been killing civilians with snipers and bomb attacks. That is not to say the Western powers are not involved. They are and are working hand in glove with these people. But regrettably the Left is either too scared, too clueless or simply in denial to call out what the Western propaganda has been which is pure lies. The way it works is that the so-called rebels kill some people and then simply blames it on the Syria government forces. They have done this time and time again and it is just incredible that these lies are accepted at face value.
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Alas though this is really only detail in the wider context raised in the article above. I think what the above article gets at without directly saying it, is that the Left likes to drone on about the Class War and indeed the Class War is alive and well today and is being carried out right under our noses in the form of the War of Terror and the Financial Crisis but that seems to be their only tool in the analysis. What is equally more important is the fields of advanced propaganda, marketing, fashion, lifestyle, opinion polls, media, the role of the intelligence apparatus and even conspiracy -the word that scares the be-jesus out of the Left. For example during the lead up to the Iraq War, the claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction was a conspiracy because the way this story was pushed was conspiratorial. Likewise in Gulf War I about the Kuwait babies -when we later found out the story was concocted by the PR firm used to sell the war to the American public and the actual claim was read out by the Kuwait ambassador's daughter after much coaching and rehearsal. Anyhow the point is that the capitalist class in power are extremely adept at using all these other fields which are really all different forms of psychology to complete control, shape and manipulate public opinion and relying on class analysis alone can't handle the other forces (like marketing etc) that the capitalists have mastery over. There has been simply no effort or realization that the use of these tools is what keeps the population in check and largely living in an alternative delusion universe. And that's why this article is so good because it hits the nail on the head. People have been seduced by these bastards.
The left and "socialist" Libyahttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2929352012-11-02T06:04:23+00:00Gearoid O LoingsighYes, the left were generally disgraceful in their reaction to what happened in L...Yes, the left were generally disgraceful in their reaction to what happened in Libya. But lets not go overboard. Libya Socialist???? Don't make me laugh. The working class were never in power in Libya. The regime was a capitalist regime, with a one man show. I know the arguments about his little green book. Get real.<br />
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Gaddafi had no problem signing oil deals with western companies and Britain had no problem rendering opposition islamics for torture in Libya (by the way I believe torture and socialism are no compatible). MI6 handed them over. Would they do that with Cubans? Never, because Cuba is not capitalist, Libya was and is.<br />
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That said, yes the left behaved disgracefully. Chomsky, well though the anarchists love him, he is just a liberal at the end of the day, he even called for a vote for the Democratic Party a number of years ago.<br />
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GearóidThe Libyan Jamahiriya was about as Socialist as it gets in this worldhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2929372012-11-02T07:23:13+00:00An Draighneán DonnA Ghearóid, a chara,
Yes, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya w...A Ghearóid, a chara,<br />
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Yes, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya was Socialist. Irish Socialists barely dare to dream of Ireland ever becoming anything close to as Socialist as Libya was. Imagine Ireland with our natural resources nationalized?<br />
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Bourgeois economists, Waniss Otman and Erling Karlberg describe the Libyan worker, in the Jamahiriya, as "one of the most protected in the world," adding that Libyans have a "subsidy mentality" and a "job-for-life outlook which has ill-prepared Libyans for the more aggressive and cutthroat world of competition." Jay Hallen, a financial consultant with experience in Iraq and Egypt, argues that Al-Gaddafi's moves to virtually eliminate property rights must be reversed, and that Libya's oil wealth should be used to create venture capital funds.<br />
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<a href="http://www.npr.org/2011/11/14/142289603/libyas-economy-...i-era" title="http://www.npr.org/2011/11/14/142289603/libyas-economy-...i-era">http://www.npr.org/2011/11/14/142289603/libyas-economy-...i-era</a><br />
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This is what the likes of the SWP have supported - turning the Libyan worker over to the greedy claws of the international banksters and speculators.<br />
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As for putting Jihadist psychopaths like Abdelhakim Belhadj in prison (even from the hands of the Brits), my only complaint against Al-Gaddafi is that he released him, after only seven years. We see now what these rats will do to a country if they are let loose. Libya destroyed. Syria devastated. The likes of Belhadj - and the mercenaries coming out of Ireland, such as the SWP's chum Madhi al-Harati, are dangerous, psychopathic, murderers and decent human society needs to be protected from them. Tens of thousands of Libyans would be alive today, and tens of thousands more would not be disfigured for life, if Al-Gaddafi had not been so incredibly lenient with these mercenary psychopaths. And we should make no mistake. The likes of Belhadj and al-Harati are primarily motivated to murder innocent people, not out of any religious fervour, or political belief, but from the money they get from the USA, Saudi Arabia and Qatar for carrying out terrorist attacks.<br />
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Gearóid, you mention Cuba. The Jamahiriya was at least as democratic as Cuba is. Its just that Cuba has always been trendy among Lefties, while Libya has not. The main reason for this is simply that Al-Gaddafi stayed independent from the USSR, and also funded independence movements, such as the IRA, that the trendy Lefties didn't like. It also comes down to the fact that the bourgeois media demonized Al-Gaddafi far more then it demonized Castro, and most of the Western Left lazily spend hours in front of bourgeois TV channels and reading bourgeois newspapers, like the Irish Times, and they absorb the venom unconsciously - then vomit it out, as if it was their own thoughts.<br />
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Your main argument that Libya was not Socialist seems to be an Anarchist argument, i.e. that Socialism doesn't exist unless the Workers are in direct control, thus, the USSR was never Socialist, etc. But, again, you mentioned Cuba. The workers have never been in direct control there either. Indeed, Libya was decades ahead of Cuba, when it came to Direct Democracy, specially in the workplace. I will agree that the Libyan economy was liberalized towards the end, and that was a mistake. However, this mistake mostly came about by the functioning of Direct Democracy. In the mid 1980s, the Peoples Congresses constantly criticized Al-Gaddafi's firm stance against private property. Far from being the dictator that the West likes to portray him as, Al-Gaddafi accepted the will of the Peoples Congresses, and allowed a certain liberalization of the economy. However, he insisted that the commanding heights of the economy remain in public ownership.<br />
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As for doing deals with British and US oil companies, this was the case right from 1969. Libya didn't have the technology or the access to markets that these companies had. The same is true of Chavez and Venezuela, they still do a huge amount of business with US oil companies.<br />
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At the back of all this, you have to remember what Al-Gaddafi spent the last ten years doing. He set up the African Union. He kept Africom out of Africa. Over the last ten years, Libya invested 150 billion dollars in infrastructural projects all over Afria - including giving Africa its first communications satellite, thus freeing it from dependence on Europe, and being subject to European censorship. African nations had been collectively paying Europe 500 million euro a year in satellite rental. Libya put one in the sky for 400 million, and turned it over to the collective use of all Africans. To further make the point, this satellite was totally designed and manufactured in Africa. Al-Gaddafi was working towards an African Central Bank, that could have freed all of Africa from the genocidal claws of the IMF and World Bank. To this end, he had stockpiled 140 tons of gold in Tripoli, to be the basis of this bank. He was only months away from introducing the Gold Dinar. Once this was introduced, the plan was to make the West pay for African commodities in gold - not in worthless US paper dollars. And make no mistake, the use of the dollar murders millions of people in Africa every single year. Al-Gaddafi wanted to end this Holocaust of the Innocents. And that's why the international banksters had to murder him, i.e. get their puppets like Obama, Cameron and Sarkozi to to it (with the shameful complicity of most of the Western Left.)<br />
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To be honest, that Al-Gaddafi is not regarded as one of the greatest Socialists of all time is only due to ignorance, laziness and mental weakness among the elites of the Western Left. It could also be to do with certain funds being channeled into these "Leftist" groups, by the like of self confessed CIA agent, Madhi al-Harati. Are we to believe that he was channeling hundreds of thousands of euro from the CIA, through Ireland, to the rats in Libya - and none of it was given to those who were supporting his cause in the SWP and their front organization, the Irish Anti-War Movement?Al-Gaddafi Saved Millions of Liveshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2929382012-11-02T07:50:56+00:00An Draighneán DonnBy reducing the infant morality rate in Libya from 125\1000 in 1969, to 14\1000 ...By reducing the infant morality rate in Libya from 125\1000 in 1969, to 14\1000 ten years later, Al-Gaddafi saved millions of lives. If he had to break the heads of a few comprador rats to do that, I think the bargain was a good one.<br />
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Please watch this video:<br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfxbC7Dk1ec" title="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfxbC7Dk1ec">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfxbC7Dk1ec</a>Worse to Come.http://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2932162012-11-19T10:11:44+00:00All Knowing.The Irish Left who Supported an autocratic dictator is proof that people in Irel...The Irish Left who Supported an autocratic dictator is proof that people in Ireland who call themselves "Left" are really on the right.<br />
The people of Lybia got rid of him.<br />
That thug will be replaced by worse I suppose.<br />
For Mr Donhttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2932172012-11-19T10:23:16+00:00OligarchP.S.
Libya is awash in oil.
Libyans are poor.
Not one member of the dictator's f...P.S.<br />
Libya is awash in oil.<br />
Libyans are poor.<br />
Not one member of the dictator's family is poor.<br />
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For Oilgarch - Some Factshttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2932192012-11-19T11:22:06+00:00An Draighneán DonnNigeria is awash with oil. The USA is awash with oil. Both of these countries ha...Nigeria is awash with oil. The USA is awash with oil. Both of these countries have massive foreign debts, millions of people in poverty, and no proper social security network. Libya, in complete contrast, had the highest standard of living in Africa. And one of the highest in the world. Ever wonder why the so called "rebels" had beautiful new 4X4s to drive around in? You didn't see too many old cars among them - and most of them were dressed in expensive designer clothes. Every Libyan family got a social salary - not a state handout, but their own share of the oil. Libya had free health care and education, right up to Phd level and beyond.<br />
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Despite the information you got from the yellow press, and from CIA infiltrated groups like the Irish Anti-War Movement, the vast majority of Libyans supported Al Gaddafi - and still do. Not only did NATO need nine months of aerial bombardment to smash the Socialist Jamahiriya, but it also needed to bring in 6,000 Qatari troops, and thousands of Jihadi mercenaries from all over the Arab world - simply because the vast majority of Libyans rejected NATO and its rats. The same is true of Syria today. The vast majority of Syrians reject the CIA \ Mossad Jihadis - most of whom are foreign mercenaries. Another Facthttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2932212012-11-19T11:42:09+00:00An Draighneán DonnOne of the main grievances the few Libyans who joined NATO's destruction of thei...One of the main grievances the few Libyans who joined NATO's destruction of their own country had was that Al Gaddafi regarded Libyan oil as African oil. He did not want to waste this wonderful resource by turning Libyans into worthless fops, as the Gulf states do with their populations. Instead, he invested over 150 billion dollars in infrastructure projects all over Africa, including roads, schools and hospitals. He stockpiled 144 tons of gold in Tripoli to be the basis of an African Central Bank. He also used the money to keep Africom out of Africa. While Al Gaddafi was leader of the Revolution, Libyan oil was Africa's first line of defense against Western imperialism. Now Libyan oil is a weapon for the rape of Africa.<br />
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Groups like the SWP, SP and PSF need to hang their heads in shame. They sided with the rape of Africa, when they sided with Nato's rats.good article to email people on the subject of Libya / Syriahttp://www.indymedia.ie/article/102627#comment2932812012-11-21T05:22:12+00:00fredsimple clear article on countercurrents about what really happened in Libya and ...simple clear article on countercurrents about what really happened in Libya and what is happening in Syria<br />
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<a href="http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto171112.htm" title="http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto171112.htm">http://www.countercurrents.org/gatto171112.htm</a><br />
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