Its lessons and legacy.

By Jaqueline Singh WHILE within Fortress Europe right wing agitation and violence against refugees are on the increase, its external borders are increasingly impenetrable. People who flee from hunger, war, violence and exploitation are drowned in the Mediterranean or herded into massive camps on the borders of Greece or Turkey. War zones such as Afghanistan […]

By Dave Stockton Five years after the NATO-led intervention into the revolutionary civil war that ended in the overthrow of dictator Muammar Gaddafi, Western powers are preparing to send ground troops into Libya. Britain, France and Italy may well play some sort of role.Their declared objective is to destroy Islamic State (IS) forces in Libya, […]

By Marcus Halaby March 21, 2015 Those on the left who supported Muammar Gaddafi’s dictatorship against its own people in 2011 occasionally cite the chaos and confusion in Libya today as proof that his dictatorship was a necessary evil, and that his overthrow would inevitably lead to Libya’s becoming “another Somalia”, a fragmented “failed state.” […]

“France represents only humanitarian interests,” insists French president François Hollande. It is a solely a case of the war on terror, an attempt to stop al-Qaeda gaining another Afghanistan or Somalia – a collapsed state from which to mount operations into the “civilised” world of the imperialist powers. It might seem strange that after a […]

Marcus Halaby analyses the great – and as yet uncompleted – Arab revolutions of 2011, debunking a number of myths and proving the relevance of Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution today.

The Arab Spring of 2011 inspired millions around the world through its acts of heroism. But now the revolutions have stalled. In the spirit of solidarity with these movements and communist internationalism, Marcus Halaby takes a critical look at the far left in these countries and Syria in particular   One of the most noticeable […]

Gaddafi has been toppled from power, but the fight for the future of Libya continues. Dave Stockton looks at the growing conflicts amongst the anti-Gaddafi forces.

This piece at the Daily Kos looks at the clamour of western powers to claim victory for the Libyan Revolution in order to increase their control of the country into the future. Although we do not agree with the author that the Nato bombers “did serve a humanitarian purpose”, the article usefully counters the arguments […]

Gaddafi has been defeated – now the fight is on to save Libya from NATO and the oil grabbing western powers, writes Richard Brenner

THE IMPERIALIST powers were caught backing the ‘wrong side’ in the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, notes Richard Brenner. Only when it became clear that Mubarak would fall, did they turn around and start to pose as apostles of democracy.

Every revolution is at some stage confronted by a counter-revolutionary struggle. Egypt’s Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben Ali may have been caught by surprise but the other Arab rulers were forewarned and forearmed in the event that their people rose up too. Marcus Halaby takes an analytical view

Fierce fighting continues across Libya as the revolutionaries struggle to bring down Gaddafi’s regime.

The UN decision to intervene in Libya was not a humanitarian measure to “protect civilians”. It was, first of all, a carefully calculated policy to protect Western interests in the country. Secondly, however, it was a major step towards stabilising the entire region, stemming the tide of rebellion while ensuring the continued rule of Western […]

The rebellion against Gadaffi’s dictatorship deserves unconditional support and that is not altered by the UN decision. Those who oppose powerful states have the right to get hold of arms wherever they can and to take advantage of any weaknesses in their oppressors’ situation. That remains true even where the weaknesses are the result of […]

The revolutions sweeping North Africa and the mass protest movements across the Middle East are a sign of the times. For too long, people in the world have been living under the boot of western imperialism and authoritarian dictatorships. Now across the globe they are beginning to rise up, writes Simon Hardy

Muammar Abu al-Gadaffi, Libya’s brutal dictator, has used his armed forces to slaughter pro-democracy protesters, a vicious act unseen in Tunisia or Egypt writes Simon Hardy.

What is a revolutionary situation “… a revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, it is not every revolutionary situation that leads to revolution. What, generally speaking, are the symptoms of a revolutionary situation? […] (1) when it is impossible for the ruling classes to maintain their rule without any change; when there is […]