[Marxism] SWV on Earth Day 2019 and trends in environmental movement

[jgreen--- via Marxism]

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As the demand for climate action grows:
Build a working class movement against climate change!

(From Seattle Workers' Voice, vol. 3, #2, April 13, 2019)

As was predicted would happen decades ago, global warming is now giving rise 
to increasingly devastating floods, droughts and wildfires, cyclones, polar 
vortexes 
and other climatic changes, and climate refugees. And as was known decades 
ago, burning fossil fuels is the main cause of this warming, with 
deforestation, 
agricultural and other land-use practices that destroy natural "sinks" that 
absorb 
carbon dioxide making it worse. But greenhouse gas emissions reached record 
highs in 2017 and in 2018.

How can this disastrous situation be happening?

Rather than attempting to plan and directly regulate industry, agriculture and 
transportation, in the 1990s a large number of "environmentally aware" 
governments embarked on the path of trying to use market measures--setting up 
a market in carbon-emission certificates ("cap and trade)" and/or imposing 
carbon 
taxes--to rein in green house gas emissions.  Other countries, such as the 
United 
States, didn't even do that much.  Furthermore, establishment environmentalism, 
as represented by Al Gore and the leaders of the mainstream environmental 
groups, did their utmost to divert the environmentalists into becoming 
champions 
of these market solutions that have so miserably failed.

At root of this debacle is that the polluting and otherwise earth-destroying 
corporations and their financiers are bitterly driven to oppose any serious 
environmental measures because those will infringe on their profits.  Thus, to 
save these profits the IMF and World Bank, plus ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and other 
oil companies have thrown their support behind carbon pricing and the carbon 
tax. (1) Trump and the Republicans obviously serve them with human-caused 
climate change denialism: "what problem??" But the Democrats also serve them 
by foot-dragging when it comes to taking sufficient measures to curb climate 
change, including Gov. Inslee's pushing the carbon tax.

So the struggle to stop and mitigate climate change is at heart a class 
struggle, 
but a class struggle that the polluting corporations and their political 
servants 
have been winning at the peril of the huge majority of humanity. The only 
conclusion is that a trend of working-class environmentalism must be built up 
in 
order to fight and overcome them. Such a trend that has no interest in 
preserving 
the profits of those destroying the earth and every interest in preserving and 
replenishing it. Further, such a trend must struggle against the sold out 
AFL-CIO 
and other union bureaucrats who fight for business-as-usual pollution, even if 
means the planet becomes uninhabitable.

Recent developments show that the potential for building a working-class 
environmental movement exists everywhere.

For example, the French working people are just as concerned about climate 
change as everyone else, but beginning in November millions of them rose in the 
powerful "yellow vest" movement that forced the government to abandon another 
fuel tax increase. This was because the workers and poor were fed up with being 
economically squeezed in the name of environmentalism.  Indeed, in opposition 
to that many raised slogans demanding that the rich should be made to pay, 
while 
people all over the country also pointed out that they couldn't give up 
traveling in 
cars because there was no mass transit where they lived. Their mass rebellion 
demonstrated to the entire world that environmentalism has to make a choice. 
Either side with the struggle of the masses for a decent life or side with the 
corporations and the measures that they prefer, such as the carbon tax.

The potential also exists among the tens and tens of thousands of Belgium 
environmental demonstrators who forced an environment minister to quit in 
February, and who continue to mount protests of many thousands.  Also in recent 
months, new environmental groups have been organized around the world that 
are demanding that governments take serious climate action now. On March 15 
they helped mobilize some 1.2 million young people into streets around the 
world 
for a "Youth Climate Strike," including many hundreds in Seattle. On April 15 
there will be another international protest called by one of these newer 
groups, 
Extinction Rebellion (see end for Seattle information). 

And the potential exists among the millions of people who are excited by the 
idea 
of a Green New Deal and the concept of linking environmentalism with the 
livelihood of the masses of people. This shows 

Re: [Marxism] Libya: Defend Tripoli! Defeat Haftar!

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Thanks for your contribution.

I note that you seem to prefer the academic "Marxist" category of 
"imperialised" states instead of the classic category "semi-colonial" 
states.


But leaving aside this, your general considerations do not deal with the 
issue we are debating: what was resp. is the relationship between 
imperialist power(s) and political forces fighting in a given country 
(Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc.)


Am 13.04.2019 um 20:00 schrieb Sami El-sayed via Marxism:

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RKOB said: "In Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. imperialism was able to
occupy the whole
country and to install a colonial puppet regime. They controlled most of
the country for years. Yes, there were local uprisings which temporary
weakened the control in this or that town/area (e.g. Fallujah 2004 for a
few months). But by and large the U.S. forces with tens of thousands of
troops plus their colonial administration dominated the country for a
number of years. Only after a considerable period their rule weakened
because of the popular insurgency and they had to retreat.

In Libya there were no U.S. or other NATO troops on the ground (except a
few special forces which had to stay there in secret). The imperialists
did not control the country at any point. Guess why they had to close
their embassies soon?!"

I think there's two problems with this analysis of the situation. In
the first instance, there's an assumption that imperialist
machinations essentially result in perfect outcomes from the
perspective of the imperialists. In my opinion, there's an incorrect
assumption that US imperialism always comes up with the perfect
strategy in order to pursue its interests. The second problem is that
it assumes that the standard operating tactic of imperialism is
"colonial" occupation of an imperialised state.

On the first point, I think it's worth arguing that from the
perspective of US imperialism that invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
were strategic blunders which caused huge regional instability and in
the long run threatened the US's grip in the Middle East. The Syrian
Civil War, while it has multiple causes, is in many ways a
continuation of the fallout from the Iraq War. It stands to reason
that seeing how costly these two wars were, US imperialism has scaled
back the nature of its military interventions over the past decade,
retreating from its adventurism of large scale military invasions and
going for more "surgical" interventions with short term goals, and
then operating through proxy forces. The so-called "nation building"
approach is dead and gone, I believe. Libya, Syria, and to a much
lesser extent Ukraine present various manifestations of that. If you
need an indication of how disorganised the forces of imperialism can
be, you need only look to Syria where different US proxy forces have
been fighting eachother as a result of different arms of the US state
acting out their own plans.

In short, there's no particular reason to assume that the tactics of
US imperialism applied in the past decade or so would be the same as
the tactics it has applied in the early-mid 2000's. In that sense
looking to Libya etc and saying "Well, it's not like Iraq and
Afghanistan so imperialist interests aren't central here" is a bit of
a one-sided approach. But there's also no reason to believe that the
application of tactics of imperialist forces is always correct or will
lead to a good outcome from their perspective.

Imperialist intervention into Libya in particular was the short term
goal of removing Gaddafi from power, without much regard for what came
after. Maybe they assumed that removing Gaddafi from power would
naturally flow into a new pro-US regime that would act in the
interests of US capital, but ultimately that isn't what happened and
if that was their perspective, then they made a strategic error. It
happens. In any case, the goal wasn't to establish a "colonial"
occupation and then "nation build" in Libya as with Iraq. It's worth
keeping mind that imperialism isn't simply a form of
political-military dominance, but also a matter of economic interests.
The Libyan Civil War resulted in the halting of oil production, which
was damaging the profits of various Western oil companies. BP France
negotiated an oil deal with the rebel leadership before they even
overthrew Gadaffi. Intervening, ending the war, and 

[Marxism] Stop the imperialist witch-hunt against WikiLeaks founder Assange!

[RKOB via Marxism]

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A Statement originally issued in 2012

https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/europe/stop-witch-hunt-against-assange/ 



--
Revolutionär-Kommunistische Organisation BEFREIUNG
(Österreichische Sektion der RCIT, www.thecommunists.net)
www.rkob.net
ak...@rkob.net
Tel./SMS/WhatsApp/Telegram: +43-650-4068314



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[Marxism] Revolution or the Democratic Road to Socialism? A Reply to Eric Blanc - COSMONAUT

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://cosmonaut.blog/2019/04/13/revolution-or-the-democratic-road-to-socialism-a-reply-to-eric-blanc/
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[Marxism] Fact-checking Max Blumenthal | Louis Proyect: The Unrepentant Marxist

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://louisproyect.org/2019/04/14/fact-checking-max-blumenthal/
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[Marxism] Burhan backed by junior officers pushes to take control of transitional military council, holds talks with opposition | MadaMasr

[MF Kalfat via Marxism]

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https://madamasr.com/en/2019/04/13/feature/politics/burhan-backed-by-junior-officers-pushes-to-take-control-of-transitional-military-council-holds-talks-with-opposition/
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[Marxism] Declassified U.S. Documents Reveal Details About Argentina’s Dictatorship - The New York Times

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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An American named Gwen Bottoli identified as a member of the "Socialist 
Youth Alliance" was tortured in Argentina during the dictatorship. 
Obviously, this was the YSA. I don't recall anybody that name but assume 
she was a comrade. In the FBI file linked to in the article, which does 
refer to the YSA specifially, she is identified as Gwen Loken. I imagine 
that Bottoli was her married name.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/12/world/americas/argentina-dictatorship-cia-documents.html
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[Marxism] Central American Farmers Head to the U.S., Fleeing Climate Change

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, April 13, 2019
Central American Farmers Head to the U.S., Fleeing Climate Change
By Kirk Semple

CORQUÍN, Honduras — The farmer stood in his patch of forlorn coffee 
plants, their leaves sick and wilted, the next harvest in doubt.


Last year, two of his brothers and a sister, desperate to find a better 
way to survive, abandoned their small coffee farms in this mountainous 
part of Honduras and migrated north, eventually sneaking into the United 
States.


Then in February, the farmer’s 16-year-old son also headed north, 
ignoring the family’s pleas to stay.


The challenges of agricultural life in Honduras have always been mighty, 
from poverty and a neglectful government to the swings of international 
commodity prices.


But farmers, agricultural scientists and industry officials say a new 
threat has been ruining harvests, upending lives and adding to the surge 
of families migrating to the United States: climate change.


And their worries are increasingly shared by climate scientists as well.

Gradually rising temperatures, more extreme weather events and 
increasingly unpredictable patterns — like rain not falling when it 
should, or pouring when it shouldn’t — have disrupted growing cycles and 
promoted the relentless spread of pests.


The obstacles have cut crop production or wiped out entire harvests, 
leaving already poor families destitute.


Central America is among the regions most vulnerable to climate change, 
scientists say. And because agriculture employs much of the labor force 
— about 28 percent in Honduras alone, according to the World Bank — the 
livelihoods of millions of people are at stake.


Last year, the bank reported that climate change could lead at least 1.4 
million people to flee their homes in Mexico and Central America and 
migrate during the next three decades.


The United States has allocated tens of millions of dollars in aid in 
recent years for farmers across Central America, including efforts to 
help them adapt to the changing climate.


But President Trump has vowed to cut off all foreign aid to Honduras, 
Guatemala and El Salvador because of what he calls their failure to curb 
the flow of migrants north.


Critics contend the punishment is misguided, though, because it could 
undermine efforts to address the very problems that are driving people 
to abandon their farms and head to the United States.


“If Donald Trump withdraws all the funds for Honduras, it’s going to 
generate more unemployment, and that’s going to generate more 
migration,” said María Esperanza López, the general manager of Copranil, 
a coffee-growers cooperative here in western Honduras. “And that’s going 
to result in more abandoned farms.”


Fredi Onan Vicen Peña, the coffee farmer whose brothers, sister and 
teenage son have already given up and joined the exodus north, reached 
over and tore a leaf off one of his plants.


It was a mottled yellow and brown: signs of coffee rust, a disease whose 
spread has been influenced by climate variability. As much as 70 percent 
of his crop, planted across five acres in a pine forest, had been 
affected, he estimated, and there was little chance he could salvage it.


“Climate change is destroying some farms,” said Mr. Vicen, 41.

Beyond that, some of his healthier plants had begun to blossom nearly 
two months ahead of schedule because of a heavy unseasonable downpour, 
throwing the entire growing cycle into doubt.


“This is not something we predicted,” Mr. Vicen said.

Average temperatures have risen by about two degrees Fahrenheit in 
Central America over the past several decades, making the cultivation of 
coffee difficult, if not untenable, at lower altitudes that were once 
suitable.


That has forced some farmers to search for land at higher altitudes, 
switch to other crops, change professions — or migrate.


“Some very fine families that have been producing quality coffee for a 
long time are now facing the decision of whether to stay in coffee,” 
said Catherine M. Tucker, a professor of anthropology at the University 
of Florida who has done research in Honduras for more than two decades.


Some climate scientists say that in the absence of long-term 
meteorological data, it is hard for them to say with certainty whether 
the increasing variability is caused by long-term changes in the 
region’s climate. But, they say, they are leaning in that direction.


“It’s becoming so unusual, it’s almost certainly climate change,” said 
Dr. Edwin J. Castellanos, dean of the Research Institute at the 
Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, a university in Guatemala City, and 
one of Central America’s leading scientists 

[Marxism] These High School Murals Depict an Ugly History. Should They Go? (Carol Pogash, The New York Times); New Deal Murals Spur Controversy (Gray Brechin, Living New Deal)

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/arts/design/george-washington-murals-ugly-history-debated.html

https://livingnewdeal.org/new-deal-murals-spur-controversy/


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Re: [Marxism] Libya: Defend Tripoli! Defeat Haftar!

[Sami El-sayed via Marxism]

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RKOB said: "In Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. imperialism was able to
occupy the whole
country and to install a colonial puppet regime. They controlled most of
the country for years. Yes, there were local uprisings which temporary
weakened the control in this or that town/area (e.g. Fallujah 2004 for a
few months). But by and large the U.S. forces with tens of thousands of
troops plus their colonial administration dominated the country for a
number of years. Only after a considerable period their rule weakened
because of the popular insurgency and they had to retreat.

In Libya there were no U.S. or other NATO troops on the ground (except a
few special forces which had to stay there in secret). The imperialists
did not control the country at any point. Guess why they had to close
their embassies soon?!"

I think there's two problems with this analysis of the situation. In
the first instance, there's an assumption that imperialist
machinations essentially result in perfect outcomes from the
perspective of the imperialists. In my opinion, there's an incorrect
assumption that US imperialism always comes up with the perfect
strategy in order to pursue its interests. The second problem is that
it assumes that the standard operating tactic of imperialism is
"colonial" occupation of an imperialised state.

On the first point, I think it's worth arguing that from the
perspective of US imperialism that invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq
were strategic blunders which caused huge regional instability and in
the long run threatened the US's grip in the Middle East. The Syrian
Civil War, while it has multiple causes, is in many ways a
continuation of the fallout from the Iraq War. It stands to reason
that seeing how costly these two wars were, US imperialism has scaled
back the nature of its military interventions over the past decade,
retreating from its adventurism of large scale military invasions and
going for more "surgical" interventions with short term goals, and
then operating through proxy forces. The so-called "nation building"
approach is dead and gone, I believe. Libya, Syria, and to a much
lesser extent Ukraine present various manifestations of that. If you
need an indication of how disorganised the forces of imperialism can
be, you need only look to Syria where different US proxy forces have
been fighting eachother as a result of different arms of the US state
acting out their own plans.

In short, there's no particular reason to assume that the tactics of
US imperialism applied in the past decade or so would be the same as
the tactics it has applied in the early-mid 2000's. In that sense
looking to Libya etc and saying "Well, it's not like Iraq and
Afghanistan so imperialist interests aren't central here" is a bit of
a one-sided approach. But there's also no reason to believe that the
application of tactics of imperialist forces is always correct or will
lead to a good outcome from their perspective.

Imperialist intervention into Libya in particular was the short term
goal of removing Gaddafi from power, without much regard for what came
after. Maybe they assumed that removing Gaddafi from power would
naturally flow into a new pro-US regime that would act in the
interests of US capital, but ultimately that isn't what happened and
if that was their perspective, then they made a strategic error. It
happens. In any case, the goal wasn't to establish a "colonial"
occupation and then "nation build" in Libya as with Iraq. It's worth
keeping mind that imperialism isn't simply a form of
political-military dominance, but also a matter of economic interests.
The Libyan Civil War resulted in the halting of oil production, which
was damaging the profits of various Western oil companies. BP France
negotiated an oil deal with the rebel leadership before they even
overthrew Gadaffi. Intervening, ending the war, and starting up oil
production again would've been a key motivator here.
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[Marxism] Donald Trump (AKA Netanyahu) reelected as Israeli Prime Minister

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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The apparent reelection of Donald Trump - AKA Benjamin Netanyahu - as
Israeli prime minister is a result not only of his success in crushing the
Palestinian movement for now; it is also a result of the partial defeat of
the Arab Spring. However, just as the Arab spring reverberated inside
Israel, the new movements in the region may ultimately have a similar
effect. Meanwhile, in the US, Netanyahu’s turn towards open racists as well
as homophobes makes the task of defending that racist state here even more
difficult.


Within the region, we see different blocs more clearly developing, with
those more closely aligned with US imperialism also moving towards Israel.
This includes both the Saudi regime as well as several of the Kurdish
nationalist forces, including the PYD.



https://oaklandsocialist.com/2019/04/13/trump-elected-israeli-prime-minister/
-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
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[Marxism] Code Pink, Madonna and Palestinian resistance

[Philip Ferguson via Marxism]

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https://rdln.wordpress.com/2019/04/11/code-pink-madonna-and-palestinian-resistance/
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[Marxism] Whistling Past the Graveyard | Boston Review

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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A decade after the financial crisis, economists still have not rethought 
macroeconomics. A new history takes on the field's unrepentant hubris.


http://bostonreview.net/class-inequality/jonathan-kirshner-whistling-past-graveyard
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[Marxism] Ireland: Return of the National Question

[Brian Kelly via Marxism]

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http://www.rebelnews.ie/2019/04/12/3082/ 


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[Marxism] Who are Venezuela’s colectivos? | Green Left Weekly

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/venezuela-colectivos
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[Marxism] How the Great Leftist Thinkers of the 20th Century Contended With Zionism

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, April 13, 2019
How the Great Leftist Thinkers of the 20th Century Contended With Zionism
By J.J. Goldberg

THE LIONS’ DEN
Zionism and the Left From Hannah Arendt to Noam Chomsky
By Susie Linfield
389 pp. Yale University Press. $32.50.

As discouraging as these times may be for fans of liberal democracy, the 
mood among liberal friends of Israel — including most American Jews — is 
more like severe heartbreak. Look one way and there’s Israel’s right 
wing carousing with European despots and Holocaust deniers while fanning 
racism at home. Look the other way and see the cream of the 
intersectional left cavorting with the reactionary bigot Louis Farrakhan 
while young rock-star progressives in Congress set about rebranding the 
Jewish state from ally into enemy and its supporters — meaning, again, 
most American Jews — into traitors.


Long gone are the days when Israel was new and appealed to idealists 
around the world, when Golda Meir was a celebrated deputy chairwoman of 
the Socialist International and Pete Seeger and the Weavers were singing 
the Israeli folk tune “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” on the “Hit Parade.”


How, she asks, did the state of Israel, which “came out of, and was 
nurtured by, the left,” become anathema to that same left? How did 
“Zionist,” the name for participants in and sympathizers with the Jewish 
state-building effort, “become the dirtiest word to the international 
left — akin, say, to ‘racist,’ ‘pedophile’ or ‘rapist’?”


On the flip side, how did Israel “come to deny the national rights of a 
neighboring people and to violently suppress them — not for a year or 
two, but for over a half century?”


Important questions, and achingly timely. Strangely, “The Lions’ Den” 
does not really address them. The book is described in Linfield’s 
introduction, in the jacket copy and promotional material as an 
“intellectual history” tracing the evolution of left-wing thought that 
brought us from there to here, from, say, Pete Seeger to Ilhan Omar. But 
the actual book, the one sandwiched in between “Introduction” and 
“Conclusion,” is something quite different. It is, in fact, something 
more original, more interesting and probably more important than a 
standard intellectual history would have been. Why the book so 
misrepresents itself remains a mystery.


The heart of “The Lions’ Den” is a series of individual portraits of 
iconic, midcentury left-wing thinkers who wrote extensively on the idea 
and reality of Jewish statehood. Six of the eight share overlapping 
biographies and experiences, which makes their very different 
intellectual journeys through the same historical thicket both 
instructive to today’s searchers and relevant to today’s crises.


The other two, Noam Chomsky and the British journalist Fred Halliday, 
seem quite out of place here, yet another oddity in this volume. Both 
entered the arena in a later era, making their stories irrelevant to the 
book’s drama, and neither of them — the very Jewish Chomsky or the 
non-Jewish Halliday — participates visibly in the others’ intensely 
personal struggles with Jewish identity.


The six overlapping profiles, on the other hand, tell such an intriguing 
story that the book’s marginal oddities fade in importance. Here they 
are: the German-born political philosopher Hannah Arendt; the mercurial, 
Hungarian-born novelist and adventurer Arthur Koestler; the great 
biographer and Trotsky admirer Isaac Deutscher; the combative American 
journalist I. F. Stone; the French Arabist journalist Maxime Rodinson; 
and the Tunisian-French anticolonialist philosopher Albert Memmi.


All six lived through, wrote about and were shaped by the cataclysmic 
events of the mid-20th century: the rise of fascism, the Moscow show 
trials, World War II and the Holocaust, Israel’s independence and, 
significantly, the 1967 Six-Day War. All considered themselves 
socialists, some episodically, most as a lifelong identifier.


All six were Jewish. All wrote urgently and at length about the Jewish 
history that was unfolding before their eyes. All wrote about the place 
of the Jew in the modern world, some dismissively, most with sympathy, 
all beneath the shadow of the Nazi genocide that was engulfing Europe 
and their own families.


The six were all independent, unconventional thinkers who often found 
themselves alone and at odds with their own peers and allies. All 
produced ideas and phrases that have entered our moral vocabulary, most 
notably Arendt’s “banality of evil.”


And, of course, all six dealt repeatedly and at great length with the 
question of Jewish statehood, or Zionism. Only two retained their views 
over 

Re: [Marxism] Libya: Defend Tripoli! Defeat Haftar!

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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In 2011 the anti-Gaddafi rebels in Libya received support from NATO and Qatar, 
in the form of NATO aerial bombardment of Gaddafi's troops, NATO and Qatari 
special forces accompanying rebel fighters, etc.  RKOB downplays the 
significance of this.

But when the Syrian Democratic Forces receive similar aid in their fight 
against ISIS, Michael Probsting denounces them as "the infantry of the Western 
Great Powers in Syria".

The SDF took advantage of the US government's panic after ISIS captured Mosul 
in 2014.  An agreement was reached to cooperate in the fight against the common 
enemy.  The SDF also got US assistance in deterring a Turkish invasion of 
northeastern Syria, which would have diverted the SDF away from the fight 
against ISIS (though the US did nothing to stop the Turkish invasion of Afrin).

It is common for militarily weak movements and governments to seek the 
assistance of stronger powers.  Often this means taking advantage of 
inter-imperialist rivalries.  For example, Venezuela has received some aid from 
Russia to deter a possible US invasion.

This certainly has dangers.  The receipt of aid from imperialist powers can 
have a corrupting effect on progressive governments and movements.  But I don't 
think we should assume that this is inevitable.

In Libya, a section of the rebel leadership was always anti-democratic - for 
example, promoting anti-black racism.  See my 2014 article "Libya's continuing 
struggle for democracy":

http://links.org.au/node/3659

This contrasts with the efforts in northeast Syria to unite people across 
ethnic and religious lines.

Chris Slee


From: Marxism  on behalf of RKOB via 
Marxism 
Sent: Saturday, 13 April 2019 1:56:28 PM
To: Chris Slee
Subject: Re: [Marxism] Libya: Defend Tripoli! Defeat Haftar!

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Well, it should not be so difficult to recognize the difference:

In Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. imperialism was able to occupy the whole
country and to install a colonial puppet regime. They controlled most of
the country for years. Yes, there were local uprisings which temporary
weakened the control in this or that town/area (e.g. Fallujah 2004 for a
few months). But by and large the U.S. forces with tens of thousands of
troops plus their colonial administration dominated the country for a
number of years. Only after a considerable period their rule weakened
because of the popular insurgency and they had to retreat.

In Libya there were no U.S. or other NATO troops on the ground (except a
few special forces which had to stay there in secret). The imperialists
did not control the country at any point. Guess why they had to close
their embassies soon?!

It is really difficult to comprehend why it is so difficult for some to
understand such simple facts!

But, of course, some don't want to recognize these facts because their
are politically blinded. The basis for this blindness is to be found in
the increasing collaboration between Saudi Arabia & UAE (which finance
and support Haftar) and the YPG (see on this e.g.
https://www.thecommunists.net/worldwide/africa-and-middle-east/the-shameful-response-of-the-kurdish-ypg-on-the-killing-of-the-saudi-journalist-kashoggi/).
These Gulf monarchies always hated the Arab Revolution (this is why
Tunisia's Ben Ali - who received strong support by Gaddafi before his
fall - fled to Saudi Arabia in January 2011 with the country's gold
reserves). The YPG also never supported the Arab Revolution and is
currently looking for an agreement with the Assad dictatorship (see on
this e.g.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/01/egypt-mediate-kurds-syria-regime-manbij.html;
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/isis-will-be-defeated-in-a-month-says-syrian-kurdish-militia-leader-1.817941;
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-ypg-exclusive/exclusive-syrian-kurdish-ypg-expects-negotiations-with-damascus-soon-idUSKCN1PI2LO).
And it is the darling of numerous Stalinist and also some "Trotskyists"
who also viewed the Arab Revolution sceptical or even hostile. This was
expressed by their hostility to the Libyan Revolution, to Assad as well
as their support for the bloody military coup of General Sisi in Egypt.
(On the Egypt coup and the left see the following pamphlet e.g.
https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/egypt-and-left-army-socialism/)

[Marxism] Don’t just stop the wheel, break it! Feudalism, capitalism and revolution in Game of Thrones | Sean Ledwith | Culture Matters

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

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https://www.culturematters.org.uk/index.php/culture/tv/item/3024-don-t-just-stop-the-wheel-break-it-feudalism-capitalism-and-revolution-in-game-of-thrones


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