Cracks in the Empire D espite what talking heads in corporate media

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dictatorships and military rule in the region. We recognize that the U.S. has been directly involved in supplying weapons and other forms of support to regimes that have committed atrocious human rights abuses against civilians.

“Conscious of our responsibility to stop the United States from further manipulations that would interfere with movements on behalf of true democratic developments in other countries, UNAC calls for an immediate halt to U.S. intervention in regions and countries where mass mobilizations are challenging oppressive regimes.”

“We have seen the horrific consequences of U.S./ UN-imposed economic sanctions against Iraq, as well as the consequences of U.S./UN operation of “no-fly zones” over northern and southern Iraq, prior to the U.S. Shock and Awe attacks and invasion. We therefore oppose any form of U.S. military or economic intervention in Libya, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia and other countries where movements are rising in opposition to dictatorships and military rule.”

UNAC’s quick response and carefully crafted statement undoubtedly contributed to the prompt and growing consensus among peace forces that a “nofly zone” and other deadly measures could bring no genuine aid to the forces fighting for democracy and self-determination.

With the threats of intervention into Libya so palpable, it is easy to forget just how violent are the continued occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and the drone and CIA attacks in Pakistan. We are now entering the 11th year of the occupation of Afghanistan, and last year alone over 700 invading soldiers and 10,000 Afghanis died.

This situation demands that the entire antiwar movement use coming weeks to assure the largest turnout possible on April 9 and April 10. The April 9 New York City march and rally assembles at 12 noon in Union Square. The April 10 San Francisco march and rally assembles in Dolores Park at 11 a.m. For more information on the April demonstrations and how to get involved, see www. unacpeace.org., (518) 227-6947. n proclaim, there hasn’t been a revolution in the North African countries of Tunisia or Egypt, or the Persian Gulf’s Bahrain. These have been rebellions. For revolutions transform whole societies—they just don’t remove a few leaders.

That’s why much of U.S. reporting is so misleading. They want to call it a revolution, applaud it, and freeze it, while their handpicked leaders or purchased armies seize the reins of power.

That said, isn’t it curious that most of the countries where rebellions are most widespread are headed by presidents or princes who are U.S. allies? And these allies have used their armies and police to suppress their people, who oppose deeply unpopular policies of their rulers?

These rebellions pose serious challenges to the U.S. empire, for they threaten to dismantle the repressive regimes that undergird U.S. Middle East policy. They are still building, still emerging, across the entire region, and espousing a democracy that the U.S. neither wants nor truly supports.

Remember the indecision with which it initially faced Egyptian unrest? “Nonviolence on both sides?” When one side has tanks, guns, helicopter gun ships, and fighter jets, and the other side has—well, sticks—what can that mean? The U.S. wants quiet. Period.

For, if the choice is between democracy and stability, it’ll opt for stability every time, for globalization requires stability, and globalization is the instrument of empire. Indeed, it is but another word for colonialism—the control of other states by a central, imperial state.

But this empire is also a debtor nation, which manufactures little, and has to beg abroad to pay its vast armies, and support its global apparatus. As colonies peel away, or are taken back by their people, the empire decays, first by inches, then by feet, and soon—by miles.

We may be witnessing the end of something huge.

— © MAJ 2011

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(continued from page 1: “U.S. Hands Off Libya!”) declared that “all options are on the table.” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was “reaching out” to opposition groups and was prepared to offer “any kind of assistance.” Meanwhile, the British have already sent military “advisers” to work with opposition military leaders, NATO has instructed its member countries’ military leaders to prepare for “all eventualities,” and several European countries have already used their militaries for “rescue missions.”

Of course, there is hypocrisy in calling for a no-fly zone against Libya without asking why one is not imposed against the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan to prevent murderous bombings like the one that slaughtered nine children in the first week of March, one of hundreds of such atrocities.

Hussein Malla / AP and military rule.”

Radical activist and author Arundhati Roy has noted that “those who really want to support the popular movement have to resolutely oppose sanctions (let’s not forget the slow genocides in Iraq in the name of ‘democracy’ and in Gaza right now); of course, we also have to fight any military intervention.”

Roy pointed out that “there are forces in Libya—as well as in Egypt and in Tunisia—who seek salvation in the West, but the main forces of the rebellion are the middle and lower classes, and they combine democratic demands with social and anti-imperialist demands. … An alternative power seems to take shape in and around Benghazi. … There is a chance to experiment with people’s power, and we have to support that.

“The Western media are hoping for a color revolution like those staged in eastern Europe, but the Arab world has been the victim of 150 years of brutal colonialism and neo-colonialism, permanent Israeli aggression, numerous U.S.-led wars, neoliberal pillage. … A few rabid liberal democracy criers won’t be enough to turn (Left) Tens of thousands demonstrate in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libya, Feb. 25. borders that the colonialists erected throughout the Middle East.

Real News Network quoted Benghazi residents celebrating “a new-found unity with Arab nations. They raised the flags of Egypt, Tunisia, and Palestine.” Said one: “I’m proud to be an Arab. Lift your head up high! We are Arabs!” This is very significant for the rebels’ chance of success—and for the chance of victory in all the blossoming struggles.

Egyptians and Tunisians have been assisting the uprising, ferrying food and other aid across the borders, providing health care, helping the resistance get around the internet blackout, and sharing tactical advice on confronting repression.

This pan-Arab solidarity should serve as inspiration for an even more urgently needed type of solidarity— that with the hundreds of thousands of super-exploited workers and peasants of Chad and other African countries now in Libya. Used for years by Qadaffi as cheap labor and cannon fodder, they are now reportedly the victims of harassment and even murder by backward forces within the resistance, supposedly because they are being mistaken for mercenaries imported by Qaddafi.

These tragic events too can be traced back to Qaddafi’s divide-and-rule tactics, done at the behest of his new imperialist friends. Author Machetera of the Tlaxcala translation service noted that “in order to normalize relations with the European Union, Qaddafi became the guardian of concentration camps where thousands of Africans headed for Europe are held.”

Such Arab-African solidarity is especially possible given that revolts are happening right now in several sub-Saharan African countries. A revolutionary leadership must be forged in Libya that protects African workers in Libya, and at the same time fosters a unity of the Arab and African revolutions—the kind of unity demonstrated in theory and practice by the best of the Algerian revolutionaries in their struggle against French colonization.

The mass antiwar demonstrations on April 9 in New York City and April 10 in San Francisco are an opportunity to loudly raise the call against U.S. intervention in Libya and for self-determination by the Libyan people. “U.S. hands off Libya and the entire Middle East!” n

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Socialist Action march 2011 3 ... LIBYA