What do Libya’s elections mean for the people?

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Millions of Libyans cast their bal­ lots on July 7 in the first “free” election Libya has seen in over four decades. Throngs of people packed into voting booths to select the country’s new 200seat National Assembly, which will be tasked with creating a new government and writing up a draft constitution. In response to the voting, U.S. President Barack Obama exclaimed: “After more than 40 years in which Libya was in the grip of a dictator, today’s historic elec­ tion underscores that the future of Lib­ ya is in the hands of the Libyan people.”

But what do these elections really mean for the Libyan masses? To pro­ claim that the Libyan people are now free because they are able to vote is to ignore the glaring economic inequal­ ity and oppression that still persists throughout the country.

In February 2011, following the ex­ ample set by the mass mobilizations of Tunisian and Egyptian workers that toppled dictatorial regimes, the Liby­ an masses revolted against their own repressive government. In the city of Benghazi, neighborhood committees were set up to coordinate the struggle and administer day-to-day activities such as the distribution of food and medical supplies.

But whatever independent grassroots movement existed at the beginning of the uprising was soon eclipsed, as the National Transition Council (NTC), composed mainly of rich Libyan elites in exile, took political leadership over the opposition. The leaders of the NTC, who were only interested in inserting themselves as the new ruling elite of Libya, sought to settle their score with Muammar Gadhafi through military means alone. They preferred to call for military aid and intervention from imperialist powers, such as the United States and France, rather than mobilize ordinary Libyans against the dictator.

Seeing a chance to harness and set back the mass dynamic of the Arab Spring and to gain unfettered access to the vast oil reserves of Libya, the impe­ rialist powers quickly geared up for a military intervention against Gadhafi. With the unanimous passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1973, the “no-fly zone” was quickly transformed into a full-scale military offensive, complete with missile strikes and the introduction of ground troops. After the fall of the Gadhafi regime, the NTC took over as the interim government of Libya, pending elections for a National Assembly.

The July 7 elections resulted in a land­ slide victory for Mahmoud Jibril’s Na­ tional Forces Alliance (NFA), a broad coalition of secular and Islamist politi­ cal forces. Jibril was head of the Nation­ al Economic Development Board in the Gadhafi regime, before defecting to join the NTC last spring. Since the interim government did not bar Gadhafi-era officials from standing in the elections, some remnants of the old regime (such as Jibril) remain intact. Jibril is seen by many elites as the only figure capable of rallying a broad coalition in govern­ ment to stabilize the country and en­ courage foreign investment in Libya.

Reuters noted on July 12: “In an oil-producing country with the resources to pay for urgent construction and healthcare needs, Jibril’s consultancy background and international expe­ rience may help ties with investors. The NFA says it supports privatization but emphasizes that Libya must first rebuild its infrastructure” (emphasis added).

But while plans to raise the living standard of Libyans are painfully vague, Libyan leaders’ commitment to foreign oil companies is becoming ever clearer. The state-owned National Oil Corpora­ tion and its subsidiaries control most oil production in Libya. Government officials have placed emphasis on at­ tracting additional foreign corporate investment. The NTC has committed to honoring all Gadhafi-era contracts and debt and is working towards estab­ lishing new contracts with Western oil companies, with NATO countries that supported the armed intervention pre­ dictably getting preferential treatment.

The National Transition Council pre­ viously stated that it would not sign new oil contracts until elections were held and a new government had been formed. Now that this process is under way, Western oil companies are chomp­ ing at the bit to gain increased access to Libya’s vast reserves of crude oil. Libya Business News noted in June that the government will “offer new productionsharing agreements to international oil companies on improved terms to exist­ ing contracts,” i.e., terms more favor­ able for Western companies seeking to amass massive profits from Libyan oil. The Financial Times reported in May that “British companies are gearing up to compete for billions of pounds worth of contracts in Libya as the oil-rich na­ tion presses ahead with its plans to re­ store its tattered infrastructure...”

One wrench in the works for the new Libyan rulers and their imperial­ ist backers alike is the continued exis­ tence of armed militias. Many Western companies are hesitant to invest huge amounts of money in Libya until these militias have been disarmed and reck­ oned with. These militias have been operating with impunity since the fall of Gadhafi last year, carving out local spheres of influence for themselves.

The militias, far from representing a progressive political alternative, are more akin to the armies of the reaction­ (Left) Benghazi polling station. ary warlords in Afghanistan. Patrick Cockburn noted in his recent Counter­ punch article: “Last week Amnesty pro­ duced a devastating report—“Libya: Rule of law or rule of militias?”—based on meticulous and lengthy investiga­ tions, portraying Libya as a country where violent and predatory militia gangs have become the real power in the land. They jail, torture and kill in­ dividuals and persecute whole commu­ nities that oppose them now, did so in the past, or simply get in their way. A few actions by these out-of-control mi­ litiamen have gained publicity, such as taking over Tripoli airport, shooting up the convoy of the British ambassador in Benghazi, and arresting staff members of the International Criminal Court.”

He continues: “But the widespread ar­ bitrary detention and torture of people picked up at checkpoint by the thuw­ war (revolutionaries) is not publicised because the Libyan government wants to play them down, or people are fright­ ened of criticising the perpetrators and becoming targets.”

Whether the new government can reign in the militias is yet to be seen. The Western media has often been si­ lent on the rule of the militias because they want to paint Libya as a success story for foreign intervention, rather than a destabilizing factor. Meanwhile, the Libyan people are struggling to get by, as their country is racked by law­ lessness, destroyed infrastructure, and ongoing poverty.

So what has fundamentally changed in Libyan society since last year? A dif­ ferent section of Libya’s ruling rich (one more beholden to Western imperialist powers) has placed itself at the head of the people and shows no signs of com­ mitting to an economic program that will raise the living standards of the masses. The victory of NATO forces and the installation of this new government represent a defeat for the Libyan peo­ ple, rather than a victory. Armed mili­ tias continue to terrorize the people, while the newly elected Libyan govern­ ment makes plans to auction off the na­ tion’s oil wealth at fire-sale prices.

The liberation struggle in Libya will depend on the construction of a massbased revolutionary socialist party. Only with such an independent leader­ ship can a real revolutionary workers’ movement take hold in Libya and pose an alternative to the oppressive capital­ ist regime that has just been installed at the behest of NATO intervention. n