(Updated April 1) Left statements on Libya: Stop the bombing, victory to the Arab revolution

The Western forces’ claims to be acting out of humanitarian concerns for Libyans, or to be helping the Libyan pro-democracy revolution, have no credibility.

Western powers have propped up Arab dictators for decades. In turn, these regimes have been willing to impose neoliberal policies that open up countries in the oil-rich region to Western corporate interests.

Of course, the rebels celebrated the halting of Gaddafi’s offensive on Benghazi as a result of Western attacks. But the Western powers that are presenting themselves as saviours are not friends of the Libyan people or the Libyan revolution.

The Libyan rebels deserve support in their struggle to overthrow Gaddafi — who was armed by Western governments.

There were alternatives to the Western attacks that would have strengthened the poorly-armed Libyan rebels — including the provision of badly needed anti-aircraft weapons.

But what is occurring is not simple “support” from Western governments to Libyan rebels, it is a Western intervention with its own aims and agenda.

To support the West’s war but then to demand it not go too far is like supporting a train starting to move and then calling for it to stop after five metres when you don’t control the levers — and those who do have their own interests.

The struggle in Libya is part of the regional revolt that has spread, in different forms and levels of intensity, from Tunisia across to Iran.

This revolt has shaken — and in two cases overthrown — pro-Western dictatorships. The Arab revolution is a threat to Western domination of the region.

At the same time as Libya is bombed by the West, Western client states in other Arab countries are trying to drown the revolutions in blood.

These are two parts of the same strategy to undermine and destroy the Arab revolution.

The imperialists are seeking to crush revolts in Yemen, Bahrain and elsewhere, while in Libya they are seeking to use Gaddafi’s crimes to reassert themselves, take the initiative back from the Arab street and legitimise Western military invasions.

Gaddafi deserves to fall, but an imperialist-imposed regime change would not be a victory for the Libyan or Arab revolutions — it would be a victory for Western imperialism.

This is the lesson of the terrible US-led invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan — both justified on the grounds of the “need to act” against horrendous regimes.

Tunisia and Egypt have shown that liberation from dictatorships come from the people themselves — not Western bombs.

In Australia, the Greens have rightly opposed the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq — and won much respect for their stance.

Unfortunately, the Greens have joined with Labor and the Coalition to give support to the Western attack on Libya. The Greens have pointed to the UN’s endorsement of the attack and have defended it on humanitarian grounds.

In New Zealand, however, the Greens have rightly opposed the war. NZ Greens MP Keith Locke said on March 23: “Regime change is on the agenda, as it was in Iraq.”

The Australian Greens should take the lead from their NZ counterparts and reconsider their position.

Stripped of its cynical “humanitarian” rhetoric, Libya is the West’s latest imperialist war. This war should be opposed. It is not being waged in the interests of Libyan people.

[Green Left Weekly is Australia's leading socialist newspaper, and is supported by the Socialist Alliance in Australia.]

The Arab regimes, and the Arab Maghreb countries in particular, have witnessed an arms race accompanied by the formation of alliances with the European Union and the United States which have set them one against the other. This process has brought money from crude oil, which is controlled by international monopolies, flowing back into the region again in order to buy arms. This confirms that the huge arms budgets, which directed the sweat and toil of the Arab peoples into the pockets of the global arms companies, were designed to buy weapons for internal repression or wars with neighbouring countries.

We did not hear the voice of the Security Council, the European Union, or the Americans, for decades while Gaddafi, and his like among the Arab regimes, suppressed their people with the utmost brutality and piled up wealth. They said nothing, so long as these regimes implemented the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund for the abolition of any social support for the poor, which was the only consolation for the Arab peoples. For as long as companies kept open their doors to global capitalism they kept silent.

But once the people had decided to overthrow their corrupt regimes, and actually overthrew the head of the regime, first Ben Ali, and then Mubarak, and the opportunities offered by modern imperialism to the Arab regimes to slaughter their people dried up, then the solution was to intervene.

Intervention means the sacrifice of a few scapegoats, while working to contain the Arab revolutions within the framework of “democratic” niceties and easing the pressure from the masses, in exchange for the removal of social and economic demands, and the national demands of anti-imperialism.

Modern imperialism uses various mechanisms to achieve its single goal, which is to ensure that the Arab regimes remain faithful to the obedience of the monopolies of global capitalism and the politics of colonialism. This is achieved in alliance with the classes which benefit from keeping the old regime alive, and which fear the spread of popular revolution.

Intervention takes many forms: through propaganda and the use of dubious sources of funding linked with the American administration and companies supportive of US-Zionist imperialism as well as through military operations. The entry of the Peninsula Shield force into Bahrain, the announcement of military intervention in Libya, Hillary Clinton's visit, the bags of dollars which appear under the under the pretext of "supporting democracy" and spreading democratic awareness " are all part of the same scheme. This does not mean it is a "conspiracy", but there is naturally a close interdependence of interests, between systems and governments, and international capitalist monopolies.

The foreign intervention is not to support democracy, but it is part of the counter-revolution. The ruling regimes are allied in order to preserve their interests, against popular revolts. Which leads us logically, and not as a matter of rhetoric, to recognise the inevitability of continuing the revolution, in order to win the ultimate elimination of all systems of oppression and exploitation, and not just temporary reforms. This goal cannot be reached within the limits of a regional revolution.

No to foreign interference .No to counter-revolution.

Long live the revolution of the peoples.

Via Campesina: 'Support the Arab peoples in struggle – No to the bombardment of Libya!'

By Via Campesina

March 28, 2011 – From Tunisia and Egypt, to the Yemen and Syria, passing through Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the people are rising up en masse to bring down authoritarian dictatorial regimes. For more than a month now, hundreds of thousands of Libyans peacefully have been taking to the streets calling for the end of the [Gaddafi] regime.

The [Gaddafi] was deaf to these calls and opted for the worst case scenario. The responsibility for the deaths and the blood shed in Libya lies on his shoulders. By choosing to bombard villages and massacre civilian populations, the regime itself has provided the opportunity Western imperialism has been waiting for to try to regain the upper hand in the region.

Today, France, the United States, Canada and Great Britain are engaged in an operation to invade Libya After weeks of watching the Libyan people being massacred and carefully avoiding organising the international pressure that would have been necessary to escape the deadlock, they now pass themselves off as the saviours.

The first bombardments of Libyan infrastructure in Tripoli and elsewhere have already begun. The Western bombers will continue until they can either prepare an occupation of Libya under the banner of the UN or, even better, choose and impose the members of the opposition who will be most favourable to Western interests.

This military operation in Libya, also serves as a distraction, as the repression continues in the Yemen, Bahrain and beyond.

Via Campesina calls for the will of the people to be respected.

Via Campesina calls for an immediate halt to Western military intervention.

Via Campesina calls on everyone to mobilise for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Libya.

[Via Campesina is the international movement of peasants and small farmers.]

Socialist Aotearoa: Stop the NATO bombing of Libya. Victory to the Arab revolution!

"But presumably, once Gaddafi's been dealt with, these dictators will back a UN resolution to bomb themselves, declaring, "The international community can no longer sit back and watch me trample on my own people, so I must be stopped. I give myself three days to recognise the opposition and call elections, otherwise I will assist Nato in bombing myself."

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By Socialist Aotearoa (New Zealand)

March 22, 2011 – Western military intervention in Libya is being sold to us as “humanitarian intervention” to defend the revolution.

The uprising against Muammar Gaddafi’s brutal regime that began on February 17 remains an inspiration.

Gaddafi responded with attacks on civilians, the aerial bombardment of demonstrations, mass round-ups and executions. This left many people in despair, and feeling that Western intervention was the only solution to save their lives.

But the West’s interests are not those of the Libyan revolution. Western governments are not innocent or impartial. They are using this opportunity to reassert their influence in the region.

The ruling class has been rocked by the mass popular revolutions which brought down their allies—Ben Ali in Tunisia and Mubarak in Egypt.

If the West’s support for popular revolutions against violent dictators is genuine, then why are they not supporting all the revolutions? Where is the challenge to the repression of protests in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen?

Hypocrisy

This week Israel launched yet more air attacks on Gaza—but the West has never threatened Israel with a no-fly zone.

The hypocrisy of imperialism is clear. These regimes are allies of the West, so it allows them to act with impunity. Ben Ali and Mubarak enjoyed Western support until it was clear that they were finished.

The Arab League’s support for the West’s actions has been used as a cover. Yet the Arab League is made up of the very same dictators that the revolutions are trying to bring down. They have proved to be solid allies of Western imperialism in the past and have shown no mercy to the popular movements in their own countries.

This alliance is already showing signs of fragmenting as the reality of the bombing becomes clear. After the first day of the attack, Amr Moussa, head of the Arab League, complained, “What is happening in Libya differs from the aim of imposing a no-fly zone, and what we want is the protection of civilians and not the bombardment of more civilians.”

Western intervention is not about protecting innocent civilians or furthering the cause of the revolution. It is aimed at guaranteeing the deals made with Gaddafi by the West in the past. Western powers have, from the beginning, made it difficult for the revolution to succeed on its own terms.

Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), the body that grew out of the revolution, made a series of simple demands in the first crucial days of the uprising. It asked for the recognition of the TNC, access to the billions in sequestrated regime funds in order to buy weapons and other crucial supplies, and an immediate halt to the “mercenary flights” that provided Gaddafi’s regime with its foot soldiers.

Western governments refused to accept even one of these demands. They even objected to weapons sales as they said these could fall into the hands of “Islamist terrorists.”

Objected

Instead, Western powers put a number of conditions on the revolution.

They demanded that any future Libyan government would honour all contracts signed by Gaddafi, including oil concessions. They demanded that the strict repression of “Islamist” movements continue, and that any future government maintain Libya’s role as a guardian against African migration into southern Europe.

The West, in effect, blackmailed the revolution.

“Humanitarian intervention” has a bloody history. The case for humanitarian intervention made during the Balkan Wars in the 1990s became a cover for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Troops still occupy both countries. The war in Afghanistan is in its tenth year.

The ruling class has been thrown into turmoil by the huge movements sweeping the Middle East and North Africa.

Now it is using its intervention as a way of regaining its foothold and rebuilding its credibility.

There is no guarantee that the West will leave Libya fast, and the danger of partition is real.

The Libyan revolution is not lost—but it has been forced to make compromises.

The demands for freedom, for an end to poverty and oppression still burn strongly.

The movements from below provide hope for any real long-term future for the people of the region.

NPA: Support for the Libyan people against the dictatorship

Statement by the Nouveau Parti Anticapitaliste (NPA, New Anti-Capitalist Party, France)

March 18, 2011 – The Libyan population which rose against Gaddafi faces today an outburst of fatal violence. The dictator would like to drown the revolt in a blood bath. Our full and total solidarity goes to the Libyan people who should be given the means to defend themselves, the weapons which it needs to drive out the dictator, to conquer freedom and democracy.

This is not the goal of the decisions of UN and the military coalition led by France and Britain which is on the point of intervening in Libya. The same governments did not say anything against the intervention of the Saudi troops against the revolt in Bahrain. The great powers want to seize the opportunity that the dictator’s madness gives them to try to take back control over the area, rich in oil, while giving each other the beautiful role of defender of the people.

How can we give any credit for sincerity to the French government which for three months has not expressed any solidarity with popular risings and the revolutions in progress in the Mashreq and Maghreb countries? How can we forget a half-century of support of the great powers for the bloodiest dictatorships. From Kosovo and Afghanistan via Iraq, the list is long of so-called "humanitarian" imperialist interventions that did nothing but worsen the local situations.

Military intervention is not the solution and the NPA warns against a new military escalation which is taking shape, against the imperialist goal of control of the area and against interference in the revolutionary processes underway. It reaffirms its support for the Libyan insurrectionists against the dictatorship as with the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.

South African Communist Party: On Libya

March 22, 2011 – SACP – The SACP has noted the adoption of the UN resolution to impose a no-fly zone in Libya. We regard this resolution as extremely unfortunate as it goes against a commitment to resolve global crises without military intervention. The SACP regards this decision as being inconsistent as no similar measures have not been undertaken in relation to the Bahrain.

It would appear world leaders have allowed their irritations with Colonel Moammar Gadhafi to cloud their judgement.

The protests in Libya started indeed as part and parcel of ongoing popular revolts for increased democratic space and participatory democracy. Indeed as the SACP we support these legitimate mass struggles for democracy in Libya, and we strongly condemn the bombing of civilians by the Libyan army. No genuine revolution can ever justify such slaughter and brutality against its people.

The situation has now deteritorated in Libya, characterised by a counter-offensive by armed groups, thus threatenig to turn this into a bloody and protracted civil war.

While we note that the African Union (AU), and indeed our own government, supported the United Nations resolution on Libya, including the creation of the no-fly zone, we must however guard against unwittingly aiding the imperialist lust for Libyan oil. The SACP condemns this imperialist military intervention and prefers that the people of Libya must be allowed space to determine their own future without any foreign imperialist intervention.

While as the SACP we also support the [South African] president's call on Human Rights Day that there must be no attempts at regime change in Libya and that civilian life has to be protected, it is our firm belief that in voting for this resolution in the Security Council our government should also have fully considered the dangers of military intervention that may be used by imperialist forces to exploit such attacks for their own ends, and the extent to which this is consistent with our preferred route of dialogue

The SACP therefore calls upon the AU to earnestly speed up the process of engagement with Libya for an urgent solution to resolve this political impasse. The SACP supports the calls for an immediate cessation of all armed activity in that country, including a halt to bombings by the US and its allies, the Libyan government attacks on unarmed civilians and for the political processes, including the AU process, to be given a chance to resolve the problems in Libya.

Military interventions of this nature have generally not yielded positive results as we have seen in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However in commemoration of our Human Rights Day, the SACP will continue to support legitimate struggle for democracy, including the Libyan people's wishes for democratisation in that country.

Focus on the Global South: End the US-led armed intervention in Libya

Statement of Focus on the Global South

March 22, 2011 – Focus on the Global South supports the democratic opposition in Libya that seeks to end the 43-year-old dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi. Focus shares the Libyan people’s desire to be free of a corrupt and repressive ruler who does not hesitate to employ massive force against his own people to hang on to power.

Focus cannot, however, support the massive armed intervention launched by the United States, France and Britain on Sunday, March 20.

A “no-fly zone” to protect civilians is one thing.  An armed assault aimed at regime change is another thing altogether. The latter is the intent of the US/UK/French-led intervention, which, although displaying the figleaf of a United Nations Security Council resolution, goes far beyond the defensive aims of a no-fly zone to cross over into aggression against Libya.

Firing on ground troops and preemptively and indiscriminately destroying anti-aircraft installations will bring about precisely that loss of life that the intervention ostensibly seeks to prevent.  Civilians are being killed by the Western assault when civilians were supposedly the very people the action was supposed to protect.

The fight for democracy waged by the Libyan people must be supported, but not by Western military action that is an instrument of regime change. This action may ostensibly have humanitarian objectives, but its main objective is to reassert Western hegemony in a region that is caught up in the winds of democratic change.

Owing to its support for authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, the US has lost much of its credibility among the Arab peoples. Indeed, the US may be said to be one of the targets of the Arab democratic revolution. In this context, the intervention in Libya for regime change is Washington’s belated attempt to appear as a pro-democratic force, shore up its tattered legitimacy, and remind the Arab nations of its strategic hegemony in the region. Yet the world will not miss the hypocrisy of a hegemon which shouts that it is supporting democracy in Libya while it stands on the side as a reactionary regime it has armed and supported, Saudi Arabia, has invaded and is crushing democratic forces in Bahrain.

The West’s “armed intervention for democracy “ will not advance the cause of democracy.  Indeed, it will discredit it by associating democracy with a western show of force. The intervention in Libya risks stoking forces as powerful as the democratic movement: Arab nationalism and Islamic solidarity.  It will end up creating conflicts among movements which should be complementary, and the only victor will be Western hegemony.

We in Focus on the Global South call for an immediate end to the US/UK/French-led war on Libya.

We call on global civil society and on governments throughout the world  to support the Libyan people’s struggle for democracy against Gaddafi.

We ask especially the democratic movements in Tunisia and Egypt to come to the aid of the Libyan people.

We call for an end to all efforts to maintain or reassert US hegemony in the Middle East.

Fourth International: Down with the Gaddafi regime! Stop the imperialist intervention now! Support the Libyan revolution!

Statement by the Fourth International

March 23, 2011 – The intervention of the western powers in Libya constitutes a turning point in the situation in the Arab region. Since the beginning of the social and political shock wave which covers almost all the countries of the Arab region, the Fourth International has stood on the side of the democratic and social interests of the Arab people against their tyrants. This has led us to full support for the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions alongside the revolutionary socialist militants of these countries. This is why we supported all the democratic demands – the rights to free expression, trade union and political organisation, pluralism, freedom of the press; and social ones such as job creation, wage increases, fight against high cost of living – of these popular mobilisations, supported the overthrowing of the dictatorships, and the demand for a real break with the former regimes in a democratic and socialist perspective.

In Libya, this policy led us, from the beginning, to support the mobilisations and then the popular insurrection to overthrow the Gaddafi dictatorship. In Libya, solidarity with the popular mobilisations means doing everything to help the people against Gaddafi: total embargo on arms sales to the dictatorship, freezing the assets of the Libyan regime abroad, organisation of medical, food and humane aid for the hundreds of thousands of Libyans persecuted by the regime… Supporting the Libyan people and protecting the civilians, means giving them the means to defend themselves against the massacres by Gaddafi’s mercenaries freeing themselves from the dictatorship. The Arab peoples and armies, starting with the Tunisians and Egyptians, can play a decisive part in this military aid.

The French, English and US bombardments do not aim to “protect the civil populations”, as is claimed in the UN Resolution Security Council 1973 establishing a "no-fly zone" on Libya. As the hours and the days pass, the goals of this UN resolution appear more and more “vague”. Is it really a question of protecting the civil populations? Then why risk bombarding other civilians? Is it rather a question of finishing with Gaddafi or of imposing an agreement on his regime, even a partition of Libya? The risk of escalation that could lead to one or more ground interventions cannot be ignored, contrary to what the resolution says.

In fact, for the imperialist coalition it is a question of re-establishing itself in the area, trying to confiscate the revolutionary process in progress by installing governments in its pay, or by putting pressure on the processes underway. And their strategic oil interests should not be forgotten. Lastly, how can anyone believe these hypocritical governments, who are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and say they want “to protect the civil populations” but leave the populations in Bahrain, in Yemen, in Syria or in Gaza to be massacred.

Support for the Libyan revolution and overthrowing the Gaddafi dictatorship means today humanitarian and military aid to the insurrectionists and an end to the imperialist intervention. The Libyan people are not alone. Their fight is part of the current revolutionary rise that is shaking the Arab world. It is more than ever for the Arab peoples to take control over their destiny without neocolonialist intervention by the Western powers.

Sinistra Critica: Gaddafi out! No to imperialist military intervention!

Statement from Sinistra Critica (Critical Left, Italy)

March 20, 2011 -- International Viewpoint – The Libyan dictatorship’s brutal repression against the people’s revolution provides the best excuse for imperialist military intervention which has the effect of holding back the unfolding revolutionary process throughout the Arab world. The "no-fly" zone decided by the UN Security Council has come after Gaddafi had been allowed to re-take a large part of the liberated area.

The rebels in Benghazi and Tobruk, after having explicitly rejected the poisoned chalice of external Western help for weeks, were now understandably constrained to ask for any sort of international help that would allow them to escape from the regime’s iron fist. These are the cynical calculations that the Western powers have made to the cost of the Libyan people and of all the other peoples in revolt in this region of the world.

The West wants to regain a margin of control on the geopolitical situation and on the oil/gas resources. This control has been put into question by the overthrow of the dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. Those people who up to now have talked about revolutions manipulated by the United States have ended up by sabotaging one of the biggest democratic uprisings in the history of the Arab world. An uprising triggered by the capitalist crisis which has overthrown regimes allied to the West and Israel. A different sort of mobilisation was possible in Europe and it would have resulted today in the Libyan dictator suffering the same fate as Ben Ali and Mubarak.

We are completely against any military intervention in Libya, because there is no such thing as a humanitarian war and this aid will not help the liberation struggle. The strongest support we can give is that of mass mobilisations in all countries which unequivocally call for the removal of the colonel and are against imperialist attempts to intervene in Libya – there is no alternative. The left and the workers' movement have an enormous responsibility on this question. Up to now they have been passive and ambiguous. Any support – however critical – for the NATO countries’ intervention would be disastrous.

No to the military intervention! No to the use of Italian bases for the military intervention!

We demand that the regime’s armed forces end repression and aggression!

Gaddafi must go and the people must freely decide their own future as in Egypt and Tunisia!

Unconditional, total support to the struggles of the Libyan people!

The revolution can suffer setbacks, but the dynamic that exists in many Arab countries can overcome them!

[The Sinistra Critica (Critical Left) was set up in January 2007 by the minority of the Party of Communist Refoundation (PRC) which refused the participation of the party in the government. It includes the comrades of Bandiera Rossa, Italian section of the Fourth International.]

Portuguese Left Bloc condemns attacks on Libya

March 22, 2011 – International Viewpoint – Francisco Louçã states that "the left which stands against military aggression can never accept the kind of violence which is being visited upon Libya ”. The coordinator of the political committee of Portugal's Left Bloc has spoken out against the bombing of Libya on the grounds that "bombing an Arab country will have an incendiary effect in the Arab world", and has called for Portugal to adopt a policy of peace.

According to the news agency Lusa, Louçã recalled the basic idea of futurism, a movement "created by a group of right-wing artists, who argued that war is beautiful, that the machinery of war is beautiful and the destruction of War is the greatest beauty of all time". According to Louçã it is remarkable that after all the drama of the wars that marked the past century and despite all that we know about the legacy of destruction left behind by these wars we continue to see "beautiful" cruise missiles being used to attack a country.

The leader of the bloc said that "war can never be a solution" and recalled that those who are now attacking Libya previously supported despots like Gaddafi, Ben-Ali and Mubarak.

In relation to the position of Portugal, Louçã also recalled that the Portuguese Air Force participated in the recent celebrations of 40 years of Gaddafi’s regime in Tripoli and that Foreign Minister Luís Amado went into Gaddafi’s tent to greet the dictator. Louçã argued that Portugal should act with "sensitivity" in relation to Libya: "We have to have the wisdom of the politics of peace, to abandon the incendiary politics of the EU and the US", he said.

[Francisco Louçã is an economist and a Left Bloc member of the Portuguese parliament. He was the candidate of the Left Bloc in the presidential election of January 2005 (where he won 5.3% of the votes).]

PSOL, Brazil: Full support for the Libyan people’s resistance! Down with Gaddafi! No to imperialist intervention!

Statement by the Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL, Party of Socialism and Liberation, Brazil)

March 19, 2011 -- International Viewpoint -- The dictator Gaddafi is resisting the heroic rebellious struggle of the people with bombs, bullets and mercenaries. His past confrontations with imperialism are nothing but ancient history. Almost 20 years ago Gaddafi became a staunch ally of the interests of multinational oil companies, US and European imperialism. His dictatorship prohibits the organisation of political parties, trade unions and students movements, with prison and torture for anyone who tries to express disagreement.

As part of the wave of insurrections in North Africa, in which the peoples of Egypt and Tunisia managed to overthrow their pro-imperialist dictators Mubarak and Ben Ali, the people of Libya rose up against the cruel dictator Gaddafi and in a matter of a few weeks liberated cities as large sectors of the population joined the fight against the dictator.

The PSOL expresses its full solidarity with the Libyan people and its complete support for their brave resistance in their attempt to defeat the genocidal dictator Gaddafi. In this sense, every possible effort must be made to provide material and political solidarity to ensure the victory of the Libyan resistance.

However, we must be aware that imperialism, with its attitude of hypocricy, is not acting to defend the resistance. The US and European policy is not about helping the Libyan people in their fight to overthrow Gaddafi. Their decision to intervene through the means of the no-fly zone – as Gaddafi advanced on the positions held by the rebel forces – was intended to increase their capacity to influence the political resolution of the crisis by agreeing a new government that will keep intact imperialist interests in the region, thereby serving as a basis for recovery according to the interests of the intervening powers.

Therefore, PSOL calls for support for the Libyan people’s resistance! Down with Gaddafi! No to imperialist intervention!

Sao Paulo, March 19, PSOL Executive Committee

[The Partido Socialismo e Liberdade was formed by currents from the Brazilian PT who rejected participation in the Lula government. The members of the Fourth International in Brazil are members of the PSOL.]

Statement by Communist and Workers' parties against imperialist aggression in Libya

March 21, 2011 – KKE – The imperialist killers headed by the USA, France, Britain and NATO as a whole and with the approval of the UN started a new imperialist war. This time in Libya.

Their allegedly humanitarian pretexts are completely misleading! They throw dust into peoples' eyes! Their real goals are the hydrocarbons in Libya.

We, the Communist and Workers' parties condemn the military imperialist intervention. The people of Libya must determine their future on their own, without foreign imperialist interventions.

We call on the peoples to react and demand the immediate cessation of the bombings and of the imperialist intervention!

1. Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism, PADS
2. Communist Party of Armenia
3. Communist Party of Australia
4. Communist Party of Azerbaijan
5. Communist Party of Bangladesh
6. Workers’ Party of Bangladesh
7. Communist Party of Belarus
8. Workers' Party of Belgium
9. Brazilian Communist Party
10. Communist Party of Brazil
11. Communist Party of Britain
12. New Communist Party of Britain
13. Party of the Bulgarian Communists
14. Communist Party of Canada
15. Communist Party of Chile
16. Socialist Worker's Party of Croatia
17. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
18. Communist Party in Denmark
19. Communist Party of Denmark
20. Communist Party of Estonia
21. Communist Party of Finland
22. Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
23. Unified Communist Party of Georgia
24. Communist Party of Greece
25. Communist Party of India
26. Communist Party of India [Marxist]
27. Tudeh Party of Iran
28. Communist Party of Ireland
29. Workers' Party of Ireland
30. Party of the Italian Communists
31. Communist Party of Kazakhstan
32. Socialist Party of Latvia
33. Lebanese Communist Party
34. Communist Party of Luxembourg
35. Communist Party of Malta
36. Communist Party of Mexico
37. Popular Socialist Party of Mexico
38. New Communist Party of Netherlands
39. Communist Party of Norway
40. Communist Party of Pakistan
41. Communist Party of Poland
42. Portuguese Communist Party
43. Communist Party of Russian Federation
44. Communist Workers' Party of Russia – Revolutionary Party of Communists
45. UCP- CPSU
46. Communist Party of Soviet Union
47. New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
48. Party of the Communists of Serbia
49. Communist Party of Slovakia
50. Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
51. Communist Party of Sri-Lanka
52. Syrian Communist Party
53. Communist Party of Sweden
54. Communist Party of Turkey
55. Labour Party,(EMEP),Turkey
56. Communist Party of Ukraine
57. Union of the Communists of Ukraine
58. Communist Party of Venezuela

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Other parties

• Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France
• Galician People's Union
• Communists-People's Left (Italy)