Britain, Anarchist Federation ORGANISE! #84 - War and
Barbarism (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
The increasing troubles faced by capitalism are exhibited in the ongoing situation in the
Near and Middle East. We take a look at the situation in Libya, Israel, and Palestine, and
the constantly developing situation in the region encompassing Iraq, Iran, and Syria. ----
Libya: The fall of Gaddafi and the developing civil war ---- Libya experienced the same
fate in 2011 as previously suffered by Iraq and indeed Somalia and Afghanistan. It was
subject to a massive military attack that deposed the Gaddafi regime, leading to the
dictator’s death, many thousands of civilian deaths, and the hacking up of the country.
Until then Gaddafi had been seen by the West as a useful ally in ensuring the stability of
Libya and the surrounding region. Tony Blair had developed good relations with the dictator.
Gaddafi had maintained control of Libya
through a combination of repression and relative
economic wealth through oil revenues. The Sarkozy
government in France unleashed its military power
against Libya in a savage wave of bombing under
the mantle of NATO. In this it was supported by the
Coalition government in Britain, with the implicit
support of the USA. Why had this happened?
Gaddafi was looking towards building up an alternative
power base to the West in Africa. He talked about
increasing the power of the African Union, of creating
an African Central Bank and an African Monetary
Fund with an African common currency. This would
have threatened both the euro and the American
dollar. In addition Libya was moving to take over the
Arab banking corporation in Bahrain and had built
up $200 billion in foreign reserves and encouraged
Chinese development of the Libyan infrastructure.
Whilst manoeuvring in an on-off courtship with the
western powers, he was simultaneously continuing
accords with China and Russia. He was thus
viewed as volatile and unreliable by the West.
The French intervened to stop Gaddafi’s sale of oil
to China, and to the Italian corporation Eni. They
hoped to gain favourable terms with a new regime
installed after Gaddafi’s overthrow. Hence the war
was not created by France wishing to help the
dissident movements in Libya but purely for greed.
Unfortunately for France, and indeed for all the
Western powers, oil production in the chaotic situation
now reigning in Libya has caused oil production there
to be 5 times lower. The war between the different
factions in Libya has resulted in increasing attacks
on oil wells. We now have three governments in
Libya. In Tobruk a new “constitutional dictator” has
emerged in the shape of Abdulla Al Thani. This is the
regime that has received backing from the West. He
is supported by Halifa Haftar, who controls many of
the troops from the old Libyan army. They are at war
with the Islamist government in Tripoli led by Umar Al
Hasi. Like their rivals in Tobruk they wish to protect
the oil wells in the region they control.
ISIS, the Caliphate of Al Baghdadi in Syria
and Iraq, has established itself in the towns
of Derna and Sirte. The area ISIS controls is
on the Gulf of Sirte, in between the Tobruk
and Tripoli regimes and so of strategic and
economic importance.
The Tobruk regime is backed by both Saudi Arabia
and Egypt. Meanwhile Qatar is supporting the
Islamists in Tripoli. Egypt is deeply opposed to both
the Tripoli Islamists and Libyan ISIS, as this could
lead to reinforcement of the Islamist internal enemies
of the Al Sisi regime. It has already conducted
bombing raids against ISIS following the slaughter of
Egyptian Coptic Christians by ISIS.
The Tobruk regime for its part is backed by Turkey
and Qatar. Turkey is looking to become a big oil
broker in the region, and is building up its facilities in
that sphere. It is thus opposed to its rivals in Saudi
Arabia and Egypt. Qatar has long been in rivalry
with its major oil rival Saudi Arabia, and now sees
the military regime in Egypt as another threat. As for
Libyan ISIS it is secretly supported by factions in the
ruling elites in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and elsewhere in
the Arab world.
Israel and Palestine
The Hamas administration centred in the Gaza Strip
section of Palestine has been under severe stress
in the last year. The arrival of the Sisi government
and the crushing of the
Muslim Brotherhood in
Egypt robbed Hamas of
valuable financial help. It
had obtained the allegiance
of many Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip through
implementing a welfare
programme. Financial aid
from the Brotherhood was
now severely hindered,
with far tighter controls
on the border from the
new Egyptian regime. In addition other supporters
and benefactors like Syria and Iran were now pre-
occupied with other matters and had quarrelled
with Hamas, as had Hezbollah in Lebanon. The
developing economic crisis on a world level also
made the situation in the Gaza Strip worse, with most
of the population below the poverty line. The welfare
programme of Hamas is in tatters. It finds it difficult
even employ the civil servants of its administration.
Similarly, the rival group in Palestine around the
Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank is also
in trouble and has had to form an alliance with Hamas.
The Israeli government led by Netanyahu
intervened and demanded that the National
Authority of Abu Mazen should break its alliance
with Hamas whom it accused of being “terrorists”.
with Hamas whom it accused of being “terrorists”.
This was because Netanyahu was threatened at
home, even within his own ruling party and needed
the excuse of a military adventure to take attention
away. This resulted in the murderous onslaught on
the Gaza Strip. This does not seem to have saved
Netanyahu in the long run as the March 17th elections
threaten to destabilise his regime.
Hamas itself had instigated rocket attacks
on Israel to divert attention from the crisis
the Gaza Strip was going through.
The economic crisis has hit Israel badly, affecting
both the working class and endangering the
professional and managerial classes. House prices
have shot up by 55% in the last 6 years whilst rents
rose 30% and wages remain static. Food prices have
soared. Defence costs are continually increasing and
Israeli subsidies of the settlements in the occupied
Palestinian territories are at the cost of spending
within Israel itself.
Netanyahu is attempting to divert attention by
highlighting the threat of Hamas and the supposed
nuclear threat posed by Iran. The social protests in
Israel that were triggered by food rises in 2011 have
not returned in a big way (though a protest camp set
up to highlight the cost of living may point to unrest
to come) but Netanyahu may well be punished in the
elections.
Iraq and Syria
We had a detailed analysis of the situation in
Syria and Iraq in the last issue of Organise!
Let us just sum up that Saudi Arabia and
Qatar financed ISIS and other Islamist outfits
in Syria and Iraq in order to attack the Assad
regime and to weaken the predominantly
Shiite government of Iraq. ISIS probably now
has a bankroll of at least £2 billion dollars
which it can use to buy more weapons and pay its
troops. ISIS was a useful weapon of the Saudis and
Qataris against Assad and the Iraqi government and
against Iran. Now however ISIS is making a bid to
act on its own and to turn on its benefactors. The
USA itself had financed the various Islamist factions
for its own ends in the region. Now both US influence
in the region is severely under threat, as is Saudi
control of the Middle East. Hence ISIS now has to be
eradicated or severely weakened. Saudi Arabia does
not want to see ISIS as an alternative pole of Sunni
power in the region. Similarly the growth of ISIS has
threatened the supplies of oil and gas in Syria, Iraq,
and Iraqi Kurdistan. Now that ISIS controls some
of the oil fields it can substitute the revenue from
them for the lost incomes from its erstwhile backers.
Iran is now jockeying to be seen as a possible useful
ally of the West and its allies against ISIS, as indeed
is the Assad regime in Syria. Already figures in the
French government are talking of normalising relations
with Assad, in line with their own interests in the area.
French government are talking of normalising relations with Assad, in line with their own
interests in the area. Meanwhile both Russia and China continue to back Assad in order to
control gas and oil resources in the region, and to divert it towards their own economies
and the Asian markets.
All of these powers, whether it be the interests of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, or
Turkey or the power blocs of the USA , Russia, and China, are intent on establishing
control of energy resources in the region and political influence. All of these sordid
manoeuvres have led to the collapse into barbarism and war that we are now seeing. Proxy
wars are now being waged in different parts of the world. Alongside this and intertwined
with it is the economic crisis that have reduced the masses to poverty, not just in the
Middle East but elsewhere in the world.
The working class cannot benefit from supporting any of these different competing factions
of the ruling class. Be it the ruling class represented by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the
Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank, the Zionist regime in Israel, the
clerical reactionaries of ISIS or Iran, the Turkish state or the Kurdistan government of
Barzani, the different factions in Libya, the military government in Egypt, or the feudal
regimes in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The spiral down into war, civil war, barbarism, and economic crisis and poverty can only
be answered by the action of the masses in the Near and Middle East against ALL their
masters. This may now seem difficult, but it is the only real alternative. Unity has to be
argued and fought for, whatever particular ethnic and religious backgrounds, whether Arab,
Israeli, Kurd, or Turk.
