Looking for balance? Andrew Flood gets out his scales and tries to find some balance in Libya. Did the Left come down too heavily on one side?

The sudden end of the Gaddafi regime some 6 months after the start of the Libyan revolt leaves some difficult questions unanswered for the left. Gaddafi’s determination to physically crush the revolt quickly transformed it into a civil war, a civil war that saw considerable imperialist intervention on the rebel side, intervention that was essential to their eventual victory. This and Gaddafi’s historic record led to some on the left taking his side in the civil war while other organisations tried to balance support for the ‘Arab spring’s’ arrival in Libya with opposition to imperialism. This question of where the balance lies between international solidarity with pro-democracy movements and opposition to imperialism could well rapidly return to the top of the agenda in a very much bigger way as the regime in Syria continues its months long military suppression of the democracy movement there. read full story / add a comment

Lee Sustar of Socialist Worker, US writes on developments in the Strian revolutionary movement and US sanctions and and attempts to lead the movement astray.

AFTER NEARLY six months of continuous mobilization in the face of savage repression, the Syrian revolutionary movement is debating its future as the U.S. tries to manipulate the opposition to suit its own aims in the Middle East.

Peter Harling and Robert Malley of the pro-imperialist think tank, the International Crisis Group, correctly point out that these economic changes helped set the stage for the revolution:

"For the most part, the regime has been waging war against its original social constituency. When Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, came to power, his regime, dominated by members of the Alawite branch of Islam, embodied the neglected countryside, its peasants and exploited underclass. Today's ruling elite has forgotten its roots. Its members inherited power rather than fought for it, grew up in Damascus, mimicked the ways of the urban upper class with which they mingled, and led a process of economic liberalization at the provinces' expense."

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Good news! A United Nations report says Israeli mercenaries used excessive force in its attack on the Flotilla last year. But bizarrely the UN claims that the Pirate Blockade imposed by Israel is legal! At least the Turkish Govt have expelled a Mossad agent, err, I mean the Israeli Ambassador.

Turkey is to expel the Israeli ambassador after details emerged of a UN report into last year's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Officials in Ankara said it was also suspending all remaining military agreements with Israel. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said some of the report's findings, leaked to the New York Times, were unacceptable.Turkey wants Israel to apologise for the raid but it has refused to do so. read full story / add a comment

How will the revolution in Libya advance now that Gadaffi has fallen? The dangers and opportunities are discussed in this article by Richard Brenner. More material regarding the Libyan revolution is available at the League for the Fifth international website.

In Tripoli in the early days of the uprising, Gaddafi’s forces had already murdered between 200 and 700 unarmed demonstrators. Like all victorious uprisings the Libyan Revolution will have to crush the remaining elements of the old regime including Gaddafi and his sons. They should not be tried but put to swift revolutionary justice. At the same time the revolution needs to discipline itself. The horrifying cases of killings of black people need to be stopped. Gaddafi hired sub-Saharan mercenaries but in Tripoli gangs seem to be treating black people all as Gaddafi mercenaries. Anyone doing this should be tried and punished harshly.
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Documents presented to a US court now reveal details of CIA rendition flight finance, destination and logistics. Shannon airport was at the centre of their operation. read full story / add a comment

Israeli socialist Moshe Machover and Mohammed Reza Shalgouni of the Organisation of Revolutionary Workers in Iran discuss the Arab revolution in the first session of Communist University 2011, chaired by Yassamine Mather read full story / add a comment

If we ever needed reminding about who comes first in relation to the terrible economic situation the country finds itself the ESRI article in the September 1st 2011 edition of the Irish Independent once again proves it.
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In the current economic climate, the issue of drug policy is all too easily swept under the carpet by our politicians, who instead prefer to focus on budgetary cuts as a means of addressing our massive fiscal deficit. What our politicians apparently fail to recognize however, is the economic idiocy of continuing to pour hundreds of millions of euros of taxpayers money into a failed drug policy. read full story / add a comment

The Libyan revolution is unfinished. The working masses and poor have yet to assert themselves. -

After six long months of bloody, protracted struggle the overthrow of the dictatorial Gaddafi regime was greeted with rejoicing by large numbers of, but by no means all, Libyans. Another autocratic ruler, surrounded by his privileged family and cronies, has been overthrown. If this had been purely the result of struggle by the Libyan working masses it would have been widely acclaimed but the direct involvement of imperialism casts a dark shadow over the revolution’s future. The continuing battles in Tripoli and elsewhere indicate the instability of the current situation in Libya and also how the revolution that began there last February has, in many ways, been thrown off course. read full story / add a comment

Every cloud has a silver lining: melting Arctic ice opens up new shipping routes. But is the lining really silver? Environmental groups are worried about the exploitation of natural resources. Two major Arctic shipping routes have opened as summer sea ice melts, European satellites have found. Data recorded by the European Space Agency's (Esa) Envisat shows both Canada's Northwest Passage and Russia's Northern Sea Route open simultaneously. This summer's melt could break the 2007 record for the smallest area of sea ice since the satellite era began in 1979. Shipping companies are already eyeing the benefits these routes may bring if they remain open regularly. The two lanes have been used by a number of small craft several times in recent years. But the Northern Sea Route has been free enough of ice this month for a succession of tankers carrying natural gas condensate from the northern port of Murmansk to sail along the Siberian coast en route for Thailand. read full story / add a comment

See this breaking news interview with War correspondent Pepe Escobar on Russia Today television.

The hostility persists in Tripoli and the Libyan rebels continue the search for Gaddafi, but who is leading the rebels? Who are the beneficiaries of the fall of Gaddafi? What will the blowback be for those in Libya and across the globe? Pepe Escobar, a correspondent for Asia Times, gives us some answers to these questions. read full story / add a comment

According to an article in the Daily Mail the Allied Irish Bank gave "loans, guarantees and lines of credit" to the catholic church to enable them to pay more than $400m of compensation to victims of sexual abuse by catholic priests. read full story / add a comment

Contrary to Reports coming from the International Criminal Court Col Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam was not arrested on Sunday.

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This article from A World to Win News Service, analyzes the increasing divisions within the Iranian Theocracy. Full text at url below.

Further fissures and cracks have appeared among Iran’s top rulers, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the spiritual leader of the Islamic regime, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his close circle in charge of the government.

Given the love affair between Khamenei and Ahmadinejad over the last six years and specially Khamenei’s support for Ahmadinejad during the 2009 election that sparked an uprising, this difference between the two factions was not taken very seriously by masses at the beginning.

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Maciej Zurowski encountered angry locals and grinning cops when he went to Tottenham Police Station. Here are some excerpts from his article and interviews with locals. Full text at link.

On Sunday afternoon, it looked as if the police had been instructed to use a new tactic to contain the public anger: grin. The area around Tottenham police station, which had been subject to severe rioting the previous night, was cordoned off by the boys and girls in blue, each of them sporting an unpersuasive, frozen smile. Gathering in front of the police line were those who have not got much to smile about these days: the overwhelmingly working class denizens of the impoverished north London neighbourhood, which had seen its last major riot during Thatcher’s reign in 1985.

“Murderers! You’ve shot a young father dead,” the woman shouted, following the accusation with assorted expletives. As she walked off, two officers turned to each other and chuckled. You would have thought that homicide is not exactly a laughing matter, especially when you consider that 333 people have died under British police custody since 1998 and not a single police officer has been successfully prosecuted. But then that’s just human defence mechanisms for you.

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This report from the WSWS site accurately sums up the situation in Britain today and the outcome of the riots. It confirms most people suspicions that the state has used this to launch a vicious assault on the working class (read ordinary folk) of Britain. It has used the very same press that was embroiled just weeks ago in a huge phone hacking scandal. The state repression and right-wing hysteria unleashed reveal the preparations of the ruling class for police-state forms of rule

It is amazing that despite all the arrests and sentencing that: The riots were triggered by the police execution of Mark Duggan, a black 29-year-old father of four, in Tottenham, north London on August 4, followed by an unprovoked police assault on a peaceful protest over his killing two days later. Almost a fortnight later, no officer has been identified, let alone charged, for these crimes.

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Peter Manson writes about the London Riots. What was positive about and what was negative. But rioting itself is no answer to the problems facing the Working Class. Full text of the article is at the link below.

A positive and progressive rebellion against deprivation or unashamed and backward criminality? The reaction of the left to the riots in towns and cities across Britain has been polarised between these two extremes.

As readers will know, what started as a peaceful protest outside Tottenham Hale police station on Saturday August 6 was violently transformed after several hours and eventually sparked full-scale rioting and looting, first in London and then in major conurbations the length and breadth of the country. The original demonstration was against the brutal killing by police of Mark Duggan and their subsequent lying excuses and justifications.

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The publication follows on from a two-day Conference held in the University of Limerick last October with the same title as the book. There will be an official launch of the book in Limerick and Dublin in early September.

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This is an article about a new book on climate change. Written by Orrin Pilkey and illustrated by Mary Fraser.

"IT TURNS out that there is a hoax involved in climate change. Only the hoax is being perpetrated by public relations efforts by the fossil fuels industry." Thus begins the most memorable chapter of Global Climate Change.

Better known for his exposés on the flaws of coastal engineering, geologist Orrin Pilkey has turned his attention to this century's hot environmental topic: climate change. There are no surprises for those familiar with the subject, but the book does a good job of explaining the foundations of climate science to an interested novice.

 

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Yassamine Mather is interviewed by  Mark Fischer on developing divisions in the Iranian Regime and the failure of the leading reformists to challenge the existing institutions. Full text at link.

Given its potential importance, it seems odd that there has been so little said in the western media about the ongoing conflict between Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the supreme religious leader, Ali Khamenei. Why is this?

It can perhaps be explained by the attitude of the US administration, which seems to be playing a waiting game. Obviously, they will have followed these disputes, but they expect the system to disintegrate without much intervention from the US and at the moment they have other countries to worry about in the region.
 
However, this is a serious, ongoing struggle which shows no signs of abating and has actually started a process of political differentiation within the green movement between leaders looking for ‘reconciliation’ with the regime and the more militant, intransigent sections of its base. A number of developments indicate the scale of the crisis.

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