The Lybian infamy. A short critique of US involvement in Lybia

The Allied intervention in Lybia is, at it’s core, an imperialistic campaign masked with the intention of doing good. The sole purpose of the operation, of course, is to protect civilians, and to prevent Gaddafi’s troops from massacring them. Upon close inspection, however, the lie begins to fall appart.

The Western media has done its best to decieve us and has portrayed the revolution as a mass uprising against an oppresive dictator, and has done an excellent job at turning the public opinion against Gaddafi.It talks about incessant bombings against the civilian population, but, like a Russian minister said, “Everyone talks about these bombings, but no one actually sees anything happen “. It shows image after where mage of people waving those stupid tri-colour flags from the King Idris era. These people, of course, ignore the fact that it was Muammar el Gaddafi who raised the literacy rate in his country from 54% to 90%, built hundreds of schools and hospitals, and did more for his people than any other African “dictator” has done. Which brings us to our next point.

How come the US does not critisize any other African dictatorships? Pretty much every country in that continent is one, to some extent or another. Which raises some important questions. How come the US did not intervene in Egypt or Tunez? Why does the US not help liberate other African peoples? Does it have something to do with the fact that Lybia has oil, and the other countries don’t? Why does the US invade Lybia, which has one of the highest living standards in Africa, and not help rebels in other countries?

It’s curious that the invasion comes months after Gaddafi announced his plans to nationalize oil. Anglo-Dutch Shell, BP, ExxonMobil, etc, did not like this move. At all. It would call for a tremendous loss of revenue. This, in the long run, would harm the US government too. If the US invaded, however, and took control of the country- via direct occupation, or via implanting allied/puppet regimes- oil c ould be de-nationalized and companies would start making whopping profits again.
The media portrays this uprising as a majoritarian thing- people seem to think that all of Lybia has risen against Gaddafi. Civilians protest against the lack of future and low living standards. What a coincidence that the revolution started in the separatist region of Benghazi. These rebels have sabotaged important buildings and key cities, and attacked Gaddafi’s troops. In normal conditions, they would be called terrorists. However, the Western powers have decided to dub them “rebels”. Sounds better, doesn’t it?

What’s amusing about this event is that fact that the US is pretending to help the civlians. It sounds wonderful to proclaim that you’re invading a country to help the people overthrow a tyrant. This reminds me of the cold war era, where the US would pay and train terrorists to overthrow the leaders of socialist countries. It was the US who trained and financed Osama bin Laden and his men to attack the weak Afghanistan government that had been placed there by the Soviets. One thing is clear- that the US never acts out of compassion or good will. Was Lybia a country with poor resources, or a country with foreign policies favourable to the US, this invasion would have never taken place. This invasion, in my eyes, has not been carefully planned at all. It seems almost like it was rushed, although sources suggest that it had been premeditated a few years ago. I mention this because NATO can’t get its story together. First, they say that they are there to prevent the massacre of civilians. They claim that they have no intention of helping the revolution or of attacking Gaddafi- the sole purpose of the invasion was to prevent the rebels from being attacked. Then, they contradicted themselves and said that the purpose was now to help the rebels take power. Still, they would leave Gaddafi be. Then, they changed the story yet again and proclaimed that they would not leave until Gaddafi left the country, and air strikes were deployed suspiciously close to Gaddafi’s house. First, they promised that it would only be air strikes. Now, they threaten to bring in ground troops.

The civilian claim, of course, is utter nonsense. The US themselves are massacring civilians-if it is unintentionally, they are not taking care to avoid it. Which proves their point void. One cannot invadce a country and promise to protect civilans and then launch airstrikes against them. Just a few days ago, not one or two people, but 212 unarmed civilians were killed in Benghazi. What a coincidence that these civilians just happened to support Gaddafi.
Then, of course, is the claim that Gaddafi has to hire mercenaries to defend himself. Indeed, Gaddafi has deployed troops from other African countries to help him. But isn’t that what NATO does? Aren’t the soldiers in NATO mercenaries too? Don’t they, after all, get paid for their job? Why is the term “mercenary” not used for them?
I will not quote a very recent message that Gaddafi announced. Which, of course, wasn’t displayed on Western television.
From Recollections of My Life: Col. Mu’ummar Qaddafi, The Leader of the Revolution. April 5, 2011.

In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful…

For 40 years, or was it longer, I can’t remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert, I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.

I did all I could to help people understand the concept of real democracy, where people’s committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were they wanted more. They told Americans and other visitors, that they needed “democracy” and “freedom” never realizing it was a cut throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest, but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.

No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we’ve had since Salah-al-Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free from colonial domination – from thieves who would steal from us.

Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called “capitalism,” but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer. So, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following His path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work here with us, in the Libyan Jamahiriya.

I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it.

Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stood up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light. When others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah-al-Deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself…

In the West, some have called me “mad”, “crazy”, but they know the truth yet continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free.

On a final note, it is interesting to point out that the US left Gaddafi alone while he had trade treaties with them. When Lybia supplied the US with oil, Gaddafi was no monster. There were no complaints about Gaddafi- most of us didn’t even know he existed until the Lybian uprising. Now, shortly after he announces the nationalisation of oil, he is a monster. He is a mosnter and has to be removed because he is a threat. THEY are the threat. They always have been.

East Germany

Let’s talk about the German Democratic Republic.

I find it incredibile how the western media continually tries to portray the GDR as an evil, tyranical state. It was much better than Western Germany; the facts are there, but stilil people refuse to accept the GDR’s supperiority. Here’s a graph to show working conditions in the GDR as opposed to Western Germany (reffered to as WG from now on):

WG used all sorts of tricks to make GDR feel jealous of the north. They built gigantic shopping centers on the border advertise their consumer products. They advertised the “benefits” of living in WG through the television (GDR citizens could view both East and Western television stations). Furthermore, the GDR was under intense pressure from capitalist countries. With a hostile country surrouding it, it was forced to build a wall.

(yes, the picture was drawn by me).

There was an unsupported rebellion in the town of Leipzig in 1989. The rebels where mostly neo-fascist groups and protestant Christians. Gorbachev could have easily put an end to it, but, being the idiot that he was, decided not to pay attention to it and to keep fucking with the Russian economy via perestroika.

(Picture edited by me)

Eventually, the rebels gathered enough power to overthrow the government. East Germany became capitalist again. Millions of people lost their jobs, many lost their homes and even more were forced to work in the same job for much lower wages (those imposssed by their capitalist oppressors).

December 21st

It’s THAT day again… the day when Enox confessed to everything… 2 years ltater it still shocks me what he did. I was really young at the time and the event mentally scarred me. Not much else to say.

December 7, 2010: Kill The Banks Day

I saw this in the news a while ago and I really liked the sound of it so I decided to go and investigate a bit more. Eric Cantona, ex-French footaball player, is the organizer of the event.

Eric Cantona said:

We don’t pick up weapons to kill people to start the revolution. The revolution is really easy to do these days. What’s the system? The system is built on the power of the banks. So it must be destroyed through the banks. “This means that the three million people with their placards on the streets, they go to the bank and they withdraw their money and the banks collapse. Three million, 10 million people, and the banks collapse and there is no real threat. A real revolution. “We must go to the bank. In this case there would be a real revolution. It’s not complicated; instead of going on the streets and driving kilometres by car you simply go to the bank in your country and withdraw your money, and if there are a lot of people withdrawing their money the system collapses. No weapons, no blood, or anything like that.” He concludes: “It’s not complicated and in this case they will listen to us in a different way. Trade unions? Sometimes we should propose ideas to them.
Source: http://www.abovetopsecret.com

Seems simple really,

1) Withdraw savings from bank on a large scale.
2) Banks loose millions.
3) The System collapses.

I urge anyone who posseses a bank account and is fed up of the capitalist system to take part in this. I won’t be taking part in it since I cannot withdraw money from my bank account until I’m 18. The event is tomorrow, let’s see how this turns out. Viva la revolución!

Yesterday’s General Strike

I’ve found a bit of time to post, so here’s some news about what’s going on in Spain. I posted this at HF yesterday, but I forgot to post it here.

You guys probably won’t know about this but today there was a general a general strike in Spain. Everyone’s fed up with Zapatero taking away worker’s rights. Trade unions UGT and CCOO say that 70% of the population took part in the strike.

“The unions announced the strike would take place on 29 September, to coincide with a European “day of action. The government is pressing ahead with the reforms after two years of talks with the unions broke down. They are supposed to help the economy recover after a deep recession and a surge in unemployment to more than 20%. UGT union leader Candido Mendez said the changes would favour businesses and “will harm the rights of workers.” They include measures to enable employers to hire and fire more easily.

After the failure of talks, the cabinet is expected to pass the measures on Wednesday and then put them to parliament on 22 June. The measures will take force immediately though the government has not ruled out amending them afterwards.

The general strike will be the first since Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero took power six years ago.

Last week Spaniards marched against a 15bn-euro (£12.5bn) programme of austerity cuts.

However the rallies were smaller than many expected, which Spanish analysts said would encourage the government to press ahead with its reforms.

Spain, like many European economies, is trying to boost growth while simultaneously bringing a runaway deficit under control.

It is one of the countries thought vulnerable to a Greek-style debt crisis, if its repayments become unaffordable.

The Spanish government and the European Commission were on Monday forced to deny reports that Madrid was seeking an EU aid package.

Meanwhile the Spanish treasury secretary admitted that foreign banks were refusing to lend to some Spanish banks.”

(Source: BBC News)

Here are Spain’s austerity measures:

* 5% average pay cut for public workers in 2010
* Automatic inflation-adjustments for pensions suspended
* Payout scrapped to parents for birth of children
* Funding to regions cut by 1.2bn euros

Does this sound like socialism for you guys? Because it doesn’t for me.
It’s really frustrating. Our people voted for the -”Socialist” party because we thought it would stick to its policies. However, the current president has yet to do something that can be considered left-wing.

Lack of posts

Sorry for the lack of posts. This year I started GCSE and I really have to study. I’ll post again when I have time.

I’m 14 today!

Its my birthday! This past year has been the worst of my life, I hope everything gets better. The shit I’ve gone through irl is messed up.

On another note, our site will be hosted on a .net sometime September

Thanks for reading the Zeonlog

-Zeon

A Tribute to Fidel Castro

Today is Castro’s 84th birthday, and I’ll seize the opportunity to talk a bit about him. As you may have heard, the most important living revolutionary is now fully recovered and making speeches. Unfortunately, the media has done a wonderful job in portraying him as a wicked tryrant who opresses his people. By the end of this post I hope that you will be able to see Cuba with other eyes.

Lets start by describing the government before the Cuban revolution. It’s enough to quote JFK to understand that it wasn’t fine and dandy.

“I believe that there is no country in the world including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country’s policies during the Batista regime. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will even go further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries. That is perfectly clear.”

Castro changed this. After overthrowing U.S-backed dictator Batista the island became a communist state. The USA was furious and placed an embargo which has prevented Cuba from being rich, and initiazed a campgain against Cuba that lasts to the present day. However, Fidel Castro did what he could to change Cuba for the better. His reforms include:

- Free healthcare for all Cubans
- Guaranteed employment for everyone (not even the US can provide this).
- Free food
- Free education
- Cheap housing
- Free pensions
etc.

Lets start busting myths about Cuba.

#1 “Cuba is poor because of its state-controlled economy.”

This is far from being true. Cuba is poor because pretty much the only country that trades with it is Venezuela. This is because the EU and the US have both cut off trade with Cuba until it renounces communism. As a result most of Cuba’s goods are self-produced. In the past the Soviet Union was its main trading companion, but since its collpase Cuba’s income has decreased by 33%. Remember that most countries rely heavily on trade.

#2 “Cuba’s prisoners live in terrible conditions. People are put in jail for expressing their beliefs.”

The truth is that all of Cuba’s prisons meet all of the UN’s requirements. Yet the press continues to make up elaborate stories about inmates living with rats, etc and being tortured. The only place where torture is practiced in Cuba is in the US prison camp in Guantanamo. As for Cuba’s “prisoners of conscience” , most of these prisoners are not angelic innocent beings , but people paid by the US or other countries to stir up public hatred and conspire against the government, something that is illegal in all countries of the world.
Know that Cuba has promised to release all its political prisoners before the year is over.

#3 “Cubans are starving and living in poverty because of the Castro regime.”

The percentage of people living in poverty in Cuba is… *drum roll* less than 0.01%! And there are no people starving in Cuba that I know of. Cubans recieve enough food via rations. Each person gets 13kg of food per month plus extra fish and meat delivered every 15 days. Remember, thats per person. But if that still isn’t enough the free market is available for families that wish to purchase more food.

#4 “Cubans live under a dictatorship. We’re lucky to live in a democratic country like the US.”

I’ve left the best bit for the end. The truth is… cubans do not really live under a dictatorship. The Cuban political system is based on local elections. Each urban neighborhood and rural village is organized into a “circumscription,” consisting generally of 1000 to 1500 voters. The circumscription meets regularly to discuss neighborhood or village problems. Each three years, the circumscription conducts elections. The nominees are not nominated by the Communist Party or any other organizations. The nominations are made by anyone in attendance at the meetings, which generally have a participation rate of 85% to 95%. Those nominated are candidates for office without party affiliation.

And thats all for today. For this essay I have used numerous independent sources, the vast majority of which are not cuban. The sources I’ve used include the CIA handbook.

If you have any comments, critics or suggestions feel free to comment as always.

The Spanish Civil War

This is the essay that I promised you ages ago. Hopefully it will help you understand the Spanish Civil War better. It took me a long time to write so please take your time to read it. If you have any feedback just leave a comment.

The Spanish Civil War

In 1936 Spain was in a state of political unrest. The Socialist Worker’s Party, the Communist Party and the left-leaning liberals had formed a coallition and ruled Spain under Manuel Azaña. This is known as the Second Republic. There was a lot of opposition from the right wing parties, which didn’t get a say in the government at all, and outbursts of violence were common. However, a spark was needed to ignite the whole situation. That spark came on the 12th July 1936. A far right group murdered Lieutenant José Castillo, leader of the Assault Guard, a force specialized in dealing with urban violence. To avenge the death of their leader the Assault Guard broke into Calvo Sotelo’s house, the leader of the conservative party, and after murdering his guards dragged him into the back of a van, where he was shot.

Around this time a guy called Francisco Franco appeared on the scene. General Franco controlled the Spanish army along with Emilio Mola. General Franco was furious about Sotelo’s murder and began plotting against the government. Fearing a coup d’ etat, the Republic sent him to the Canary Islands. This did not stop him, however, and on 17 July 1936 he signalled the army to take control of the islands. Two British MI6 agents then arrested Franco and flew him over to Morroco. This, however, only served to increase his military strength, as the Spanish Army of Africa joined their cause. The plan was to invade Spain and seize control of key parts of the country, such as the capital, Madrid. However, the rebels failed. The Republican army defended Madrid, while in Barcelona anarchists armed themselves and defeated the army. Franco waited until a few months and then attacked Spain again. This time the army was succesful, and by October General Franco had control of most of northern Spain. The country was now at war.

The war wasn’t just between spaniards, though. It didn’t take long for other countries to get involved. Here’s a summary of who fought who in the Spanish Civil War:

The Republicans: The Republic, the Worker’s Party of Marxist Unification, the Communist party, the General Union of Workers, and the CNT FAI, a small anarchist federation. Mexico and the Soviet Union sent weapons and sodiers too.

The Nationalists: The National Faction, the Falange (a Fascist party), Italy, Portugal, Germany, Ireland, and Morocco.

The war lasted from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939. The Republic was forced to give up its key cities when the Condor Legion and the Italian CTV began bombarding their cities from the air. The Republic had few planes and was unable to stop the total destruction of their cities. On the 28 March 1939, after a major Nationalist offensive, Madrid fell. On the 1st of April the Republican forces surrendered.
I’ll end this essay by giving my opinion on the Spanish Civil War. Spain was on the verge of a social revolution, but Franco put an end to it. Farms had already been collectivized and the workers had seized power by themselves. I regret the fall of the Republic with all my heart. As George Orwell put it:

“Practically every building of any size had been seized by the workers and
was draped with red flags or with the red and black flag of the Anarchists;
every wall was scrawled with the hammer and sickle and with the initials of
the revolutionary parties(…)The ordinary class-division of society had
disappeared to an extent that is amost unthinkable in the money-tainted air
of England; there was no one there except the peasants and ourselves, and no
one owned anyone else as his master.”

Franco’s fascism put an end to any hopes of a better Spain.

An update on the current situation

Basically, the guy who was going to set things up ran away with the money. However, I’ll probably be able to get this blog hosted elsewhere with the promised domain name. In the meantime I will resume posting. That is all.