Fjärde Internationalen om Libyen

Statement by the Fourth International

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

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 – right to free
expression, trade-union and political organization, pluralism, freedom of the press;
and social ones such as job creation, wage increases, fight against high cost of
living – of these popular mobilizations, 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 mobilizations and
then the popular insurrection to overthrow the Gaddafi dictatorship. In Libya,
solidarity with the popular mobilizations 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, organization 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 American 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 of 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.
Secretariat of the Fourth International Bureau
March 23rd, 2011