Watching Libya

The wave of rebellion continues across the Middle East and North Africa, with Bahrain and Libya being the latest to hold the gaze of the international media. Where all this will lead us is still unclear, and I continue to react with equal parts optimism and dread. There is no question that this is an important historic moment, no question either that the international nature of this current rebellion is particularly significant – I mean, we have often witnessed struggles in various areas informing and inspiring one another, but rarely have we seen waves of protest play out so much like dominoes. It is abundantly clear that something has dramatically shifted in the region, and whatever it is that emerges is going to have lasting impact on the geo-politics of not only the affected nation-states, but the world. And what could be more inspiring than to see the ways popular uprising across the world has impacted the struggles of workers in Wisconsin? Facing an all-out legislative war on their hard-won rights, workers in that state have been mounting escalating protests not only against the specific legislation being proposed, but against the whole political-economic-cultural apparatus behind that legislation. And messages come from Egypt, messages of solidarity in struggle and even – from halfway across the globe – pizzas for the Wisconsin rebels from their comrades in Cairo. So. fucking. awesome.

Today, though, the news is all Libya, and it is interesting to watch the very different character of this coverage to that we’ve seen out of the other flashpoints of this rebellion. Oh, the generic celebration of people-power is the same, as is the focus on the individual dictator responsible for it all. But in Libya, for the first time in several weeks, we are witnessing a fairly coherent response from the EU, the Americans and the Canadians. In Libya, it is not an ally of the West that is set to tumble, but a long-time thorn in the side – and that makes for all the difference.

Fidel Castro issued a statement yesterday, noting that that the specifics of what is transpiring in Libya are unclear, but what is clear is that we can expect to see military intervention in this instance, likely under the aegis of NATO or the UN. And today? We see exactly those calls in the news, Canada’s own Paul Martin being just the latest to speak out in favour of invasion and occupation for the good of democracy and international stability. What is more, we can see already the groundwork being laid for war crimes charges against Gadhafi, with accusations emerging that he is personally responsible for such actions as the Lockerbie bombing and calls for investigation by the International Criminal Court. Now, I’m not suggesting that these are necessarily false. I have no idea whatsoever about the specific details of such things. However, I do note that as other leaders have fallen, the press has stopped short of calling them butchers and murderers, that honor being reserved for the one strongman in the region who has long pissed off the Americans rather than acting as lackey.

Which just all adds up to me being even less hopeful about the ending of this episode than I have been about the others. I don’t trust the Americans, obviously, or the motivations of any would-be-great-western-liberators. And I am not entirely comfortable with the concept of war crimes, it seeming to me that war itself is criminal and war crimes tribunals can never be anything but venues to punish the losers and attempt to write every war as a war of liberation. Finally, I admit it, I have a soft spot for Libya, having spent a good deal of time with Libyan diplomats in Zimbabwe, and finding them to be among the few who would work closely and provide concrete material support to the rural youth group I was involved with there.

Yeah, when I was a teenager I lived for a year in a small village in the communal lands west of Harare, and was involved with an informal organizing group that regularly brought together up to 200 people a month to talk about political developments in Zimbabwe, the dynamics of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, and the general state of Africa in the world. We invited folks from a number of countries to particulate, to come out to the village and speak with us about anything and everything that might come up. The Soviets gave us lots of books and served us coffee in their Embassy, but wouldn’t come near the village. The North Koreans handed us propaganda and posters from through the locked gates. Mozambique and Angola spoke to us about their civil wars, the Palestine Liberation Organization sent a delegate to meet with us, and the various South African liberation movements visited for lengthy seminars on the history of and splits within the  anti-apartheid movement. But representatives of three countries  – Cuba, Nicaragua, and Libya – welcomed us most warmly, visited more regularly, and encouraged their own children to come out and participate in the discussions we were having. Now, we were excited about all this, to be sure, but never so naive as to believe whatever we heard from these representatives of state. However, the way we were treated, the willingness to talk, the extent to which these Ambassadors and their kids would talk and eat and stay with us – these things sure as hell did make a difference. I spent alot of time with some of these folks, and they became friends. And when I returned some years later for the death and funeral of my dear friend Max, with whom I had lived for that year and who had hosted all those gatherings – well, four years later, as the village gathered to weep and share out Max’s belongings and celebrate his life, the embassies of Cuba, Nicaragua and Libya all sent delegations to mourn, to feast on goat, to remember.

Gadhafi – yeah, there’s really no question he’s kind of nuts. And while Libya has been hugely important as a provider of material support for anti-colonial and liberation struggles across the continent, I’m willing to wager I wouldn’t want to live under his rule. I’m entirely sympathetic to the uprising, to the people who have watched the collapse of regimes in Egypt and Tunisia and seized that hope, that possibility, this critical political moment. I recognize state violence as state violence and note the sickening and de-humanizing language coming out of Gadhafi’s mouth. And I am no more sympathetic to thuggery by this state than any other. But I’m distressed by the likely invasion to come, and distressed by the very strong possibility we’ll be watching yet another war crimes tribunal while NATO picks up the pieces of Libya to remake the state in its own image. I’m distressed that Libya – with Ethiopia the only country in Africa to have never been colonized – appears poised to lose a strongman but may well come out of this process the newest client-state in the region.

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