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From Socialist Worker, 23 August 2011.
Transcribed by Christian Høgsbjerg.
Marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
The intervention of the Western powers is a real threat to the Arab revolutions. It allows the dictators to pose as defenders of national independence.
In fact it is the dictators, who have relied on the West’s support for decades, who ensure the grip of imperialism.
There will be some who argue we need Western support to win. But the West is not interested in winning revolutions. It is pursuing specific economic and strategic interests.
Neither Nato nor its planes can bring liberation. The only way to win real freedom and democracy is by our own hand – solidarity within the Arab revolutions.
Anti-imperialism is in the fabric of the Arab political movements. We cannot separate the fight for democratic freedoms from the struggle to defeat imperialism.
What the imperialists want, and there are forces among the Libyan rebels who agree, is to sustain the system with a different face.
But it’s important to see that the fall of Gaddafi might also radicalise other revolutionary struggles. It will have an impact in the Gulf states.
In Libya it’s too early to judge if all the people will welcome Nato with open arms. At the start of revolutions people unite in wide coalitions, but once the dictators fall contradictions will come to the surface.
But the decisive factor is the process in Egypt. It is the most powerful movement in the region and what happens there shapes all the struggles across the region.
We are still just at the beginning of the revolutionary process, and these are just the first small steps.
Last updated: 4 November 2014