Demonstration: SMASH NATO’S DRIVE TO CONQUER LIBYA!

Down with Canberra’s Diplomatic and Financial Support to Pro-NATO Forces Rampaging Through Libya!

SMASH NATO’S DRIVE TO CONQUER LIBYA!

NATO’s savage air strikes on Libya have killed over two thousand civilians and injured thousands more. Among those murdered by NATO “precision strikes” have been children killed in their own homes. NATO has also destroyed much of the country’s civilian infrastructure including the main pipelines crucial for providing water to people in that desert country.

It is only because of these NATO attacks, the support of NATO special forces on the ground and huge imperialist backing with arms and money that the NATO-backed rebels have been able to advance. As these pro-imperialist forces began their advance upon the Libyan capital Tripoli in late August, just two days of ferocious NATO bombardment led the civilian death toll to rise by well over a thousand.

NATO leaders want to install a more pliant regime in Libya that will dutifully hand over the country’s oil wealth. With many of their countries in various stages of economic crises, these ruling classes think that grabbing hold of Libya’s rich oil resources will help shore up their tottering economic “order.” Washington and the European powers also want to impose regime change in Libya in order to smother hopes that the Middle East rebellions would inevitably loosen the grip of imperialism over the region.

The Australian rulers have been amongst the most aggressive supporters of NATO’s war. The Australian government led the charge for the U.N. “No Fly Zone” that has provided the pretext for NATO’s terror bombing. It was also one of the first to give diplomatic recognition to the Benghazi-based Libyan forces who by then were effectively acting as NATO’s ground troops. Canberra even provides financial support to these NATO henchmen.

We must oppose all forms of intervention by the imperial powers in Libya. African peoples suffered so terribly under direct colonialism and continue to be ground down by neocolonialism today. We cannot allow the imperial powers to strengthen their grip over North Africa.

The U.S., European and Australian rulers ran into much trouble in their predatory invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But if they get away with imposing regime change in Libya they will be encouraged to target other countries where the governments are not subservient enough. Who will then be next? Iran? Syria? Venezuela? Bolivia? Or even North Korea, Cuba and ultimately China?

Furthermore, if the big capitalist powers succeed in their Libyan venture they will be more arrogant at home as well. They will be pumped up to further make their “own” working classes pay for the failure of their economic system and will, like the latest federal budget in this country, more viciously slash subsistence payments for the disabled, single parents and the unemployed. On the other hand, what if resistance to the NATO puppets now controlling most of Libya intensifies as will surely happen? And what if we can build up enough opposition within the imperialist countries themselves to stymie their Libyan agenda? Then everyone who is trying to stand up to these same ruling classes whose henchmen the Libyan people are trying to repulse will be encouraged: from workers fighting to win major strikes in Greece, Spain and Portugal to the impoverished layers in Britain searching for a way to express their just grievances and on to trade unionists, refugee rights supporters and Aboriginal people struggling for justice in Australia too.

SO COME TAKE A STAND AGAINST NEO-COLONIALISM - JOIN AND HELP BUILD THE ACTION ON SEPTEMBER 10!

Initial List of Speakers: Omar Ali (Libyan student), Behrooz (Spokesperson for Supporters of the Iranian Peoples Fedayeen Guerillas), Sarah Fitzenmeyer (Chairman of Trotskyist Platform)