Goodby to Gaddafi

EXTRACT: In Libya, the masses have exploded into life - and revolution - against colonel Muammar Gaddafi and his ‘Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya’, the latter word being a neologism first coined by Gaddafi in his screwball, three-volume The green book (1975) and literally meaning ‘state of the masses’. Well, as we can see daily on our TV and computer screens, the Libyan masses have risen up almost as one against the state and the ‘Guide of the First of September Great Revolution’ or ‘Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution’ - to repeat just two of Gaddafi’s official honorifics.
With events unfolding at lightning speed, changing by the hour, in Libya we are presented with a near textbook or classic revolutionary situation - where the masses refuse to be ruled in the old way, and the rulers are unable rule in the old way. Determined to overthrow Gaddafi’s cruel dictatorship, which has kept itself in power through terror and intimidation - like the regular showing of public executions on television - the masses initially revolted in Benghazi, Libya’s second city. Inevitably, though Benghazi is separated from Tripoli by hundreds of miles, the revolutionary uprising has yet to spread to the capital. When Tripoli falls, the Gaddafi regime is dead.
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These Are Not The Clones You Are Looking For

Welcome to Libya

Welcome to Egypt

Halt, Black Hole!

Cairo has come out in support of Wisconsin workers

Mubarak Has Gone But Mass Protests Continue

EXTRACT: Without the crowds demonstrating and protesting day after day, without the display of people power, then Hosni Mubarak would still be president today - have no doubt. His departure is a huge democratic gain that we celebrate along with the vast majority of Egyptians. Even more than that, communists regard recent events - and not just in Egypt - as an anticipation of the future, which will see further and greater democratic movements and revolutions in this region of the world. Just look at the protests now breaking out in Bahrain, with thousands setting up camp in the capital, Manama - making their own Tahrir Square and demanding basic democratic rights (some waving placards of Che Guevara), with King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa offering each family in the country a cash pay-out of £1,640 in a frantic attempt to buy off discontent. And now Libya too has caught the democratic bug, experiencing an uprising in the eastern city of Benghazi, hundreds clashing with the police to demand the release of a prominent democracy campaigner and Gaddafi critic. The Arab masses are hungry for democracy, like their Iranian counterparts - who, inspired by the ousting of Mubarak, have once again taken to the streets in the largest anti-government protests for more than a year.
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