International Luxemburgist Network

The coalition army of five countries led by the French, British and American governments that is now bombing Libya is not the generous protector of Libyans against the atrocities of Gaddafi that it pretends to be. These “humanitarians” and the multinationals that they truly represent, have aided and abetted the Gaddafi regime’s repressions for years and today are supporting the brutal repressions taking place in allied countries such as Qatar (who joined the coalition on March 20th) and Bahrain where the Saudi army was sent in to attack peaceful demonstrators.

There are new developments in Wisconsin and elsewhere in the US.

First, immigrant workers have started to rally in support of the public workers and against the Walker budget, which includes the banning of in-state tuition for immigrant students, as well as the widely-publicized outlawing of public worker unions and massive cuts in public worker pay. There was a rally organized by the Immigrant Workers Union this morning in Madison.

Tunisia was considered by many as the most stable place in the Arab world and the less likely to get hit by unrest. Over the past decade, the economy grew at a speed of 5% on average. It is considered the second most competitive country in Africa and it has the second largest revenue per inhabitant in the North of the continent. Its main industries include an important industrial sector and mines provide source of natural wealth.

17th of December : Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 years old street vendor in Sidi Bouzid (centre of the country), had his goods (fruits and vegetables) seized by the police because he did not have the required license nor did he bribe the police controlling him. He got insulted, hit and even spat on by one of the officers. Even though he had a diploma, he was jobless and this activity was the only revenue for him and his brothers, sisters and widowed mother. After trying to get his belongings back at the siege of the local prefecture, he set himself on fire as a protest.

The third issue of Mass Strike is now available, with the following articles :

Revolution in Tunisia and Egypt – Lessons on how to win

World Hunger and the Silent Tsunami

Appeal of the International Luxemburgist Network to the proletariat on May Day 2010

Across Europe, and around the world, workers have begun to fight the layoffs, and the cuts in wages and living standards with mass protests and one-day general strikes. These are essential steps. But so long as the protest demands are limited to stopping the cuts, stopping the layoffs, they will fail to do more than slow the rate of decline. To stop and reverse the layoffs we have to formulate demands that say what we are FOR, not just what we are against, what our solution is to the crisis.

In 2008, speculation in the world markets led to a peak rise in the prices of food commodities, as measured by the FAO Food Price Index (cf. Figure 1), and hunger riots in several countries in Africa (including Egypt), Indonesia and Haiti. Demonstrations were harshly repressed with ''security'' forces, including the UN in the latter, opening fire on protesters The falling prices of financial stocks encouraged investors to make money with these foodstuffs, essential to human lives, and gave way to a “silent Tsunami”, as a representative of the World Food Program (UN) labeled it.

The revolution in the Arabic region that began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt — and will no doubt spread further — is the first major victory in reversing the assault on the world working class that intensified with the crash of ’08.

By Lili Gomez and Eric Lerner

Why these demands now?