Photo: Travis Wilkerson, AnswerCoalition.

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Drop cuts not bombs!

he lies and hypocrisy of the Tory-led government on the cuts has been made crystal clear by the military assault on Libya. This is financed without a second thought, but we are told the country is broke, the money has run out and that our services, benefits, wages and jobs must all be cut to pay for the crisis. This same hypocrisy is being peddled in the US, France and the other imperialist countries participating in this war. In the first night of Western bombing alone 120 missiles rained down on Libya. With each missile costing around $1m, that means over $100 million was easily found for one days bombing! Initial estimates of the cost of Britains role in the Libyan operation are 200m, which will rise the longer it goes on. (Malcolm Chalmers, Royal United Services Institute, Guardian 21/3/11). And tellingly, regarding their real aims in this war, the French and UK government will not rule out engaging ground troops, which will inevitably lead to a protracted struggle. The total costs of the war could become astronomical. This whole murderous exercise is first and foremost a threat to civilian lives in Libya. But it also exposes the ideological basis of the Tories claim that the cuts are unavoidable because government finances are in crisis. In fact, military spending in the US and UK is continuing to rise despite government debt. Last month, Obama requested $670 billion for this years US military budget alone. That would mean at a time of deep recession, the US has increased its military spending by over $50bn since the 2008 crash! The interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost literally trillions of dollars, as Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz has argued. The interests of the population clearly come second to the need to protect the interests of the US ruling classes.

The same is true here. Britain has the fourth highest military budget in the world, and the spending on its wars and interventions are on top of this as they are financed from special reserves 14bn so far on war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Britains spending on the military is more than double that of Germany even before taking account of these additional funds for war, or other hidden costs of the military budget. Yet no-one argues that Germany is a vulnerable or defenceless country. Cutting the regular military budget to the level of Germany would save about 18bn per year. Refusing further military adventures with the US, like that in Libya, and cancelling the 100bn set to be wasted on Trident replacement would yield much more. These sums would be enough to restore all the cuts to welfare, education and health this government has made so far. Britain has a long history as an imperial power. Long ago its ruling class realised it could make greater profits by plundering the rest of the world rather than developing the domestic economy through investment. This is the reason for Britains relative economic decline in the world. The capitalist solution to the crisis is to increase the rate of exploitation at home (through wage cuts and slashed services) and to increase the level of plundering overseas (with wars of conquest, seizure of assets, control of natural resources). Racism will be whipped up to justify wars and distract from the real enemy the capitalist class. [continued overleaf]

[continued from front] But there is an alternative. There are huge resources available if only the correct choices are made. Abandoning wars of intervention, slashing the military budget

and diverting funds to areas which will boost economic activity and jobs is what is needed. Increasing government investment would create growth in the economy and allow an improvement in the living standards of ordinary people. It would also stop the delivery of death and destruction to the peoples of other countries.

Stop the imperialist assault on Libya

he imperialist bombing campaign of Libya is a violent attempt to reassert the position of Western imperialism in the Arab world and break the momentum of the uprisings that have swept through the region since January. The pretext for the assault defending citizens from the assault of Gaddafi carries no conviction. Where is the intervention in Bahrain to prevent the regime supported by the Saudi army slaughtering the opposition? Where is the intervention to protect the people of Gaza from Israeli military incursions? What is special about Libya? The imperialists see a chance to replace Gaddafi with a more complaint regime that is in hock to the West for its position. And at the same time to establish a bastion to influence developments in Egypt and Tunisia conveniently located either side of Libya! The military intervention has become necessary to assert imperialist military hegemony in the region as a series of autocratic pro-Western regimes Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain and Yemen have become vulnerable to a mass upsurge that threatens to install regimes that are more independent of the west. Ground had to be ceded in Egypt and Tunisia, but the US is working continually to limit the extent of reforms in both countries, and tie parts of the opposition into processes that will keep elements of the previous regimes in place. At the same time a coordinated military counter-offensive across the region has been launched. Hence the crackdown in Bahrain, the moves to replace Saleh in Yemen with a new regime composed of former officers and ministers, the firing on protesters in Tunisia and elsewhere, and stepped up attacks on Gaza by Israel. However, the central plank of imperialisms campaign is the action against Libya. Installing a regime that owes its existence to the West would be a powerful lever against the revolutionary dynamics unfolding in neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia, and give the West far greater control over Libyas oil. For the Libyan people it will mean even more mayhem and slaughter, probably followed by the installation of a client regime. Imperialism is the most deadly enemy of the people not just in Libya and the Middle East but the entire world. It is prepared to kill millions of people for profit and carry out crimes against humanity in the form of slavery, world wars, killing 2m people in Vietnam, the unnecessary use of nuclear weapons against Japan, the slaughter of a million in Iraq, and many others. As Cubas Minister of Foreign Affairs to the UN Human Rights Council pointed out in the Libya debate earlier this month, its economic policies mean every day 29,000 children die of hunger and preventable diseases and there are 100,000 other deaths a day from causes related to malnutrition. Gaddafi

like Saddam is just a small time crook compared to the operations of this imperialist mafia. Like Iraq, the longer intervention persists the more Libya will be thrown backwards and chaos inflicted on its people. Irrespective of the insurgents original intentions, this is now a Western-organised war in which they are subordinate. The past months have seen a heroic struggle for democracy across the Middle East. Imperialism has unleashed its violence against it. All those committed to progress in the Arab world should call on the British government to stop its war on Libya. Join the protests against the war. Check www.cnduk.org and www.stopwar.org.uk for details
Those who argue that the war represents the majority of the world can do so only by falsely claiming that UN Security Council reflects world opinion. Yet the combined population of the 10 members who voted FOR the UN Security Council resolution is only 700m people just 10% of the worlds population. In contrast, there has been opposition to the current bombing of Libya and/ or calls for an immediate ceasefire by China, Russia, India, the African Union, Brazil, Argentina and many other Latin American countries. Together these countries make up the majority of the worlds population. Below is a selection of those opposing the bombing: Fidel Castro 21 February 2011 What is absolutely clear is that the government of the United States is not in the least worried about peace in Libya and it will not hesitate in giving NATO the order to invade Hugo Chvez 22 March Venezuela demands the cessation of the imperialist aggressions, bombs and deaths against innocent people... and that the Libyan people be able to decide freely their own destiny Lowkey (@LowkeyMusic1) 19 March 2011 In terms of geopolitics, having a presence in Libya is the perfect way for the imperial powers to co-opt revolutions in Egypt + Tunis European left (www.european-left.org) 20 March 2011 Military interventions including bombing campaigns on Tripoli and other Libyan towns will not bring peace to Libya. The Party of the European Left is convinced that the aim of the intervention is not to help the popular uprising and protect civilians but to regain control of the region and the resources of the country. Jeremy Corbyn MP 20 March 2011 This war is about oil, control and a message to the rest of the world and region that we can do it if we want to. I fear we will soon be involved in a ground war, the partition of Libya and the theft of that countrys oil and resources. George Galloway 20 March 2011 This bombing will not succeed. This will be a long war, casualties will occur far from the scenes of battle and the radicalisation of Arab and Islamic world will proceed apace. This is not peacekeeping. This is imperialist war-making. Caroline Lucas MP 17 March 2011 We have lost all moral authority when it comes to this kind of intervention because of what happened in Iraq. Tony Benn 17 March 2011 The truth is, youre going into a war without clear objectives, although everybody knows what the British objective is, what the America objectives are. And I think this is going to damage the popular movements in the Middle East...

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