Black Africans In Libya Cry Out For Help!

[Derb]

Amazing article. Yet all the White Marxists in America remain silent:

http://www.panafricanistinternational.org/?p=477

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By Ali-Masmadi (http://www.panafricanistinternational.org/?author=2) | March 4, 2011 at 4:18 am

Within the nooks and creeks, even difficult for the Libyans themselves to find them are most probably black Africans, scared stiff to sneak out of their hide-outs because of the inevitable confusion with “African mercenaries” and facing mob justice. reports coming out indicate that most of these people are living under very precarious conditions which include food and water.

Reports on Al Jazeera show a Ghanaian migrant who claims that black people are being caught, armed and sent to battle front, even though they might not have an idea about what the trigger is even meant for! The effect of the use of “foreign mercenaries”, if true, has completely poisoned the budding Libyan Revolution. The real weapon that has been unleashed by Gaddafi is not those miserable mercenaries, but the reduction of the dignity of the Libyan Revolution into an insane xenophobic tantrum. The people of Libya who have aided these Africans to escape, without even asking to be paid, need to be mentioned and thanked and to balance the perspectives, and encourage such positive tendencies still found within the Libyan communities and individuals who do not see all black Africans as mercenaries.

There is no need to allow this to draw a wedge between the democratic forces who are in charge of the on-going struggle to free themselves from the longest ruling dictator in the world. Gaddafi’s only olive branch to Pan-Africanism has been under the condition that we crown him as our “King of Kings”. So we are not confused at all, and can understand why the good people of Libya would want to get rid of him. But the People’s Revolution in Libya, unlike the ones in all the other Arab countries which have so far enjoyed our unalloyed solidarity, is being dangerously diluted with politically toxic and and extremely alarming systematic and sporadic attacks on black African migrants living in Libya.

The Pan-Africanist International was among the first international organisations that cried out as soon as the first violent attack on unarmed protesters occurred:

“We are shocked and horrified by the reckless abandon and the extents taken by the Libyan authorities, including reports of the hiring of foreign mercenaries to kill and maim peaceful protesters by a leader who prides himself as being “democratic” in his own Green Book!

As the third largest supplier of Europe’s oil, and by far the biggest customer of Gadaffi, the carnage going on must be clearly condemned and further measures taken to ensure the will of the good people of Libya prevails!”

The International Solidarity Committee of the Pan-Africanist International stands firmly in support of the heroic people of Libya. We stand with them in this great hour of need! We urgently call upon the international community to do something now!”

This time we call upon the leaders of civil societies in Libya to urgently take visible steps to restore the right of these Africans to the same human rights they are fighting for, otherwise their revolution is void ab initio. Already, people who never really liked what their limited understanding of what the Libyan revolution represents are furiously presenting all Libyans as racists. We know that this is certainly false. But as stories of harassments continue to pour out, these sentiments would be repeated across black Africa, particularly by those who want to create a wedge and frustrate the Pan-Africanist project.

We call upon Colonel Gaddafi to ensure the safety of black Africans. We believe that just as the Libyan government and the opposition are agreed upon their rejection of US offers of “No Fly Zone”, we call upon both sides of the warring parties to reject the maltreatment of foreign migrants who have been living peacefully and working to help improve the Libyan economy and to improve their own lives. We don’t see this as a crime. The are your brothers and sisters. They need help. Please help them!
Forward Ever! Backwards Never!!!

Cheers!
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[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I predicted this kind of thing when I heard of the mercenaries to begin with. Though I think the "revolutionaries" cannot be smeared with this in general. Are there people who are attacking blacks unfairly because of the mercenaries? From the sound of things, unfortunately, yes. Is this a stated policy of the Libyan revolutionaries? Not really. Though the Councils should definitely get ahead of the program and come out against racism, just to make this explicit and clear.

Also, reports say Gaddhafi recently brought in more Tuareg rebels from Mali. It almost seems like it might have been part of his plan to incite racial hatred with his use of mercenaries to discredit the rebels.

[khad]

I predicted this kind of thing when I heard of the mercenaries to begin with.
10 years ago, all it took was a dispute over a football match to lynch nearly 200 black migrant workers. The mercenaries bit is simply an excuse. Just how many Tuareg mercenaries is Gaddafi hiring from Mali? I've read about 100.

[RedSquare]

What do you suggest we do? We have no control over hundreds of thousands of revolting people who might attribute skin colour with an individuals origin or reason for being in a particular country.

Obviously any type of discrimination on racial grounds should be opposed vehemently, by all sides.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

10 years ago, all it took was a dispute over a football match to lynch nearly 200 black migrant workers. The mercenaries bit is simply an excuse. Just how many Tuareg mercenaries is Gaddafi hiring from Mali? I've read about 100.

Why do you generalize about all Libyans based on one tragic incident? Underemployed youth at football matches don't make for a good indicator of the society at large.

As for how many mercenaries, they said a few hundred, and that's just Mali. From the sound of things, most of the mercenaries are from the sudan, niger and chad, though there are others from many countries.

[khad]

Why do you generalize about all Libyans based on one tragic incident? Underemployed youth at football matches don't make for a good indicator of the society at large.

As for how many mercenaries, they said a few hundred, and that's just Mali. From the sound of things, most of the mercenaries are from the sudan, niger and chad, though there are others from many countries.
6:54pm The latest blow to Gaddafi's diplomatic corps - now it's the turn of the Libyan general consul in Mali to resign his post.

He told Al Jazeera Arabic that he had quit, saying "the mission for which he was designated did not materialise". Al-Koni also categorically denied that mercenaries came from the Tuareg tribe, and called on countries and humanitarian organisations to protect the tribe.

[gorillafuck]

Libya is an extremely racially divided society and that the reason for the racist attacks is that it's not a workers movement of working class unity, it is a Libyan national movement that seeks to overthrow Qaddafi. Shivas attribution of the racist attacks to Qaddafis mercenaries is ridiculous.

It's funny how some people don't support Hamas because they're a bourgeois organization (which yeah, they are) but they support other bourgeois organizations like the rebel councils. I have no doubt in my mind that if workers started uniting as workers and asserting their class interests in Libya, the rebel councils would come down on it just as hard as the government.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

Zeekoid-what? i'm not saying the mercenaries were the sole cause of the violence, just that the use of them exacerbated any racial divisions. Maybe you disagree with my assertion that it was a factor in the violence, but you don't need to build a strawman by suggesting that I'm denying all culturally ingrained racism in Libya and saying that the mercenaries are the only factor that instigated the violence.

Also, what do you base your assertion that the councils are "bourgeois institutions"? They seem more haphazard, and though they may well be or become that, it seems a little early to make any claims like that

khad-hmm, what is the malian government talking about then? it would make sense that tuaregs would head to Libya since Libya supported malian and nigeran Tuareg rebels in the past.

[Dimentio]

Why do you generalize about all Libyans based on one tragic incident? Underemployed youth at football matches don't make for a good indicator of the society at large.

As for how many mercenaries, they said a few hundred, and that's just Mali. From the sound of things, most of the mercenaries are from the sudan, niger and chad, though there are others from many countries.

It is still an indicator of racism.

[gorillafuck]

Zeekoid-what? i'm not saying the mercenaries were the sole cause of the violence, just that the use of them exacerbated any racial divisions. Maybe you disagree with my assertion that it was a factor in the violence, but you don't need to build a strawman by suggesting that I'm denying all culturally ingrained racism in Libya and saying that the mercenaries are the only factor that instigated the violence.Let's look at what you said, then.


I predicted this kind of thing when I heard of the mercenaries to begin with. Though I think the "revolutionaries" cannot be smeared with this in general. Are there people who are attacking blacks unfairly because of the mercenaries? From the sound of things, unfortunately, yes.You didn't say they added to the racial violence, you said they caused the racial violence.


Also, what do you base your assertion that the councils are "bourgeois institutions"? They seem more haphazard, and though they may well be or become that, it seems a little early to make any claims like thatAre they workers councils or are they councils headed by people who seek to replace Qaddafi with another ruling class?

Do you think the (Islamist) Iranian revolutionary councils were bourgeois during their beginnings when the revolution was getting underway? Because I see no difference between this and that apart from this.

[Os Cangaceiros]

The workers councils in Iran circa 1979 were pretty awesome. It's a shame that the revolution there got obliterated by clerical reaction.

[Rafiq]

Do you think the (Islamist) Iranian revolutionary councils were bourgeois during their beginnings when the revolution was getting underway? Because I see no difference between this and that apart from this.

I don't think any of the worker's councils were Islamist/Non Socialist.

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

I double checked, I said they were exacerbating it in an earlier thread on the same topic. In that context, i could see why you thought I meant that. Just to clarify, i dont think it's creating the violence out of nowhere, just that in the context of whatever cultural conditions exist in Libya, the use of mercenaries exacerbated that negative trait. A negative external stimulus like the use of mercenaries will appear to confirm paranoid bigotries held by sectors of a population and help make them more widespread, as well as blind non-bigoted people to the nature of their neighbor's bigotry.

As for whether or not the councils are bourgeois-I'm not sating they wont become bourgeois, just that their current makeup appears to consist of people from all walks of life. Only time will tell if bourgeois elements end up becoming the dominating force of these councils (although, it is clear that "bourgeois elements" have become the dominant force in Gaddhafi's government too). Nor do I think Iran's councils were particularly bourgeois after the revolution by any standard; whether or not their movement got hijacked later is another issue.

[Rafiq]

Yeah I thought the councils in Iran were crushed right after the revolution....