Libya

[scarletghoul]

Interesting and unique country, I'm not sure what to think of it. The political systems seems pretty democratic, though I have no idea what it is like in practice. The economy seems mostly in the public sector with high pay etc, which is great especially if the direct democracy works as it is supposed to. It may not be ML but it could be socialist which is what really counts. But I don't know much about it at all. One day I'll visit, but in the meantime perhaps some comrades more knowledgable could answer some questions -

1. How much power does the direct-democratically elected assemblies have ?? I know the revolutionary committees (Gaddafi) has ultimate veto power, but is the day to day governing done by the direct democratic system ? Gaddafi often appeals to the masses, and there was a 'cultural revolution' of sorts in the 70s to try and institute mass control; so how much power do the masses really have ??

2. Is their workplace democracy of any kind ?

3. Does anyone have figures on income distribution ?? Gaddafi said something about 2 years ago about directly giving every Libyan a load of money from the oil.. it would be great to see what the income distribution and inequality is like. I have been unable to find a Gini coefficient for Libya

Any additional material especially first-hand accounts of the Libyan system would be great too

thanks

[scarletghoul]

i sit ok to bumnp in learning ??

also i found this
http://www.country-data.com/frd/cs/lytoc.html

[Roach]

I can't say that I have a deep knowledge about Libya, but I don't think that it is a great progressive country,nor I think there is some workplace democracy, but certainly the profits of the oil are distributed in a much fairer way then for example Saudi Arabia, but they don't reach the nomad population that still is very poor.
Also we can't forget the invasion of Chad.

Enver Hoxha said this about Lybia:

As is known, in 1969 there was a revolt in Libya, too; the dynasty of King Idris was overthrown and a group of young officers, headed by Qaddafi who poses as anti-imperialist, came to power. We can describe this revolt, this movement, as progressive at first, but later it lost its impact and at the moment it has fallen into stagnation. Qaddafi who came to power and claims to be the head of Islam, exploited the Moslem religion to present Libya as a "progressive", country and even called it "socialist", but in reality the great oil wealth of the country is being exploited for very dubious adventurous and sinister aims. Of course, for purposes of demagogy and because the income from the sale of oil is truly colossal, some changes have been made in the life of the people in the cities, while the poverty-stricken nomads of the desert remain a grave social problem. As we know, Qaddafi was a disciple of Nasser's in politics, ideology and religious belief, as well as in his aims.
A somewhat more advanced and more revolutionary uprising against the monarchy took place in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, in 1958. It ended with the killing of King Faisal and his prime minister, Nuri Said. The "communists" took power there together with General Kassem, a representative of the liberal officers. Only five years later, however, in 1963, there was a coup d'etat and Kassem was executed. He was replaced by another officer, Colonel Aref. In 1968 General Al-Bakr came to the head of the state and the "Baath" Party, a party of the reactionary feudal and compradore bourgeoisie, returned to power.
The events which are occurring in Iran and Afghanistan are a positive example for the peoples of neighbouring states, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the Emirates of the Persian Gulf, Syria, Egypt and many others, but they also constitute a great danger to the ruling cliques