You Cannot Trust in Imperialism

“No se puede confiar en el imperialismo, ni tantito así… Nada!” In Spanish, this means — “You cannot trust in imperialism, not even a little bit… Not at all!”

The famous line from Commander Che Guevara in his speech at the U.N. continues to sound an ever-present alarm that we cannot ignore.

It serves just as much to explain the delusions of Muammar Gadhafi, as his approach to an empire could spare him the same fate as Iraq, and also for the governments of countries that make up the Security Council of the U.N. who believe that the United States would merely “ensure control of the Libyan airspace.”

The historic trajectory of the regime of Muammar Gadhafi is proof of the danger in trusting in imperialism. Gadhafi rose to power in 1969, on nationalist platform inspired by the leadership of Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970), intended to unify the Arab countries toward an autonomous, national, third-world design. After the fall of King Idris I, which was closely linked to the American oil companies, a republic replaced the monarchy. This program resulted in the withdrawal of the U.S. from th air base Wheelus, in Libyan territory, and began an intense program of nationalization. The new correlations of forces inaugurated by the end of the Soviet Union defined the beginning of the delusions of Gadhafi’s approach to an empire that could spare him a similar fate to that of Iraq. From October 2002, he began a marathon of visits to Tripoli: Berlusconi (Italy), in October 2002; Aznar (Spain), in September 2003; Berlusconi again in February, August and October 2004; Blair (England), in March 2004; Schröeder (Germany), in October 2004; and Chirac (France), in November 2004. In 2003, he announced his intent to side with the war on terror. He opened the economy to the giant transnational oil corporations. British Petroleum, Exxon, Halliburton, Chevron, Conoco and Marathon Oil associated themselves with the giants of the defense industry Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemical to form the U.S.-Libya Business Association in 2005.

Since then, Gadhafi declared himself a collaborator of the United States — which he aided in the war on terror — and with Italy, with whom he collaborated in the deportation of to Europe from Africa. Such a “political swerve” from his previous approach to imperialism shocked his social base, removing Libyan national interests from his rhetoric and allying his regime with the empire they had fought against for so long.

Muammar Gadhafi is paying a heavy price for this delusion. Upon facing a social revolt with legitimate motives, his imperialist allies have abandoned him without any hesitation and promptly availed themselves of the situation to gobble up the natural resources of Libya.

No doubt is left anymore: the United States is using the guise of humanitarian intervention to pursue the clear objective of taking control of the energy resources of the country and imposing a new regime friendly to its own interests. Scrutinized about the bombings carried out by NATO planes, American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton justified the attacks through the “legality” of Resolutions 1970 and 1973 of the U.N. Security Council, that authorized “all necessary measures” to protect Libyan citizens from repression by the regime commanded by Gadhafi.

Here we stumble upon another serious “delusion” facing imperialism. Upon approving or abstaining from the meeting of the U.N. Security Council, member countries, including Brazil, have allowed the United States to manipulate the resolution to promote a military intervention through which they clearly intend to consolidate their positions and allies in Libyan territory.

There was never any humanitarian intention in the U.S.’s proposal. It’s enough to compare with the situation of Bahrain, where recently 160 armored vehicles and more than 1000 soldiers from the so-called Arab League, in particular from Saudi Arabia, invaded the small emirate, suffocating the popular revolt in the face of silence from international agencies and with the complicity of the United States. In this case, the U.S.’s concern was to vouch for the regime that houses its strategic Fifth Naval Fleet, which controls naval passage through the Persian Gulf.

It is necessary to mobilize against the intervention of the U.S. and its NATO allies in Libya. The imperialist military presence manipulates legitimate popular revolt by empowering its allied representatives and associated tribal leaders. Once again Che Guevara’s warning is confirmed — “You cannot trust in imperialism…”