FITUG/GAWU protest ‘imperialist intervention‘ in Libya

The Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers Union (GAWU), its largest affiliate, in a statement on the situation in Libya expressed “abhorrence at the deadly machinations of the West and its NATO forces, under the facade of assisting popular revolt(s) by the people.”

According to the release, “the beginning of the armed revolt on February 23, 2011, by disaffected members of the Libyan military and political establishment provided the opportunity for the US imperialists, in league with their French and British counterparts, to overthrow militarily the Libyan government and replace it with a client or stooge regime.”

The release went on to say that there were ordinary people in the revolt “who had many legitimate grievances“ against the Libyan government, “but  what is critical in an armed struggle for state power is not the composition of the rank-and-file soldiers, but the class character and political orientation of the leadership.”

In the meantime, FITUG and GAWU urged the government and people of Guyana “to study this latest manipulation of an Arab people’s impatience which was made an excuse for NATO’s aggression. NATO’s imposition of itself, the union organizations said, is nothing but a “pandering to the remnant of class division in Libya.”

“The alternative government – the so-called National Transition Council (NTC) – is nothing but a body of upper-class, Western-oriented Generals who were uncomfortable with Colonel Gaddafi’s unique Libyan Welfare State,“ the release declared.