WEBVTT - Gaddafi with Andrew 0:00:01.800 --> 0:00:08.680 Also media, Hello and welcome toake it Happen here. I 0:00:08.720 --> 0:00:13.040 am Andrew Siege Andrewism on YouTube and joined again. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:14.720 By James Again. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.800 Yes, I've noticed a phenomenon I'm not sure if you've 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:24.959 noticed it too, where anti imperialists solidarity somehow goes a 0:00:25.000 --> 0:00:30.240 step beyond a posing imperialist aggression itself and crosses into 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:35.560 lionizing or whitewashing the targets of that aggression, or rather 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.080 the asensible leaders of the target to that aggression. 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:42.800 Oh yeah, I have noticed this too. It's one of 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:45.280 the things that makes me most angry in the world. 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:48.640 What's been referred to as the anti imperialism of idiots. Yes, 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.159 not so relevant now, but I used to like to 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.120 apply the Sad test to anybody who claimed to be 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.160 interested in the politics of liberation. Right if you, if 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:03.560 you think Asad is a based anti imperialist people's socialist hero, 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:05.920 then your politics are shit. 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:08.800 I have nothing good to say about that, Like, you're 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:09.320 an idiot. 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.560 Yeah, yeah, it should be a fringe phenomenon, right, but 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:16.399 I haven't seen it get an increase intraction. 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:19.959 Yeah, even in like relatively you know, like I won't 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:25.679 start a war with various US leftist publications. But I 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:28.800 went to pitch some people this last week, thinking like, 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.720 there is speculation that the United States will once again 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:35.960 ally itself with Kurdish groups. So I'm sure it had 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:39.039 then planned to once again abandon when that became politically 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:42.520 more expedient. But I happened to have some insight into 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.080 these various Kurtish groups, having spent some time there and 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:48.000 having contacts there, And so I went to the website 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.400 of these various you know, big publications which are left 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.640 or left leaning or even sort of liberal, and I 0:01:54.680 --> 0:01:58.760 saw these borderline campus takes on what's happening in Iran. 0:01:58.840 --> 0:01:59.360 And it's just. 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:03.280 So so frustrating to me, Like, it makes me so 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.760 angry that people continue to view the world through this 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:12.120 binary Marvel movie lens which sees it it's impossible that 0:02:12.160 --> 0:02:14.080 two things could be bad at the same time. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:16.160 Yeah, it's infuriating to me. 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:21.240 Yeah, And if I was more inclined to conspiracy, I 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:27.560 might say that this binary is intentionally constructed, you know, 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:32.280 that it's it's by design that the most vocal anti 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.400 imperiodist voices also just so happened to align themselves with 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:38.840 state power. 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:41.040 Yeah, and Camp is on. 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.040 But I'm not inclined to conspiracy. 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.720 So yeah, yeah, one could make a pretty reasonable argument. 0:02:47.400 --> 0:02:50.799 For that, right, One could make that argument. Yeah I won't, 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:51.640 but one could. 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:54.200 I might. 0:02:55.440 --> 0:02:58.080 I think one of the best examples of this is 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.520 the sort of odd obsession that some people have with 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:06.040 Colonel Umar Algadafi. Now, last episode, we spoke about the 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:10.360 long term consequences of Western intervention in Libya, beginning with 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:13.240 the twenty eleven uprising during the Arab Spring against the 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.680 forty two year rule of more Margadafi, but began as 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.040 a broad, largely lead less protest movement was quickly shaped 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.760 by foreign intervention. In Marsh of twenty eleven, the US, 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:27.400 the UK, and France launched a military campaign through NATO 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:32.560 under the UN mandate to protect civilians. The war toppled Gaddafi, 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:38.280 but killed tens of thousands and devastated infrastructure. In the aftermath, 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:43.000 Libya fractured into rival governments, militias, and foreign backed factions, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.520 triggering yet another civil war in twenty fourteen, and despite 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.720 a cease fire in twenty twenty, the country remains divided 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:55.320 between competing administrations, while ordinary Libyans face instability, human rights abuses, 0:03:55.520 --> 0:03:59.000 and economic hardship. I think it's fair to say that 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:02.560 the NATO intervention was a net negative for the country. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:05.839 But in this same breath, I cannot agree with those 0:04:05.840 --> 0:04:08.240 who seemed to believe that Gaddafi's rule could have continued 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:11.360 either that he was some force for good in the country. 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.240 And in this episode, I really want to get into 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:18.200 the y to identify and dissect the actions of the 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:23.520 man Gaddafi. According to his biography and Encycopoedia Britannica, Murma 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:28.880 al Kaddafi was born in nineteen forty two near Sirte, Libya. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:32.280 Sixty nine years later, he would be captured and killed 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:37.080 in Sirte, Libya. After spending his early years in at 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:40.160 tent he graduated from the University of Libya in nineteen 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.880 sixty three and then graduated from a military academy in 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.560 nineteen sixty five. In nineteen sixty nine, at the age 0:04:46.600 --> 0:04:50.200 of twenty seven, Gaddafi pulled off a blood less coup 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.400 to seize power from King Idris to First of Libya. 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.040 For the next four decades plus, he would be the 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:01.240 de facto ruler of Libya. He was both a passionate 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.039 Arab nationalist and a Muslim in power, he tried to 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:09.880 push both of his ideologies. He expelled Western military forces, 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:15.279 expelled remaining Italian settlers and Jewish communities in Libya, nationalized 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:19.479 the country's oil industry, banned alcohol and gambling, tried to 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:22.920 unify with his Arab neighbors occasionally by attempting coups in 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:28.200 their countries, and stood against normalization with Israel. So a 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:33.520 very mixed bag so far. Until nineteen seventy seven, Gaddafi 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.880 ruled the Libyan Arab Republic, but the culmination of his 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.640 Cultural Revolution period from nineteen seventy three to nineteen seventy 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.920 seven would sideline his political and religious opponents, who would 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:50.160 begin in to see him as unstable, huboristic, and authoritarian. 0:05:50.720 --> 0:05:54.600 That period would instead cement Gaddafi as the sole ruler 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:59.680 of what he would rename the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiria. 0:06:00.240 --> 0:06:03.719 As recounted in Libya The History of Gaddafi's Pariah State 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.560 by John Oakes, Jamahiria was a term he coined in 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.240 his Green Book, likely inspired by Mao's Little Read Book, 0:06:11.640 --> 0:06:16.000 published during the Libyan Cultural Revolution period. Jamahiria was his 0:06:16.200 --> 0:06:19.960 idea of a state of the masses governed by people's 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:23.800 Congresses and popular assemblies. And if it's one thing that 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:28.359 makes a political movement, it's empowering. It's slapping the people's 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.440 and popular label on everything, regardless of any additional context. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.520 So they had these democratic local assemblies called basic People's 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:41.720 Congresses that met three times a year, and those congresses 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:45.680 appointed executive people's committees which did most of the day 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.480 to day stuff, and above it all was the General 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:53.360 People's Congress. This period was simultaneously an effort to encourage 0:06:53.400 --> 0:06:57.800 popular participation through these congresses while suppressing descend through his 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.440 control over the secret services. It was clear that Goddaffi 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.640 was still in charge even after he stepped down from 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.960 his formal position as Secretary General in nineteen seventy nine 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:13.200 and simply and humbly dubbed himself the brotherly leader and 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:14.480 Guide of the revolution. 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.040 Yeah, you get some of his like hubristic stuff, like 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:24.120 his rhetoric, is his outfit, his reference to himself. 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:27.800 It is like you couldn't parody some of it. 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:30.360 It is where like the parodies of dictators in this 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:31.520 part of the world come from. 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.760 Is Goaddafi's kind of affect? I guess, yeah, he was 0:07:35.960 --> 0:07:38.520 a character yes, that he was here. 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:43.360 He was a definitely character. Yeah, so, I mean, anarchist 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:49.360 critiques of democracy are easy to find, and although Gadaffi's 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:55.160 Libya is never solely directly democratic, even in his project, 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.360 you could see some of the flaws and the issues 0:07:57.400 --> 0:08:00.720 that anarchists have identified in this approach to popular power 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.920 as the congresses, the People's Congresses were poorly attended and 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:11.200 easily manipulated. Issues were often raised and rarely resolved, And 0:08:11.240 --> 0:08:13.480 of course, compounding those flaws was the fact that these 0:08:13.520 --> 0:08:17.040 people's Congresses had no actual power over the things that 0:08:17.160 --> 0:08:21.440 mattered in Libya, the oil industry, the armed forces, the 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:26.480 security services, and foreign policy, where Kadaffi and his compatriots 0:08:26.640 --> 0:08:30.080 still ruled. Gaddafi decided where the oil money went, and 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:32.720 he directed some of it to a great man made 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.800 of a project that would extract from the ancient and 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.000 non renewable aquifer under the Libyan desert to supply the 0:08:39.080 --> 0:08:42.920 coast for some more stable water supply. Frustratingly for him, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:45.720 I could assume Kaddafi did not get what he wanted 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:50.199 out of the revolutionary People's Congresses, so he created revolutionary 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:55.280 committees to mobilize the people and safeguard their rule through 0:08:55.400 --> 0:09:00.240 commandos that answered to Gaddafi directly. These revolutionary committees could 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:06.640 arrest counter revolutionaries, establish revolutionary courts, and eliminate enemies of 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:11.080 the revolution at home and abroad. The people he called 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:15.319 stray dogs. All of this for the people, of course, 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:29.760 and for the revolution so on. People his system had 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:33.679 some degree of people power and people voice, but in 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:39.400 practice he exercised near total control and suppression of opposition, 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.160 both within the country and outside the country. The same 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:48.079 went for workplaces. Of course. He spoke about worker partnership 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:50.280 and power in the Green Book, but it was a 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.280 state controlled and state distributed economy in Libia, run by 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:59.120 oil money, with very few worker run enterprises. There was 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:02.440 also no real freedom of organization or strike in Libya, 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:07.560 as independent unions were banned and Graffi explicitly rejected class 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:13.480 struggle despite claiming to be a socialist. So in the 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:18.000 Return of Momar Kadafi by Tunisian academic Hatem Gussemi, he 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:21.079 hadized the cult of personality that was forged over the 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.480 years of Gaddafi's rule that has resurfaced up to today. 0:10:24.960 --> 0:10:27.360 His opponents often pointed the good that he did for 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.840 the country, establishing basic social services, free health, gain, education, 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:37.160 howies in and land distribution, accessible loan programs, women's rights 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:41.319 and so on. And with that welfare state came naturally 0:10:41.440 --> 0:10:44.559 some base of popular support for people who had little 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:49.040 to nothing before. Other fans of Gadaffi point to what 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:53.520 I like to call hype moments and aura. So there 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:55.800 was a time when he was in the UN General 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.760 Assembly and he was supposed to be a short time 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.960 to speak, and he just went on and on and 0:11:02.000 --> 0:11:05.000 on and on and on and on, and he tore 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:10.800 up the UN chatter, hyperments and aura, right, and yeah, 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:12.480 that's like something that a lot of people point to. 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:14.720 He was also, at one point in time the Chairman 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.439 of the African Union, and he wanted to keep that 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.480 position permanently, and he was proposing a whole United States 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:26.040 of Africa. Like he had a whole period of African solidarity, 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:26.960 which we'll get to. 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.560 Yeah, okay, good, Yeah, His Pan Africanist dark is fascinating. 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:38.160 Yeah. So none of this, however, erases his dark dark side. 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.400 For one, for all the women's rights that he put 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:44.400 forward in Libya, he was not that great to women. 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.480 The Green Book presents Gadaffi as someone who cared about 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:52.360 women's dignity and rights. But even in that book you 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.880 see a very complimentarist take on women's place in society. 0:11:57.320 --> 0:11:59.520 It's like, yeah, they're equal to men, but also their 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.080 role will is in the household. They're supposed to be 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:04.520 mothers above everything else. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:06.080 Yeah, he was like, they. 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.360 Need to be mothers, but they shouldn't be treated as 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:09.840 property or objects. 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:10.440 Yeah. 0:12:10.480 --> 0:12:12.160 I think he based a lot of this in like 0:12:12.240 --> 0:12:15.280 his interpretation of Hadi thought of Kuran, like his his 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.960 idea that like there was some kind of divine guidance 0:12:19.240 --> 0:12:23.600 on gender roles. Right. I've actually seen this in recent days, 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:27.360 Like you can go and find Hammoni's tweets, right, like 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:30.120 like iatlah Hamoni not not his son, and like you 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:31.800 can see his stuff where he's like you should not 0:12:31.840 --> 0:12:35.080 mistreat your wife. You can literally find in his timeline 0:12:35.120 --> 0:12:39.320 on Twitter. Right. He was a big poster and people 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:42.560 have somehow attempted to like construe this as like he 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.600 was a leader of enlightened feminist regime like in Iran, 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:47.360 which I don't know. 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:49.440 It's benevolent patriarchy alough. 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.079 For again, yeah, I like. 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.440 You you have to be really on a special fucking 0:12:54.840 --> 0:12:58.040 truth trajectory to convince yourself that that is the case. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:01.160 Likely, Like, it. 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:05.480 Takes a remarkable capacity for self delusion to rather than 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.760 listening to women in Iran, women from Iran, many of 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.360 whom I have spoken to, to look at the evidence 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:15.840 of the killing, for example, with you know Amini right 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:18.400 to be like, I know, I found this tweet from 0:13:18.400 --> 0:13:21.160 twenty thirteen, so we were good here, this is this 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:24.400 is fine. It's just remarkable people's tendency to do that. 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:27.320 Yeah, it's remarkable and stupid. 0:13:28.200 --> 0:13:29.800 Yeah, yeah, stupid It is a good word. 0:13:30.400 --> 0:13:34.520 Yeah. And going back to Gadafi aside from that sort 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:39.840 of benevolent patriarchy take on women's equality. 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:40.000 Yeah. 0:13:40.160 --> 0:13:44.920 Investigative report in by Anaka Jin also gathered testimony since 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:50.400 his fall that alleged his procurement, collusion, and sexual abuse 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:56.199 of women inside his compound aided by a network of officials. Unfortunately, 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.360 many of these women are far too are free to 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.960 come forward even all these years after his death due 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:08.760 to the persistence of Prograrafi sentiment in the country up 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.880 to today. So not the best for women, what about 0:14:13.040 --> 0:14:13.680 for Africa? 0:14:14.559 --> 0:14:14.719 Right? 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:19.800 His whole pan Africanist are He styled himself as a 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:22.800 Pan African who would support the struggles of people like 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:28.320 Mandela and would fund infrastructure projects around the continent. But 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.320 he had a history of attemptant over through governments in 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:36.320 Africa and support oppressive ones, including Idi Amin of Uganda 0:14:36.400 --> 0:14:40.960 and Charles Taylor of Liberia. So his Pan Africanism was 0:14:41.080 --> 0:14:45.640 never concerned with the freedom or well being of African people. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.440 It was I think very much according to his own 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:51.480 self aggrandizement. 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:53.800 Yeah, didn't. 0:14:53.800 --> 0:14:57.000 He proposed like an African union, which was more akin 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.040 to like a United States, like a federal action. 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:02.960 The United States South Africa. That was his proposal. 0:15:03.320 --> 0:15:05.320 Fantastic, Yeah, yeah, correct. 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.840 And as he is proposing this Pan African vision within 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:15.640 Libya itself, he was pushing for an Arablivia. Yeah, the 0:15:15.680 --> 0:15:22.360 Amazek and other non Arab Africans in Libya were mistreated, 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.040 you know. His vision of an Arab Libya led to 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:29.160 this suppression of the Toaregs, the tables and the Amazek. 0:15:29.600 --> 0:15:32.680 He had policies, as reported in the BBC in New 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.920 Internationalists Al jaz right elsewhere. He had policies that included 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.920 the bannon of minority languages, the bannon of minority names, 0:15:39.960 --> 0:15:44.560 the discourageon of cultural expression, and sometimes denying citizenship to 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:48.200 groups outside the Arab identity. So naturally, many of these 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.920 minorities took part in the twenty eleven movement, and after 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:55.120 Gaddafi's fall there was a revival of language, cultural institutions 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:58.920 and publications. However, the NTC and those that followed have 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:03.120 continued to ignore the minority plight. Minority groups are still 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.800 struggling for constitutional recognition, representation, and equal rights in a 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:11.920 country that is, of course still divided, and some minorities 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:15.840 have chosen to boycott the national political process entirely in 0:16:15.880 --> 0:16:21.040 favor of pursuing local self governance. Also, minorities were not 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.200 the only people being persecuted in Gaddafi's Libya. On the 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:29.160 political front, despite coal and himself a socialist, Gaddaffi was 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:33.560 really all over the place ideologically now internationally, he may 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:37.280 have backed the Palestinian struggle, the Irish struggle, the African 0:16:37.320 --> 0:16:42.040 American struggle, but he was consistent in suppressing actual leftists 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:45.320 in Libya. Marxis dot com identified some of these repressive 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:49.760 efforts in their article on Gaddafi quote Gaddaffi was very 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:53.840 clear in expressing his anti communism. In nineteen seventy one, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.160 he sent a plane full of Sudanese communists back to Sudan, 0:16:57.440 --> 0:17:01.000 where they were executed by Nimi. In nineteen seventy three, 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:03.920 the regime published an official document to commemorate the fourth 0:17:03.960 --> 0:17:07.800 anniversary of Gaddafi's rise to power under the title Holy 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:13.280 War against Communism End quote quite the center. Later on, however, 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:17.160 he would get more chummy with the ussry. But Gadaffi 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:21.560 was no marxisilantist, and communists and leftists and workers were 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:26.520 not legally capable of organizing independently in Libya. Aside from them, 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.800 you also had the murder and torture of civilians and journalists, 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:33.520 the assassinations of rivals and Libya and around the world. 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:38.120 It was not the free speech utopia that Kadaffi tried 0:17:38.160 --> 0:17:41.400 to paint as instead of emboldening the left to sermons, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:47.879 he emboldened these tribal groups and set the foundation for 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:49.399 the Libya that we see today. 0:17:50.680 --> 0:17:54.680 His consistent through line is that he liked strong men 0:17:55.240 --> 0:17:57.879 and sees himself among them and wants to associate himself 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:01.159 with them. At some point in the two thousands, he 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:06.080 was supporting Yorg Hyder, a neo fascist in Austria, and 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:08.720 telling Europeans they needed to get past their obsession with 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:12.359 the Second World War. He had no like consistent politics. 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.200 Well, I mean that tracks with his expulsion of Jewish 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.719 communities in Libya. Yeah, he hadn't only expelled Jewish settlers, 0:18:20.240 --> 0:18:24.240 He expelled Jewish communities that had arrived prior to Italian colonization, 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.119 that had existed in Libya for centuries. 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:30.680 Yeah that maybe, I guess Anti Semitism can often be 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.200 the link that brings terrible people together. 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.000 He had a lot of other notorious incidents of suppression, 0:18:38.680 --> 0:18:42.320 but one of the most significant was the Abu Salim massacre. 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.919 In short, as recounted by John Oogs, Abu Salem was 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:49.760 the site of a prisoner's protest on the twenty eighth 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:53.240 of June nineteen ninety six. The prisoners escaped their cells 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.239 and were protesting them as treatment as gods shot at 0:18:56.280 --> 0:18:59.280 them from the roof. Two top security officials came and 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.560 took command, ordering the shooting to stop and promising to 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.480 address the prisoner's complaints if they returned to their cells 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.320 and gave up the guards they had hostage and the 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:13.359 following day, shots fired from eleven am to one thirty 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:18.240 five pm, a mass slaughter of approximately one thy two 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:22.560 hundred of the sixteen to seventeen hundred prisoners in Abu Salins. 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.159 The families who suffered a blow were among the first 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:30.200 on the streets of Benghazi twenty eleven, but those families 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:33.320 were not originally told that their loved ones had been killed. 0:19:34.080 --> 0:19:37.320 Some of them continued to visit the prison for weeks, 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:41.880 months years after, bringing gifts for their relatives who were 0:19:41.920 --> 0:19:47.000 already long dead. In the twists and turns of Gaddafi's 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:51.080 ideological development or lack their of, following the fall of 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:56.680 the USSR, Gaddafi would also pursue economic liberalization. He started 0:19:56.800 --> 0:19:59.639 opening up to the West, ever so slightly. They were 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:03.000 still progress and a brief hickup, but by two thousand 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:07.320 and three, free market advocate Chukri Ganim was appointed Prime Minister. 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:12.680 Before long, three hundred and sixty state enterprises were privatized. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.680 By two thousand and seven, Libya was laying off as 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.760 many as a third of the government workforce four hundred 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:22.240 thousand public sector workers, and according to a New York 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.200 Times article from twenty eleven, the IMF had actually praised 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:30.560 Libya's economic reforms. So while twenty eleven conditions were so 0:20:30.800 --> 0:20:34.879 unbearable for so many workers, especially young people, there's no 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.760 wonder that some of them fought with nothing to lose. 0:20:48.840 --> 0:20:50.840 The last aspects of Gadaffi's rule that I want to 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:55.640 touch on was his complex relationship with Western powers billionis 0:20:55.760 --> 0:20:58.199 rule in the seventies and eighties. He did style himself 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.280 for an anti imperist revolutionary and that is the image 0:21:01.280 --> 0:21:04.760 that our people uphold of him to this day. Libya 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:08.960 funded an armed revolutionary and militon movements worldwide, from the 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.120 African National Congress or the ANC, to the Palestine Liberation 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:17.280 Organization or PILO, to the Irish Republican Army or IRI. 0:21:17.960 --> 0:21:21.000 He aligned himself with the so called radical camp in 0:21:21.000 --> 0:21:25.959 the Middle East, including Bathist Syria and Iran, and Western 0:21:25.960 --> 0:21:30.640 governments accused Libya of supporting international terrorism. Libya was considered 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:34.800 a rogue state, but as noted by Syrian anarchist Mazen 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:39.639 Kamalamas in an interview with Jose Antonio Guitairez, quote, even 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:44.080 when Gaddafi was declaring himself an anti imperialist long ago, 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:46.359 it was just a lip service. While he engaged as 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:50.119 an authoritarian in trivial terrorist acts that never meant to 0:21:50.160 --> 0:21:55.640 support the libertarian objectives of the victims of imperialism end quote. Still, 0:21:56.080 --> 0:21:59.199 Reagan called him a mad dog, and the US bombed 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:01.920 Libya in nine teen eighty six after attacks in a 0:22:01.960 --> 0:22:06.440 West Berlin nightclub were attributed to Libyan agents. Those bombans 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:11.240 narrowly missed Gaddafi himself, but they killed his adopted baby daughter. 0:22:12.040 --> 0:22:14.560 Libya was also blamed for the nineteen eighty eight bombing 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:18.160 of PanAm Flight one O three over Lockerby, which led 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:21.000 to sanctions both the United Nations and the US, which 0:22:21.080 --> 0:22:26.520 isolated Libya economically and diplomatically. In the nineties, however, with 0:22:26.720 --> 0:22:30.840 four of the USSR, Libya began solely shifting toward cooperation. 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:34.280 They handed over the suspects in the Lockerbie bombing, and 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.879 sanctions began to loosen as they attempted to normalize relations. 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:42.760 Western intelligence services soon started cooperating with Libyan intelligence against 0:22:42.800 --> 0:22:46.680 Islamist militon groups, including the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.080 is a thorn in Gaddafi's side. The early two thousands 0:22:50.119 --> 0:22:54.040 had Libya renownce its weapons of mass destruction program. Following 0:22:54.040 --> 0:22:56.920 the invasion of Iraq, the US and the UNS have 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.879 equently lifted sanctions, and diplomatic relations were a store fully 0:23:01.119 --> 0:23:04.680 with Western countries. Gadaffi hosted Tony Blair of the UK, 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:08.520 Nicholas atco Zia France, and met with Obama as well, 0:23:09.080 --> 0:23:11.960 and many of these meetings with Western leaders produced multi 0:23:12.160 --> 0:23:18.880 billion dollar energy and business deals BP Royal, Dot Shell, Excellent, Mobile, Chevron, 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.160 Total Energies. They were all get in pieces of Libya's 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:26.679 wealth as Libya began adopting one neoliberal economic reforms like 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:31.240 currency devaluation, trade liberalization, and more openness to foreign investment. 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:35.480 Libya was also able to cooperate closely with Western intelligence 0:23:35.560 --> 0:23:38.479 during the war and terror, including assist in the CIA 0:23:38.760 --> 0:23:43.080 and MI six in rendition and torture as uncovered by 0:23:43.160 --> 0:23:46.560 Human Rights Watch. So by the mid two thousands, Libya 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:50.720 had mostly reintegrated into the Western their global system, and 0:23:50.760 --> 0:23:54.200 the West, for their part, simply ignored Gadaffi's continued human 0:23:54.280 --> 0:23:58.800 rights abuses. The conter terrorism cooperation, the oil and gas contracts, 0:23:59.160 --> 0:24:02.680 and don't forget the brutal African migrant control were all 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:05.879 too valuable for America and Europe. 0:24:05.960 --> 0:24:08.240 I remember this this period quite well. It was when 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:11.920 I was in my undergraduate university and Gaddafi was invited 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:15.360 to speak the Oxford Union. I did my undergraduate there 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:18.080 and myself and a number of friends. 0:24:18.119 --> 0:24:18.960 So you met Gadafi. 0:24:19.720 --> 0:24:25.399 No, he spoke. He spoke via video conference, okay. 0:24:24.280 --> 0:24:30.080 Which they paused while they removed us for protesting Gaddafi's 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:32.879 Like it just seemed like this decades of abuse of 0:24:32.880 --> 0:24:35.240 his own people had been completely forgotten, right, because he 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:38.560 was now prepared to do abuse of other people that 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:41.679 was beneficial to the United Kingdom of the United States. 0:24:42.160 --> 0:24:45.960 And we felt like that was apparent and wrong, so 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:49.679 we went to make our feelings known. And the Oxford 0:24:50.040 --> 0:24:52.919 Union is very silly institution, right, which prizes itself on 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:55.840 free speech, and really it just does kind of class 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:58.840 reproduction for the most part, right, And of course, like 0:24:58.920 --> 0:25:00.960 there was not freedom of each for people who are 0:25:00.960 --> 0:25:02.880 going to be rude to someone who was in charge 0:25:02.920 --> 0:25:05.159 of a state, even if they were being rude on 0:25:05.200 --> 0:25:06.840 behalf of the thousands. 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:08.720 Of people he's had murdered and tortured. 0:25:09.359 --> 0:25:12.840 And yeah, that was my little personal run in with 0:25:12.920 --> 0:25:16.080 Goodafi when I was what like eighteen, But yeah, I 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:18.600 can't remember if we were not allowed in or we 0:25:18.600 --> 0:25:22.600