Extraordinary battle for a free Libya

LIBYA today stands on the brink of freedom, with its extraordinary popular uprising on the brink of defeating the corrupt and murderous Colonel Gaddafi.

Large parts of the North African country have already liberated themselves from state control, with UK anarchist blogger Ian Bone suggesting Benghazi, in particular, resembles revolutionary Barcelona in 1936.

But Gaddafi retains control of his capital and before Tripoli falls, nobody can be sure that the Libyan revolution will match the success of those in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt.

This is the bloodiest revolt yet, with those troops and mercenaries still loyal to Gaddafi - a close friend of Berlusconi just across the Mediterranean - not hesitating to mow down protesters in the streets.

The courage of those Libyan revolutionaries prepared to fight bullets with rocks must surely be an inspiration to the whole world for years to come.

For latest news see live coverage from Al Jazeera English, the February 17 website and the feb17 hashtag on Twitter.

A revolution against neoliberalism

THE EGYPTIAN revolution was an uprising against neoliberalism and people must be careful that it stays that way.

That's the conclusion of a thoughtful and well-informed article posted on the Al Jazeera website by 'Abu Atris' - the pseudonym of a writer working in Egypt.

He says: "The demands of the protesters were clear and largely political: remove the regime; end the emergency law; stop state torture; hold free and fair elections.

"But implicit in these demands from the beginning (and decisive by the end) was an expectation of greater social and economic justice.

"Social media may have helped organise the kernel of a movement that eventually overthrew Mubarak, but a large element of what got enough people into the streets to finally overwhelm the state security forces was economic grievances that are intrinsic to neoliberalism.

"These grievances cannot be reduced to grinding poverty, for revolutions are never carried out by the poorest of the poor.

"It was rather the erosion of a sense that some human spheres should be outside the logic of markets.

"Mubarak’s Egypt degraded schools and hospitals, and guaranteed grossly inadequate wages, particularly in the ever-expanding private sector.

"This was what turned hundreds of dedicated activists into millions of determined protestors.

"If the January 25th revolution results in no more than a retrenchment of neoliberalism, or even its intensification, those millions will have been cheated. The rest of the world could be cheated as well.

"Egypt and Tunisia are the first nations to carry out successful revolutions against neoliberal regimes. Americans could learn from Egypt.

"Indeed, there are signs that they already are doing so. Wisconsin teachers protesting against their governor’s attempts to remove the right to collective bargaining have carried signs equating Mubarak with their governor.

"Egyptians might well say to America 'uqbalak' (may you be the next)."

Protesters occupy council chamber

ANTI-AUSTERITY protesters in London invaded a council meeting and forced councillors out of the chamber as £79m of cuts were due to be passed.

The Guardian reports: "More than 150 protesters have staged an occupation of Lambeth Town Hall after councillors were forced to move out of the official chamber and hold a vote on making cuts in private.

"Demonstrators ranging from trade unionists to pensioners occupied the chamber for more than an hour, taking their seats in what they called a 'People's Assembly' and listening to speeches from those opposed to cuts in services including libraries, adventures playgrounds and schools.

"Members of the Labour-run council, meeting to decide how to make £79m of savings over three years, had walked out of the meeting amid heckling from the public gallery by a number of people, who then joined the occupation in the chamber.

"There had been scuffles earlier as security guards tried to stop demonstrators outside the building attempting to enter."

Massive battles on Greek streets

THOUSANDS of anti-capitalist protesters battled with riot police on the streets of Athens on Wednesday, during a 24-hour general strike.

The From the Greek Streets blog posted live updates of the situation from the Greek capital, which charted attempts to occupy Syntagma Square in the way that Tahrir Square was held by Egypitan revolutionaries:

16:50 (GMT+2) Athens: There is a call for a gathering at Syntagma Square at 19:00. So far there, six protesters have been confirmed as injured. Numerous police motorcycles and riot police are gathered along Alexandras Avenue.

17:37 (GMT+2) Athens: After a respite, there has been at least one more clash at Syntagma Square. The police attempted to disperse the calm crowd, and at least one person was beaten by as many as 10 police and has been detained. The situation has grown tense once more, and Syntagma Metro station is closed again.

18:35 (GMT+2) Athens: A crowd of hundreds ripped up the benches from Syntagma Square to feed a fire they had built in front of the Parliament. The police had tried to disperse the gathering by circling around the protesters menacingly, but people stayed their ground. After a while, the police dispersed the crowd by forming a cordon around them and then chasing them aggressively away, attacking them with teargas and beating them.

22:00 (GMT+2) Athens: There are 20-25 people trapped in one of the entrances to the Great Britain Hotel in Syntagma Square. They are surrounded by police and are presumed to be detained. An hour ago, 70 people occupied the Foreign Press Association of Greece.

Revolution from below

THE Tahrir occupation was a shining example of grassroots organising in action, says an in-depth account on the Reports From the Egyptian Uprising blog.

It recalls: "Occupiers set up community barricades, crewed by both male and female volunteers, complete with piles of rocks to use as weapons in case of attack.

"Medical clinics were set up staffed by volunteer doctors and surgeons.

"Hundreds of tents and shelters were erected around the square, rubbish collection was organised and food was distributed.

"At night the occupiers slept in front of the tanks surrounding the square to prevent the army from entering.

"The Egyptian revolution was leaderless and self organised, the seven demands formulated by the Tahrir Square occupiers were: Resignation of the president, the end of the State of Emergency, the dissolution of parliament, the formation of a national transitional government, to elect a Parliament that will amend the Constitution to allow for presidential elections, the immediate prosecution for those responsible of the deaths of the revolution’s martyrs and the immediate prosecution of the corrupt and those who robbed the country of its wealth.

"On the 11th February, the day after the largest protests yet and widespread strikes across Egypt, Mubarak, after an initial show of defiance, announced that he would step down and retire to the resort of Sharm El Sheikh.

"Power was handed over to the ominously named Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and parliament was dissolved. The army has promised to amend the constitution and facilitate free elections.

"They have, however, called for a return to normal – for an end to the strikes and to political protest. Tellingly, the Supreme Council refused to rescind the State of Emergency until ‘calm’ was restored.

"Jubilation gripped Egypt. The Egyptian people who have lived most, if not all, of their lives under Mubarak’s rigid military dictatorship had successfully shaken off the dictator.

"But the question is what will happen now? On Sunday the army removed the protesters from Tahrir square.

"The fact that the army prevented cameras and reporters from recording the eviction, thus continuing the media blackout and repression of free speech of the Mubarak regime should act as a warning.

"The Egyptian revolution, like the Tunisian uprising, is ongoing; strikes have been held by everyone from airport staff, public transport workers and nurses in Cairo to workers in the sweatshops of Mahalla al-Koubra and Mansoura to oil industry employees.

"Egyptian banks, briefly reopened last week remain closed and the stock-exchange lies dormant.

"The demands of the strikers represent the other side of the Egyptian rebellion, a call for an end to corruption, for better wages and for lower prices."

'Electric charge' of global revolution

SOMETHING "powerful" has manifested itself on the streets of Egypt and Tunisia, says anarchist blogger Paul Cudenec.

He writes: "We are seeing the crackling of a revolutionary energy, an electric field of courageous defiance rising up from a new generation of human beings whose spirit has not yet been dulled and crushed by decades of miserable subservience.

"This was the ‘Wahn’ described by the great German anarchist Gustav Landauer, who explained: 'Wahn is not only every goal, every ideal, every belief in a sense of purpose of life and the world: Wahn is every banner followed by mankind; every drumbeat leading mankind into danger; every alliance that unites mankind and creates from a sum of individuals a new structure, an organism.'

"There is no reason to think that the effects of this Wahn will be confined to the Arab world, even though the more immediate ramifications are likely to be felt in that region.

"While the positive energy created by the Tunisian uprising was enough to inspire thre rest of North Africa, the resonance from the February 11 revolution is so powerful it will be felt all across the world.

"Every subsequent uprising will simply charge up the atmosphere still further and encourage us all to believe that anything really is possible."

Now people take to streets in Algeria

TREMORS from the Egypitan Revolution have already started to shake repressive regimes in Algeria and Yemen.

Reports The Guardian: "Algerian police have beaten back around 2,000 demonstrators who tried to rally in central Algiers as aftershocks from the Egyptian revolution rumbled throughout the Middle East.

"Demonstrations in Algiers quickly turned to running clashes with police who had been ordered by the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to enforce a protests ban.

"Police took up positions throughout the centre of the city hours after the tumultuous scenes in Cairo, which are likely to have significant ramifications across the region.

"Even before Egypt's Hosni Mubarak had stepped down, the 12-year regime of Bouteflika had been considered to be under most threat from the popular uprisings now galvanising the Arab states.

"Wedged alongside Tunisia, where President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was ousted 30 days ago, and near Egypt, which fell on Friday, the unstable nation has many of the characteristics of both – a disenfranchised youth and rising prices of basic goods, such as sugar and cooking oil.

"It also shares a large, pervasive security presence, authoritarian rule and a general sense that citizens are not benefiting from its wealth and resources.

"Late in the afternoon, protesters briefly broke a cordon and officials say that 400 were arrested by police – who vastly outnumbered them. Most were then released.

"The demonstrations were organised, as they were in Yemen, nearly 3,000 miles away, where at least 5,000 people, mainly youths, rallied in the capital, Sana'a to call for Egypt-style reform."