WELSH LABOUR GRASSROOTS ON LIBYAN INTERVENTION

Welsh Labour Grassroots (WLG), the organisation of left and centre-left activists within the Labour party in Wales, has agreed the following statement on military intervention in Libya:

‘Welsh Labour Grassroots opposes military intervention in Libya and we disagree with the support given to it by the Labour front bench.

• Whilst appreciating that many comrades felt genuinely moved by the possibility of a humanitarian disaster, we believe it has become clearer day by day that Western military intervention in Libya was a serious mistake and we believe that the Parliamentary Labour Party and party leadership should now dissociate itself from the ongoing activities of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition.

• Although we strongly support the progressive Arab struggles, including the struggle of the Palestinian people, we believe that intervention is not a sign of the West’s concern for human rights in the Middle East or North Africa; indeed, as intervention was getting underway in Libya, the West’s key ally and surrogate, Saudi Arabia, was being invited into Bahrain to help the regime there clamp down on pro-democracy protestors.

• The West was caught off guard by the popular uprisings in North Africa – until recently Britain was selling arms to Libya – and intervention in Libya is its attempt to regain influence and safeguard its access to oil.

• The Government claims to be defending Libyan civilians. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were also carried out in the name of human rights and democracy but have costs the lives of thousands of civilians. Western intervention will not help the people of Libya. The object is to try to manipulate and control the anti-Gaddafi forces, which would result in the Libyan and other Arab democratic revolutions being discredited and channelled in a way that serves Western interests.

• It is obscene that, when public services are being destroyed and public sector workers are facing the sack, the Con-Dem coalition can find the money for yet another Middle-Eastern military adventure.

• We note the increasingly robust view of a growing number of UN Security Council members – including at least one permanent member – that, whatever the original intentions behind Resolution 1973, the French, British and US governments have produced such tortuous misinterpretations of its mandate that, as with Iraq, the credibility of the Security Council has been seriously undermined.

• In any event, the lack of clearly defined objectives, leadership, rules of engagement and an exit strategy put at risk the lives not only of Libyan civilians, but also those of service men and women.’

WLG has over 150 members from all over Wales, including councillors, Assembly Members, trade union officials and one MP, as well as elected members of Labour’s National Policy Forum and Welsh Executive Committee. We believe that the above statement reflects a growing body of opinion within the labour movement as the fighting continues and we hope to help generate a wider debate about the wisdom and ethics of the military action.