July 1 Libya: the electoral trap

"THE DEMONSTRATION WENT INTO THE CITY AND BURNT ALL THE PAPERS"

Today was the mobilization we talked about in the previous mail. The organizers said and clarified all the time that they were not federalist, but stood against that 102 seats were for Tripoli, 60 for Benghazy and 38 for the South and called for allotting 20 (or 60, or whatever) for each one. They went even further and confronted the Government, because they said that all they managed to accomplish with the revolution was beheading the regime of Muhammar, but the rest (of his followers) stayed and today are in the Government and settled in the West, so going to a National Congress with absolute majority of the West above the other two regions together amounted to the total domination of the Qadafistas.

That’s why their program is bordering federaliyah, although they clarify all the time that they are not the Feds. In fact the Federal movement is different and they do not have political agreement. We will tell you the facts and the characterizations we could draw (try to distinguish between each other, as in the characterizations we could be mistaken). The march began at the roundabout of Majouri district in Benghazy, where during a couple of days protests were made to give back the vote card if one was opposed to the National Congress. There was a concentration where about 300 people gathered who cut off the street with posters and slogans, and then came the march.

Now, all demonstrations here come out of the place in front of the Tibesty hotel (one of the two best hotels of Benghazy, which is hosting the CNT when it is here) and go to the Liberation Square. Therefore it was believed that the march was going to start from the Tibesty, but no! It went to the center of the Electoral Commission (which was quite far away), which is the building where the information of the elections is, voter registration lists, organization, etc. On the way more and more people joined, until it reached 1000 people (remember that Benghazy is a city of 1 million inhabitants, and women and children are not involved). Everytime the march passed by next to posters of candidates to the National Congress in the present elections, they were plucked out by the demonstrators.

The march came to the polling place and set fire to all the papers and destroyed the computers that had been in place. The objective: preventing the elections from taking place. We noticed many slogans that were sung against the Government and elections, but there were also many in favor of the the federaliyah. And saw many federalists in the march (remember that the Feds do not have a direct link to the bourgeoisie, although they have almost all of its program based on the fair feeling that having them made the revolution, they do not want that Tripoli dominates them again).

The march then returned to the same place from where they had started, always unpinning every election poster that was at sight. But to leave the place it was not known if we had to return to the roundabout or go to the Tibesty. Now, in front of the Tibesty is the tent of the Feds, and that place is the typical place of the protests. The vast majority returned to the roundabout, and they clarified that they will be there all day with the protest that they were doing in that place, and the day that the polls are held, ranging to boycott them and prevent them from happening at all, at all costs (remember that almost all people here are armed; even, unlike other mobilizations, this many attended with their weapons.) (On the other hand the bourgeoisie does not count yet with a force of repression that could play to suppress them). Meanwhile in the Tibesty some federalists made a small blockade of streets, also in protest.
We believe that a sector of the masses ran through the bourgeois gaps attacking the Government and the elections (which is the bourgeois plan to strengthen the counter-revolution and its power), including considering a program of representatives elected by each neighborhood with mandate, with no majority for anybody. This sector -not the federalist bourgeoisie- was the promoter of the boycott of today and plan to move forward. But what is crystal clear is that the federalist bourgeoisie sent part of its people to infiltrate the mobilization and they themselves were placed at the head to try to stop it or contain it or divert it and use it, because they tried to paint the march as if it were a federalist action. There is even a candidate who withdrew his candidacy facing the events of today. But for us, the action was not encouraged by the bourgeoisie from its inception or controlled completely, because no bourgeois sector is opposed to elections or risks going to civil war actions, as the masses could break again.
 So far, the newly elected Local Council in Benghazy condemned the actions and called for tomorrow in the Tibesty a protest against what happened today, considering that they agree with the federality, that it is all wrong about the inequality of seats, that they are against the Government, but “it is necessary to go into the elections to allow the country going forward”. The whole of the Benghazis see this as a betrayal, because all of them support the events of  today and condemn the local Council for opposing them.