ARGENTINA: DECLARATION OF THE PTS

WE CONDEMN THE MASSACRE COMMITTED BY QADDAFI, AND WE DEMAND THE BREAKING-OFF OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH HIS GOVERNMENT

The PTS is calling for marching this Wednesday to the Chancellery. We are gathering, beginning at 6 p.m. at Santa Fe and 9 de Julio.

(Buenos Aires, 22-FEB-2011) Christian Castillo, national leader of the Partido de los Trabajadores Socialistas (PTS), stated today that "we condemn the massacres committed by Qaddafi against his own people in Benghazi and Tripoli. The troops sent by him repeatedly fired on demonstrators, causing more than 600 deaths in two days, by resorting to the bombing of neighborhoods in the Libyan capital. Qaddafi is not now an anti-imperialist leader, as some wish to present him, but a dictator who enriched himself personally with a big income by exports of petroleum. He maintains excellent relations and deals with several imperialist powers and governments, beginning with the right-wing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and also the rightist French government of Sarkozy. The United States itself, having confronted Qaddafi in the past, has for several years considered that they have completely domesticated him. And a large part of the armaments that he is now firing on the people of Libya was sold by British imperialism, which considered him an ’ally in the fight against Islamic terrorism.’"

The PTS leader also indicated that "what we are seeing in Libya is a continuation of what happened in Tunisia and Egypt, and of the mobilizations that are also taking place in Yemen, Bahrain, and Algeria. The youth and the workers are no longer putting up with living in poverty in front of dictators subordinate to imperialism, who enrich themselves at their expense and deny them the minimal political and trade-union freedoms. The imperialists that have supported these governments are now trying to re-adapt themselves, to prevent the fall of these regimes from calling their own interests into question. For that reason, the only way that these revolutionary processes will make it possible to satisfy the demands of the mobilized masses is if they culminate in workers’ and popular governments. These processes, that are developing in the Arab and Muslim world are the advance party of a kind of new ’Spring of the Peoples,’ that is taking place in response to the consequences of the international capitalist crisis."

Castillo finally charged that "the Argentinean government has not said a word about the massacre committed by Qaddafi, as it had not done either about Mubarak in Egypt. It is a disgrace! We demand the breaking off of diplomatic relations with Qaddafi’s government and with those that are now repressing their own people in Yemen and Bahrain. For that reason, we will mobilize this Wednesday at the Argentinean Chancellery, gathering beginning at 6 p.m. at Santa Fe y 9 de Julio." Other leftist organizations, like Izquierda Socialista, Convergencia de Izquierda, Asambleas del Pueblo, etc., students’, trade-union and human rights’ organizations will also participate in the call.

Press Secretariat of the PTS

PARTIDO DE LOS TRABAJADORES SOCIALISTAS