(The following is a translation of part of the statement put out by the Brazilian revolutionaries who kidnapped the US Ambassador in Rio. They were members of the MR8 (Revolutionary Movement of October 8th/ which forms part of the diverse The August military coup in Libya has dealt a massive blow at British and US imperialism in the area. Libya served a lot of useful functions until the military seized power; it will not do so much longer.
Libyan oil was discovered in 1959 and ten years later it provides a quarter of the needs of Britain and of the Common Market. Being in the Mediterranean the cost of oil has not been raised by the closure of the Suez Canal which diverted the flow of Persian Golf oil round the Cape, and as long as it was controlled by a pro-imperialist monarch Libya could be relied on to keep pumping oil to Europe whatever imperialism was up to in the zone. BP had £75m. investments in Libya and British armaments manufacturers have orders of over £200m. from Libya for arms, tanks and munitions.
The arms sales served to re-divert back to imperialism much of the money paid in taxes to the Libyan regime, and they were uniquely intended for internal security since Libya faced no conceivable threat from her neighbours. The security of imperialism's stooge Idris was also ensured by having not one, but three armies, and it appears that the force based on Idris home fief, Cyrenaica in the East, did try to resist the military takeover. This army, the Cyrenaica Defence Force, is trained by British mercenaries.
Giving money to Idris also enabled him to use it tor reactionary purposes in Arab politics as a whole; along with Kuwait and Saud Arabia, Libya has been paying money to Egypt since the June War to make up for the loss of Suez Canal revenues and has in this way been able to mitigate Nasser's left nationalist positions.
Imperialism also used Libya for strategic purposes. The US had a big base at Wheelus Field, with 6,000 permanent personnel and 2,000 trainee pilots, It was used for transporting men and munitions to Vietnam. The British have still got 1,200 men there but are gradually withdrawing their men to Cyprus while keeping "staging posts" in Libya in case they need bases there for any future counter revornonary venture, Politics in Libya before the coup was suppressed. Many lettist groups demanded that the foreign bases be expelled but king Idris refused to do this. The political composition of the present regime, however, is such that sooner or later they will expel the imperialists, They have already interned the representatives of the reactionary British Aircraft Corporation. From their statements, and the past history of their leaders, they would seem to be Nasserites of the kind that recently came to power in the Sudan. As such they will not create a socialist system Another coup was recently attempted in Saudia Arabia, but this time it failed. Like Libya, Saudi Arabia serves imperialism in a number of ways: it allows the US to have a massive base at Dahran, it plays a reactionary role in Arab politics as a whole, it propagate Muslim reaction and guarantees imperialism its oil. This coup was attempted in July by an alliance of a group of dissident ruling class families and some officers in the air force and intelligence services. The plotters included the military commander of the Dahran area and engineers and workers in the Aramco, the dominant US oil company in Saudi Arabia.
A dissident proletariat has been developing in the oil fields for some years, and hundreds of workers were arrested for attacking the US base after the June War. The security of the regime *is, however, backed by the arms sales of Britain and the US, and the CIA is alleged to have co-operated with the regime in uncovering the recent coup attempt. The regime as in Libya has also split the army, and has both a regular army and a special White Army, recruited from loyal Beduin, who guard the royal family.
The overthrow of the regime in Saudi Arabia would deal an even greater blow to imperialism than the coup in Libya; it will come, for side by side with the growth of a royalist and military opposition there is developing a socialist opposition among the intellectuals and oil workers. The strikes and arrests after the June war are one sign of this, and it is also reported that a guerrilla war was started by pro-Cuban revolutionaries in June of this year in the mountains of Asir near the Yemeni border. This force was destroyed by the Saudi army for in Asir, too, is the massive base of Khamis Mishayt built by the British and containing pilots trained by British officers "on leave Conflicts are developing within all the states of the Middle East as their regimes are more and more shown to be incapable of solving the national and social problems experienced by the workers and fellahin. Although the long march towards socialism has only begun the collapse of imperialist pillars in the zone represents an advance along the road.