Anarchist, Liberal, and Authoritarian Enlightenments: Notes From the Arab Spring

Confirmatory yet insightful and revitalising article from 2011, written in the early days of the Arab Spring.

"Thus in these revolutionary experiments we encounter a rare combination of an anarchist method and a liberal intention: the revolutionary style is anarchist, in the sense that it requires little organization, leadership, or even coordination; tends to be suspicious of parties and hierarchies even after revolutionary success; and relies on spontaneity, minimal planning, local initiative, and individual will much more than on any other factors. On the other hand, the explicit goal of all Arab revolutions is the establishment of a liberal state—explicitly, a civic state--not an anarchist society."

Jadaliyya.com - Anarchist, Liberal, and Authoritarian Enlightenments: Notes From the Arab Spring

Serbian support for Gaddafi? Why???

First of all, let me say: LIBYA AL-HURRA!!!

Like many people around the world, I am glad that the Libyan people are finally ridding themselves of over four decades of Gaddafi's dictatorial rule over them. Although the fight ain't over, and although I'm not keen on military interventions by alliances like NATO, at least the widely-feared mass slaughter of civilians by Gaddafi has been prevented.

However, being a Serb, I've noticed that many of my fellow Serbs are not supportive of the Libyan rebels, but of the dictator that they're fighting against. This seemingly strange Serbian support for Gaddafi is very noticeable online, and on Facebook, you will find a group called Support for Muammar al Gaddafi from the people of Serbia, which numbers, as I'm writing this, almost 75,000 fans! And believe you me, there are many other Facebook groups similar to that one!

The question, however, is why there is all this Serbian support for the now toppled Libyan dictator?

Well in that above-mentioned group, they have slogans like "Podrška prijatelju!", or "Support to [our] friend!" Of course, like any popular Facebook group, they have pictures conveying their views. There is one picture with "Serbia ♥ Lybia" underneath a caricature of an impressive Gaddafi at the UN, with "Say 'NO' to Western Imperialism" at the top of it! And then there's another picture saying, "SUPPORT COLONEL! SERBIAN PEOPLE". What is more revealing about their support for Gaddafi is their utter contempt for various democratic activist organisations throughout Eastern Europe and beyond. They mock the "Otpor/Pora" symbols, used by various anti-government opposition groups in countries like Serbia, the Ukraine, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, for their remarkable similarity to one another; as such, they perceive them all as being funded by a common Western source, or simply put, "paid by the West".

But more pertinently, these Serbs see the bombing of Libya as being morally equal to the 78-day bombing of their country Serbia by NATO in 1999, in response to Milošević's own crackdown on Kosovo Albanian rebels. And it was during that time that Colonel Gaddafi himself, among very few around the world, voiced his personal opposition to that bombing campaign of Serbia by the Western alliance. Therefore, it's not surprising that such Serbs support Gaddafi, a dictator reviled by many in Libya and throughout the world, rather than the rebels, whom they believe are full of Islamists serving some sort of Western interest in the region.

Some Serbs admire Gaddafi for being a friend of Yugoslavia's Marshall Tito, especially since many people from the then Communist Yugoslavia travelled to countries like Libya to work at numerous construction sites. Other Serbs are not so keen on Gaddafi because of his friendship with Tito, since they are of a more anti-Communist persuasion. But what both sets of Serbs agree upon, whether pro-Tito or anti-Tito, is their opposition to the West's intervention in the country's civil war on behalf of the rebels over there; they resented the West's intervention in the Yugoslav conflicts during the '90s, and likewise they resent this one in Northern Africa for the reasons shared above.