The Cultural Revolution (or People's Revolution) in
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
was a period of political and social change in Libya. It started with
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
's declaration of a cultural revolution during a speech in Zuwara on 15 April 1973.
This came after increasing tensions between Gaddafi and his colleagues in the
Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) had led him to agree to step down. Gaddafi had told the RCC that he would announce his resignation to the people at the Zuwara speech, but he instead surprised them with his declaration of the Cultural Revolution. By the end of the Cultural Revolution period, Gaddafi was the uncontested leader of Libya.
The Cultural Revolution continued to at least September 1974, when the independence of action of the People's Committees was reduced by the national leadership in the Revolutionary Command Council. In a wider sense, it came to its conclusion in the establishment of
Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
's "state of the masses" ("''
jamahiriya
The Third International Theory () was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s, on which his government, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, was officially based. It was partly inspired by Islami ...
''") in 1977.
The Cultural Revolution was presented as a period of
democratization
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a ful ...
, a return to
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
and
Islamic
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the mai ...
values and spontaneous popular mobilization against five identified threats to the power of the people:
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
,
conservatism
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilizati ...
,
capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
,
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
, and the
Muslim Brotherhood
The Society of the Muslim Brothers ( ar, جماعة الإخوان المسلمين'' ''), better known as the Muslim Brotherhood ( ', is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt by Islamic scholar and schoolteacher Hassan ...
.
In practice the Cultural Revolution marked the beginning of the sidelining of other Libyan political and religious leaders and the concentration of power in Gaddafi.
Background
Libya's population is based on a traditional Islamic society centred around the
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
and family gatherings. The ruling
Italians
, flag =
, flag_caption = The national flag of Italy
, population =
, regions = Italy 55,551,000
, region1 = Brazil
, pop1 = 25–33 million
, ref1 =
, region2 ...
and their attempt to westernize Libya was not favoured by Libyans. Gaddafi was able to let the Libyan tribes accord him as a leader and not oppose was his promise to keep Libya a traditional Islamic society where his numerous speeches addressing the importance of Islam is what made people like him.
1973 was the fourth year of power for the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) which had overthrown the monarchy under Gaddafi's leadership and had created the
Libyan Arab Republic
Muammar Gaddafi became the ''de facto'' leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Comman ...
. Although the coup had been met with widespread public approval, the RCC members had limited education and no government experience. The country experienced mismanagement, confusion, disorder and economic difficulties, including widespread unemployment.
Although he was the recognized leader of the ruling RCC, Gaddafi's difficult and petulant behaviour, widening ambition, increasing hubris, and increasingly authoritarian approach towards his colleagues had led to tensions which culminated in the RCC demanding his resignation. Gaddafi refused on the basis that the RCC (which had come to power, including Gaddafi, in a coup) had not been elected, and therefore it could not ask for or accept his resignation. When RCC members responded that Gaddafi was unelected with them, he agreed to make a speech in Zuwara announcing his resignation to the people, rather than the RCC. Instead he used the speech to declare the beginning of a cultural revolution, and used the rapid mass mobilization of his supporters to establish his uncontested leadership over the country.
Indigenous Berbers were persecuted as Gaddafi viewed them as a threat to his view of Libya as an Arab country. The teaching of Berber languages were outlawed and speaking them were also outlawed. People could not register under Berber names and giving such names was also barred. People were forced to take Arabic names as well as Arabic surnames.
It was during the early stages of the Cultural Revolution that Libya led Arab nations in the
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
as the first to impose an oil embargo on the USA.
The five points
The "remaking of Libyan society" contained in Gaddafi's ideological visions began to be put into practice formally beginning in 1973 with a so-called cultural or popular revolution. This revolution was designed to combat bureaucratic inefficiency, lack of public interest and participation in the subnational governmental system, and problems of national political coordination.
The Cultural Revolution was organized around an official five point program:
*The annulment of all existing laws
*The repression of communism,
ba'athism
Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation a ...
, conservatism,
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
,
atheists
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
, the Muslim Brotherhood, and capitalism.
*The distribution of arms to the people
*Administrative reform and a purge of the administration
*The promotion of Islamic thought and rejection of un-Islamic ideas from other countries and cultures.
Formation of People's Committees
People's Committees were established throughout the country to introduce or enforce the Cultural Revolution and to control the revolution from below.
In an attempt to instill revolutionary fervor into his compatriots and to involve large numbers of them in political affairs, Gaddafi urged them to challenge traditional authority and to take over and run government organs themselves. The instrument for doing this was the People's Committees. Within a few months, such committees were found all across Libya. There were two types of People's Committees – functional and geographical – and these institutions eventually became responsible for local and regional administration.
Functional People's Committees were established in such widely divergent organizations as universities, private business firms, government bureaucracies, and the broadcast media. Geographical People's Committees were formed at the governorate, municipal, and zone (lowest) levels. Seats on the People's Committees at the zone level were filled by direct popular election; members so elected could then be selected for service at higher levels. By mid-1973 estimates of the number of People's Committees ranged above 2,000.
In the scope of their administrative and regulatory tasks and the method of their members' selection, the People's Committees purportedly embodied the concept of direct democracy that Gaddafi propounded in the first volume of
The Green Book, which appeared in 1976. The same concept lay behind proposals to create a new political structure composed of "People's Congresses." The centerpiece of the new system was the
General People's Congress (GPC), a national representative body intended to replace the RCC.
Suppression of dissent
One of the major effects of the empowerment of the People's Committees was the persecution of enemies of the regime. The Committees acted as local organs of the national government. They dismissed many civil servants and state employees from their posts. At the same time, agents from
East Germany
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
's
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990.
The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maint ...
helped develop services which engaged in more brutal suppression of regime opponents. Stasi assistance came despite the openly stated intention to suppress both communism and atheism, because Gaddafi's stated policy was that he was a
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
,
anti-imperialist
Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...
,
anti-capitalist
Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and Political movement, movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economi ...
and
anti-American
Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...
. Purges of 1973 initially concentrated on university students in
Tripoli
Tripoli or Tripolis may refer to:
Cities and other geographic units Greece
*Tripoli, Greece, the capital of Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (region of Arcadia), a district in ancient Arcadia, Greece
* Tripolis (Larisaia), an ancient Greek city in ...
and
Benghazi
Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...
and on
Libyan army
The Libyan Army ( ar, الجيش الليبي) is the brand for a number of separate military forces in Libya, which are under the command of the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA).
Since December 2015 the groups of t ...
officers.
Religious aspects
One aim of the Cultural Revolution was the replacement of the existing legal system with
Sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
. The
University of Benghazi
University of Benghazi ( ar, جامعة بنغازي), Formally known as Garyounis University, it is a public university in Benghazi, Libya, the country's second-largest city as well as one of the most prestigious. institutes of higher educatio ...
law faculty was entrusted with this task. The traditional religious establishment initially supported this. However Gaddafi soon created controversy among the religious leadership. He both disputed the need for Islamic jurists and scholars (''
ulema
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
'') and at the same time declared himself a principal Muslim jurist and scholar (''
mujtahid
''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
''). He also abandoned traditional
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
reliance on collections of
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
and the
sunnah
In Islam, , also spelled ( ar, سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed ...
in favour of exclusive reference to the
qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
as interpreted by himself. Gaddafi was considered by many Islamic jurists to have thus rejected the whole body of
sharia
Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
jurisprudence in favor of a process of interpretation (''
ijtihad
''Ijtihad'' ( ; ar, اجتهاد ', ; lit. physical or mental ''effort'') is an Islamic legal term referring to independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law, or the thorough exertion of a jurist's mental faculty in finding a solution to a le ...
'') concentrated on his own opinions.
Reduction of People's Committee power
The Revolutionary Command Council never lost control of the situation, and freely reversed decisions of People's Committees when they wished. However, in September 1974, the RCC officially condemned what they termed excesses by the People's Committees and held new elections to replace them. From this point the People's Committees showed less initiative in suppressing dissent in their local areas, and relied more on informing on dissenters to the array of state security agencies that developed over the years.
See also
*
1969 Libyan coup d'état
The 1969 Libyan coup d'état, also known as the al-Fateh Revolution or the 1 September Revolution, was carried out by the Free Unionist Officers Movement, a group of military officers led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, which led to the overthrow of K ...
*
History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Gaddafi became the ''de facto'' leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. After the king had fled the country, the Revolutionary Comman ...
*
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
*
Politics of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
From 1969 to early 2011, the politics of Libya were determined ''de facto'' by Muammar Gaddafi, who had been in power since his overthrow of the Kingdom of Libya in 1969.
Gaddafi abolished the post-1951 Libyan Constitution and introduced his own ...
*
''The Green Book''
*
Third International Theory
The Third International Theory () was the style of government proposed by Muammar Gaddafi in the early 1970s, on which his government, the History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi#Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (1977–2011), G ...
References
{{Reflist
20th-century revolutions
History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi
Islamic socialism
Islamism in Libya
Islamization
Political and cultural purges
Political history of Libya
Revolutions in Libya
Socialism in Libya
Politicides
Persecution of intellectuals
Persecution of atheists
Persecution by Muslims
Anti-communist terrorism