Muammar Gaddafi’s The Green Book was published in 1975, and was intended to be read by everyone. Gaddafi was murdered in 2011 for opposing the same people that Abraham Lincoln and John F Kennedy opposed, i.e. globohomo. This book is therefore of immediate interest to anyone else who opposes globohomo.
Part I is titled ‘The Solution of the Problem of Democracy: The Authority of the People’. This is divided into ten chapters.
In the first, ‘The Instrument of Government’, Gaddafi points out the inherently tyrannical nature of electoral democracy as practiced in the West today. Up to 49% of the population can have a government that they did not vote for imposed on them. He writes that “dictatorship is established under the cover of false democracy.”
In the second, ‘Parliaments’, Gaddafi decries the parliamentary system as a “misrepresentation” of the people. Democracy must mean the authority of the people, and not an authority that presumes to act on behalf of the people. As soon as the election is over, the representative assumes sovereignty from the people. The people have the right to destroy the parliamentary assemblies that have taken their sovereignty away.
“The most tyrannical dictatorships the world has known have existed under the aegis of parliaments.”
In the third, ‘The Party’, Gaddafi decries the modern political party as “the dictatorship of the modern age”. He states that “A party’s aim is to achieve power under the pretext of carrying out its program.” Any party not in power will seek to harm the nation so as to undermine their opposition. Moreover, a country governed by one party is not meaningfully different to countries governed by one sect or by one tribe.
In the fourth, ‘Class’, Gaddafi argues that leadership based on class suffers the same problems as leadership based on party, tribe or sect: it can only ever represent a minority. Even if the working class replaced the others, differences in material wealth or prestige between working-class factions would soon lead to the old class system reasserting itself. As before, so after.
In the fifth, ‘Plebiscites’, Gaddafi observes that the people’s expression is limited to ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. Referendums are often used to cover up for the failures of democracy. The solution lies, he writes, in finding an instrument of government that is not subject to either internal conflict or underrepresentation of the people it governs. This instrument can only be the authority of the people.
In the sixth, ‘Popular Conferences And People’s Committees’, Gaddafi declares that direct democracy is indisputably the ideal form of government. It’s just impractical. Gaddafi’s Third Universal Theory divides the population into Basic Popular Conferences, each of which chooses a secretariat from among their number. The population then appoints People’s Committees to replace government administration.
In the seventh, ‘The Law of Society’, Gaddafi contends that the natural law of any society must be based in either tradition or religion. Constitutions are artificial, thus invalid. He argues that human beings are essentially the same everywhere, and therefore natural law is applicable to all. Ruling systems must follow natural law, and not the reverse. So all laws must be grounded in tradition or religion.
In the eighth, ‘Who Supervises The Conduct Of Society’, Gaddafi appeals again to his Basic Popular Conference model. No one group can claim the right to police society, therefore society has to police itself. If the people organise themselves into Popular Conferences, however, they can supervise themselves.
In the ninth, ‘How Can Society Redirect Its Course When Deviations From Its Laws Occur’, Gaddafi notes that if a system is dictatorial, resistance to it must take the form of violence. Because the use of Basic Popular Conferences and People’s Committees means that the system is not dictatorial, it can be reformed without violence. Because the system encompasses all, there are no outsiders to direct violence against.
“Violence and revolution are carried out by those who have the capability and courage to take the initiative and proclaim the will of society.”
In the tenth chapter, ‘The Press’, Gaddafi states his belief that the press is primarily a means for society to express itself, and therefore does not belong to individuals or corporate interests. He points out that media sources can only ever speak for their owners and not for society. As such, private publishing or information enterprises must be banned. Only People’s Committees are permitted to act as the media.
Gaddafi finishes this first part of the book by noting that the strongest party in the society is always the one that rules.
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