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Libya
Index
Qadhafi begins The Green Book, Part II: The Solution of the
Economic Problem: "Socialism," published in early 1978, with a
brief examination of the relationship between workers (producers)
and employers (owners). He recognizes that the lot of the worker
has been improved dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. The
worker has gained fixed working hours, overtime pay, different
kinds of leave, profit sharing, participation in management, job
security, and the right to strike. Drastic changes have also
occurred in ownership, including the transference of private
ownership to the state
(see Income and Wealth
, ch. 3).
Despite these significant changes, however, the basic
relationship between the producer, who is a wage earner, and the
owner, who pays the wages, is still one of slavery. Even where the
state owns the enterprise and the income derived from it reverts to
the community, the plight of the wage earner, who contributes to
the productive process for someone else's benefit, remains the
same. Qadhafi's solution to the problem is to abolish the wage
system. Rather than contributing to the productive process for the
owner's benefit, or profit, the actual producer should be a partner
in the process, sharing equally in what is produced or in the
income derived from what is produced.
Qadhafi believes that a person cannot be free "if somebody else
controls what he needs" to lead a comfortable life. Thus, each
person must fully possess a house, a vehicle, and an income.
Individuals cannot be wage earners because someone else would then
control their income. They cannot have an extra house to rent, for
in renting property they would be controlling a primary need of
someone else. According to Qadhafi, "The legitimate purpose of the
individual's economic activity is solely to satisfy his [material]
needs"; it is not to create a surplus in order to gain a profit.
Qadhafi maintains that profit and money will eventually disappear
as basic human needs are met. The only provision for a
differentiation in wealth is social reward, in which the society
allocates to an individual a certain share of its wealth equivalent
to the value of some special service rendered.
The 1969 constitutional proclamation recognized both public
ownership ("the basis of the development of society") and private
ownership (so long as it was nonexploitive). The application of
Qadhafi's new views on ownership began a few months after
publication of Part II of The Green Book. In May 1978, a law
was passed giving each citizen the right to own one house or a
piece of land on which to build a house. Ownership of more than one
house was prohibited, as was the collection of rent. On September
1, the ninth anniversary of the September revolution, Qadhafi
called on workers to "free the wage earners from slavery" and to
become partners in the productive process by taking over "the
public and private means of production." The takeover of scores of
firms followed; presumably the firms were to be controlled by the
new people's committees. Still another aspect of the drive against
exploitation was Qadhafi's late-autumn ban on commercial retail
activity. The Libyan leader advised retailers to enter productive
occupations in agriculture or construction
(see The Revolution and Social Change
, ch. 2). However, the immediate practical result of
these changes, was economic chaos and a significant decrease in
production
(see Income and Wealth
, ch. 3).
With regard to land, Qadhafi rejects the idea of private
ownership. Drawing a distinction between ownership and use, he
argues that land is the collective property of all the people.
Every person and his heirs have the right to use the land to
satisfy their basic needs. The land belongs to those who till it.
To hire farm hands is forbidden because it would be exploitive.
Data as of 1987
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