Cultural Revolution in Libya

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This article is part of a series about Muammar Gaddafi
Early life Personal life Arab nationalism Nasserism Third International Theory The Green Book Killing International reactions Reception and legacy Gaddafi loyalism Free Officers Arab Socialist Union Revolutionary Command Council General People's Committee History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution (1979–2011) Secretary General of the General People's Congress (1977–1979) Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council (1969–1977) Prime Minister of Libya (1970–1972) Chairperson of the African Union (2009–2010) Military (Armed Forces) Libyan coup d'état (1969) Yom Kippur War (1973) Lebanese Civil War (1976) Egyptian–Libyan War (1977) Chadian–Libyan War (1978–1987) Action in the Gulf of Sidra (1986) United States bombing of Libya (1986) Toyota War (1986–1987) First Libyan Civil War (2011) NATO invasion of Libya (2011) Leadership (History) Libyan Arab Republic Federation of Arab Republics Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 1970 expulsion of Italians from Libya 1973 oil crisis Cultural Revolution Weapons of mass destruction West Berlin discotheque bombing Lockerbie bombing UTA Flight 772 Support for rebel and paramilitary groups Elections and referendums 1971 Libyan Federation of Arab Republics referendum
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The Cultural Revolution (or People's Revolution) in Libya was a period of political and social change in Libya. It started with Muammar Gaddafi's declaration of a cultural revolution during a speech in Zuwara on 15 April 1973.^[2] 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's "state of the masses" ("jamahiriya") in 1977.

The Cultural Revolution was presented as a period of democratization, a return to Arab and Islamic values and spontaneous popular mobilization against five identified threats to the power of the people: communism,^[3] conservatism, capitalism, atheism, and the Muslim Brotherhood.

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.