Libyan Revolutionary Command Council

The Libyan Revolutionary Command Council was the twelve-person governing body that ruled the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977. Its chairman was Muammar Gaddafi, who wielded a significant level of control.

In 1977, Gaddafi abolished the republic and proclaimed the Jamahiriya. As a part of this, the RCC was officially abolished and replaced by the general secretariat of the General People's Congress.

Membership

File:Gaddafi 1976.jpg

Gaddafi in 1976.

The other initial members (1970) were as follows:

• Maj. Abdessalam Jalloud
• Maj. Beshir al-Saghir Hawady
• Maj. Mukthar Abdullah al-Gerwy
• Capt. Abdul Moniem al-Taher el-Huny
• Capt. Mustafa al-Kharouby
• Maj. Khuwaildi al-Hamidi
• Maj. Muhammad Nejm
• Maj. Awad Ali Hamza
• Maj. Abu-Bakr Yunis Jabr
• Capt. Omar Abdullah al-Meheishy
• Capt. Muhammad Abu Bakr al-Quarrif

History

Setting up a new government, the 12 member central committee of the Free Unionist Officers converted themselves into a Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), who wielded control over the newly proclaimed Libyan Arab Republic. Below them were formed a council of ministers, headed by Mahmud Sulayman al-Maghribi, to oversee the implementation of RCC policy.

Captain Gaddafi promoted himself to the rank of Colonel, and was recognized as both chairman of the RCC as well as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, becoming the de facto head of state. From 1970 to 1972, he also served as prime minister.

Although the RCC was theoretically a collegial body that operated through discussion and consensus building, from the start it was dominated by the opinions and decisions of Gaddafi, although some of the others attempted to constrain what they saw as his excesses.

Gaddafi remained the public face of the government, with the identities of the other RCC members only being publicly revealed in the Official Gazette on 10 January 1970. All of them were young men, from (typically rural) working and middle-class backgrounds, and none had university degrees; in this way they were all distinct from the wealthy, highly educated conservatives who had previously governed the country. The coup completed, the RCC proceeded with their intentions of consolidating the revolutionary government and modernizing the country.

As a result, they began to purge monarchists and members of Idris' Senussi clan from Libya's political world and armed forces; Gaddafi believed that this elite were opposed to the will of the Libyan people and had to be expunged. Many figures in the old regime were imprisoned, though none were executed. They maintained the previous administration's ban on political parties, and ruled by decree. Further restrictions were placed on press freedom, and in May 1970, all trade unions were banned.

After Libya was converted into the "(Great) Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" in 1977, the surviving members of the RCC formed the apex of the "revolutionary sector" that oversaw the government. They were not subject to election, since they held office by virtue of having led the 1969 coup--officially described as "the Revolution." As a result, although Gaddafi held no formal governmental post after 1980, he continued to exercise absolute control of the country until his overthrow and execution in the Libyan Civil War in 2011.

See also

• History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi

Sources

• Libya - Constitution (Adopted on: 11 Dec 1969)
• Libya - Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People (Adopted on: 2 March 1977)
• The Revolutionary Command Council (RCC)