The January 3 kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores is a brazen and criminal act of imperialist aggression by the Trump administration against Venezuela. This outrage—which has been accompanied by open threats of military intervention and intimidation against Colombia, Cuba, Nigeria, and Mexico — lays bare the reality that Trump heads a gangster government that relies on coercion, extortion, and violence rather than law or diplomacy. U.S. capitalism, in deep crisis, is lashing out. These acts of aggression to steal the oil wealth of Venezuela will not halt the decline of U.S. imperialism; they will accelerate it, even as millions of U.S. workers lose healthcare and are pushed out of affordable housing and basic necessities. Whatever differences we have with the Maduro government, we must oppose this brazen imperialist intervention. We demand he and Cilia Flores be freed now and the sanctions on Venezuela & Cuba end.
A primary aim of the blockade and attacks on Venezuela is to sever China’s access to oil and constrain its trade across Latin America, destroying BRICS. The United States is attempting to reassert its domination over the hemisphere under the logic of the Monroe Doctrine— using intimidation, coercion, and force to subordinate and control all of Latin America. This is not merely an attack on Venezuela, but an assault on the people of Latin America and Central America as a whole.
This brazen act of U.S. imperialist aggression is only the beginning. History shows that empires in decline grow increasingly reckless, violent, and unrestrained. Trump’s actions are not an aberration but a clear expression of this historical pattern. They signal a new era of unconstrained U.S. militarism, in which military force is increasingly used to offset deepening economic, political, and social decline.
The attack on Venezuela comes only six months after Trump ordered the bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities. Over the past two years, the United States, together with its Israeli ally, has carried out a genocide in Gaza along with military interventions in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Qatar, Tunisia, Somalia, and Nigeria. The attack on Venezuela, home to massive oil reserves, must be understood as part of U.S. imperialism’s preparations to confront China militarily, with Trump declaring that the United States will attempt to “run the country.”
The attack on Venezuela also comes on the anniversary of the January 6 insurrection. Five years after that attempted coup, fascists hold decisive power in Congress and the courts, and are actively implementing their agenda, and will not be restrained by the Democratic Party.
We are confronting a fascist government that is constructing a repressive state apparatus—a modern Gestapo—backed by $170 billion appropriated by an insurrectionist Congress. This machinery will not be used solely against immigrants, but against all working people and political opponents of the regime. It is being prepared to enforce martial law, which Trump has openly threatened to impose in order to block the midterm elections.
While the Democrats—after voting alongside the Republicans to approve a trillion-dollar budget that funds these wars— hypocritically complain that Trump is “ignoring Congress.” They share responsibility for the bloodshed alongside the Republicans and the fascist government. They have supported the genocide in Gaza, the maintenance of over 800 U.S. military bases abroad, and the ongoing attacks on Venezuela and Nigeria. Capitalism, in its death throes, naturally sheds its pretend democratic veneer, thus resorting to the iron fist in order to keep control of both the working class and to maintain its interests abroad. This is clearly happening in the US right now.
The hypocrisy of the trade union leadership could not be more stark. The AFL-CIO, always supporting American imperialism, now claims that it opposes the US attack on Venezuela, yet they have received over $1 billion from the US government’s “Solidarity Center” for international operations that have included support for past coup attempts in Venezuela; e.g. it supported the coup against Hugo Chavez in 2002. Since the abduction of Maduro, the AFL-CIO has said nothing about opposing this imperialist venture and continues to support the trillions of dollars for the war machine. The leadership’s gesture against imperialism is nothing but hot air.
In order to make any shifts in the direction of the American government, we need to support mass labor mobilizations and a general strike against the attack on Venezuela and the attacks on workers at home. We need our own mass democratic working-class party and for our unions to break with the Democrats. The Democrats and Republicans both support the US war machine and have always supported austerity, deregulation, privat, and union busting.
On February 6, there will be a general strike in Italy. The Italian dock workers’ union, the USB, has called on US longshore workers and all workers in the US to join them. This struggle against the US imperialist war in Venezuela can only be fought internationally. Workers have the power to stop imperialist wars abroad and win the war at home.
Moreover, we also support the national campaign for single-payer healthcare, including the rallies that will be held throughout the country on January 31. We need single payer to defend the millions of workers who are losing access to medical care, unable to afford prescriptions, and forced to choose between treatment, housing, and food—as Trump diverts funds from public services to finance military aggression.
Join Single Payer Rally on Jan 31 &
Fight For a Labor Action General Strike on Feb 6
Against Fascist Government
Hands off the People & Workers of Venezuela,
Stop The Wars Abroad & Win The War At Home
Free Maduro & Flores, Stop The US Sanctions on Venezuela, Cuba and Iran
The Main Enemy Is At Home!
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