NO MORE US BACKED
COUPS! IMPERIALIST HANDS OFF VENEZUELA, SYRIA, LIBYA, UKRAINE, HONG KONG!
06-03-15 – It is almost exactly a year since a violent coup
attempt was made against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela by ultra-right
wing opposition, known as “guarimbas”, in which 43 people perished. This week,
Venezuela has again had to act to foil another violent coup attempt, when it
was announced that a retired
Venezuelan Air Force general was among 10 military and civilian officers arrested.
President Nicolas Maduro stated on national television that the coup plotters
had confessed. He accused the government of the United States of America for
conspiring with the coup plotters. The role of Washington in previous coup
attempts has been proven. Indeed, according to Eva Golinger, this year
President Obama approved a State Department fund of $5 million to support
anti-government groups in Venezuela, alongside $1.2 million in financing from
the congressionally funded National Endowment for Democracy. It is estimated
that millions more are being pumped into the Venezuelan opposition through
unofficial channels. (Venezuelanalysis website).
What is being attempted repeatedly by US imperialism in
Venezuela is the overthrow of a sovereign state. Yet in recent years, there
have been many similar attempts by the US to overthrow other sovereign states,
and one of them – Libya – has unfortunately been successful. The US, along with
the UK, France, armed and funded Libyan opposition groups, many of which were
enmeshed with Al-Qaeda. The US then used NATO to bomb Libya, enabling Al-Qaeda
and other right wing opposition groups to murder Colonel Gaddafi and destroy
Libya’s sovereign government. The government led by Colonel Gaddafi had ensured
the highest standard of living in Africa for its people, with no payment
required for electricity supply and most education facilities. Despite some
accommodation to the West in recent years, Libya remained independent. Former
Venezuelan President and inspirational leader Hugo Chavez recognised this, and
in one of his visits gave Colonel Gaddafi the Sword of Bolivar, a huge gesture,
from one anti-imperialist leader to another.
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Left: In 2010,
Hugo Chavez, the inspirational leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, gave
visiting Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi a replica of the Sword of Bolivar.
The Sword of Bolivar is the sword of Venezuela’s independence fighter Simon Bolivar, revered in
Venezuela’s history. During the visit, Chavez also offered to mediate
between the Libyan government and the opposition in order to prevent the
overthrow of sovereign Libya. It was
a strong display of anti-imperialist solidarity from Latin America to
Africa.
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The other major sovereign state which the US is still
attempting to overthrow by covert and overt means, is the Syrian Arab Republic.
For at least 4 years, the US, along with its allies in Israel, Saudi Arabia,
Qatar and Turkey, have been waging a proxy war to take out one of the few
countries in the Middle East which is not totally subservient to the West. Some
of the very Al-Qaeda operatives which helped overthrow Libya are now in Syria,
along with jihadists from 83 different countries. All of them are being armed,
funded and trained by the US and its allies, the rhetoric about “fighting ISIS”
notwithstanding. The Syrian government, led by the popularly elected President
Bashar Al-Assad, have heroically resisted this proxy war, protecting its
secular state, and many Christians and other faiths at the same time. Former
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez went to his unfortunately early end defending
Syria against this horrendous war. Current President Nicolas Maduro is just as
resolute in the defence of Syria today.
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Left: United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) members
demonstrate in solidarity with Syria outside the Syrian consulate in
Venezuela. There is a sizable Syrian expatriate community in Venezuela.
Nonetheless, Venezuelans, along with most Latin Americans, are very
familiar with the US waging a “dirty war” to overthrow a democratically
elected government. It has occurred countless times throughout the 20th
and 21st century history of Latin America, and indeed is still
occurring today.
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It should be noted that the Australian government currently
has 600 soldiers and 6 Super Hornet fighter jets in the area of Iraq and Syria,
expressly backing the US effort to overthrow Syria. And, it has provided
“non-lethal aid” to another US backed coup
– the neo-Nazi Ukrainian coup government. (SMH website – 03-09-14) The
US government, often with the support of the Australian government, has
absolutely no qualms about the political or ideological intentions of those
they arm and fund for military takeovers of related countries. In Libya and
Syria, the “opposition” forces they armed and funded were some of the most
reactionary Islamic fundamentalists ever seen. In fact, there are many doubts about
whether ISIS is even based on Islamic fundamentalism at all. Murder, torture,
beheadings and even cannibalism were not beyond those who made up the “Free
Syrian Army”, Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, Salafists and at a later time, ISIS. In the Ukraine, however, the “opposition”
were not jihadists, but fascists. There, the US has been openly politically
backing fascist and Nazi groups. These fascist militias are, for the moment,
the mainstay of the Kiev coup government. They were used to overthrow the
previously elected Ukrainian government led by Victor Yanukovych on February 22
last year.
If the definition of fascism includes the use of violent
force to eliminate political opponents, then there is much similarity between
the Kiev government and the Venezuelan opposition. Both use violence, or the
threat of violence, to overthrow or threaten to overthrow governments not to
their liking. Both are backed politically by the US, and overtly or covertly
funded by them. The February 22 fascist coup in Kiev last year came after years
of US funding for Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) to the tune of $5 billion
over the years since the counterrevolutionary destruction of the Soviet Union –
by their own admission! (politifact.com – 03-19-14) The fascist supported and
US backed Kiev government has gone on to wage war against Eastern Ukrainians,
who have been forced to set up their own People’s Republics in anti-fascist
self-defence. The ultimate aim of the US is to use NATO to install a
pro-Western government, which will then be used as a bulwark to undermine or
break up Russia.
It’s not only Russia that the US aims to break up, undermine
or overthrow. This is also the plan for the People’s Republic of China – the
world’s most powerful socialist state. China itself is too large to overthrow
from the outside, so the aim, like Russia, is to break off chunks of the whole
by funding counterrevolutionary forces inside. This was why the US covertly
funded and politically backed the so-called “Occupy Hong Kong” rallies in
September last year. In April last year, pro-capitalist “democracy” leaders
Martin Lee and Anson Chan personally met with US Vice President Joe Biden in
the White House itself! (rt.com – 07-04-14) Less than six months later,
pro-Western and pro-British students led a series of attempted occupations of
government buildings in Hong Kong. This included a grossly hypocritical attempt
to appropriate the “Occupy” sentiment from the movement which previously was
set up to protest against the vast inequalities engendered by the capitalist
system, despite some of the participant’s varied views. Yet “Occupy Hong Kong”
was implicitly pro-capitalist, albeit under the absurd claim that they stood
for “democracy” – when there was not a shred of democracy permitted in Hong
Kong under British rule.
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Left: Hong Kong
counterrevolutionary “democracy” advocates Martin Lee and Anson Chan
personally meet with US Vice President Joe Biden in the White House in
April last year. In September, pro-Western students and others attempted
violent occupations of government buildings in Hong Kong, essentially
demanding different electoral rules there than the rest of the People’s
Republic of China. The pro-capitalist rallies failed to gain public
support.
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There is an urgent need for solidarity with Venezuela in the
face of repeated US backed coup attempts. Yet if we are to truly stave off
these gross violations of Venezuelan sovereignty, we need to be consistent
across the board, and oppose ALL US backed coups. The
international solidarity for Venezuela can only be strong enough if it is
global.
In a recent interview, renowned international journalist John
Pilger described Venezuela as a “reformist social democracy with a capitalist
base”. While we agree with this characterisation, this should not in the least
diminish our defence of the independence and sovereignty of the Bolivarian
Republic. The Bolivarian revolution has achieved many important gains for
Venezuelan workers. It has simultaneously pushed back the encroach of US
imperialism over Latin America, and internationally. Yet the US funded subversion
in Venezuela will continue as long as Venezuela remains in this
social-democratic framework. For one thing, US funded subversion is made
somewhat easier while this is the case. It is the case that the neighbouring
Republic of Cuba, which formed a socialist state out of their 1959 revolution,
is still the target of US funded subversion. However, due to the fact that
Cuban workers hold state power, they are generally able to intercept, arrest or
otherwise prevent serious attempts to foster and foment counter- rebellion
against the Cuban revolution.
The Bolivarian revolution in Venezuela, on the other hand, is
not yet a socialist revolution. For a socialist revolution requires the seizing
of state power by the workers, supported or at least not opposed, by other
social layers. Socialism begins with the seizure of state power, it cannot be
achieved even by 15 years of winning elections. One indicator of this was the
fact that during the violent attempted coup 12 months ago, the Venezuelan armed
forces were mobilised, but not authorised, to put down the violence. For while
the Venezuelan armed forces remain national armed forces, they are restricted
in being able to reign in the class enemies of the Bolivarian revolutionary
process. For this, the Venezuelan armed forces need to be sworn to protect not
the “nation”, but the working classes – which again poses the question of who
holds state power. In the meantime, the defence of the sovereignty of Venezuela
must be absolute. NO MORE US BACKED
COUPS! IMPERIALIST HANDS OFF VENEZUELA!
MARXIST-LENINIST
FRONT
MLF20701@gmail.com
0421 408 692
www.marxistleninistfront.blogspot.com.au
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