Actualité > Venezuela : Imperialism never truly supports the peoples !

Venezuela : Imperialism never truly supports the peoples !

The USA have just attempted a ‘legal’ coup in Venezuela by recognising Guaidó, the President of the National Assembly, as the ‘interim President’ in a bid to oust Maduro, the elected President, regardless of what one may think of the circumstances surrounding his election.

 

And of course, all of the European powers, with Macron at the forefront, have given an ultimatum for new elections in Venezuela. Macron does not have the same scruples when it comes to Egypt or Saudi Arabia !

 

It is true that French imperialism has fewer vested economic interests in Latin America than in the Middle East ! It is clearly an ideological and political gesture intended to show which side of the fence the French government is on when it comes to global imperialist contradictions, effectively siding with Trump and Western imperialism, say what he may.

 

Once that has been made clear, effectively marking our resolute and absolute opposition to any military intervention in Venezuela and to the coup continues to rage on, it is also necessary to clarify things as they stand, especially in the face of the “unconditional supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution” led by France Insoumise.

 

The opposition between Maduro and Guaidó by no means reflects the opposition between the people and imperialism.

 

Guaidó is the representative of the big-business and exports bourgeoisie, with direct links to the global bourgeoisie, notably that of the USA, known as the ‘comprador bourgeoisie’. This bourgeoisie had been in government up until the arrival of Chavez in 1998 and in all that time had not lifted a finger for the people it left in dire misery, despite the fact that the country has the biggest oil reserves on the planet. The Venezuelan people is all too familiar with this bourgeoisie already, even if its memory has faded for the younger generations.

 

Maduro is anything but a representative of the people, even if he continues to enjoy the backing of a part of it. While Chavez was a radical reformist who rolled out a series of positive reforms for the people (literacy, healthcare, poverty reduction) over the early years, the final years of the regime and especially his successor brought with them wide-scale corruption, racketeering, lining the pockets of another fraction of the bourgeoisie within the State apparatus (especially the army) by reaping the fruits of the oil revenues, just like in Algeria. Maduro is the representative of this “bureaucratic” bourgeoisie which is bent on clinging to power after ruining the country (soaring inflation, massive emigration) and having let the oil industry go to rack and ruin, with its production plummeting, in order to preserve its class privileges, selling out the country to the Russian and Chinese imperialists.

 

The confrontation between Maduro and Guaidó reflects the clash between the two fractions of the bourgeoisie which are vying with each other for power. Guaidó has the backing of the USA, Western imperialism and a part of the population which can no longer withstand the pressure of misery and recession, while Maduro is supported by imperialist Russian and China which have invested heavily in the country through debt and controlling the resources and still continues to enjoy the support of a section of the people on the back of the reforms carried out by Chavez twenty years ago.

 

All of this falls very short of a defence of the interests of the Venezuelan people who in either case falls foul of domination by the bourgeoisie.

 

So what does the “unconditional support for the Bolivarian Revolution” preached by France Insoumise actually entail ? For the likes of them, a revolution basically involves control by the State rather than a defence of the interests of the people.

 

For them, responsibility for the evident economic collapse does not lie at the door of internal conditions (the economic system based on monoproduction, the way the oil dividends are distributed, corruption, etc.) but is down instead to evil American imperialists who serve as smokescreen to hide their own political and economic failure. This should not be taken to mean that imperialist manoeuvres do not exist, but only on the back of internal contradictions.

 

They are unable to understand that the grand bourgeoisie has entrenched itself in the State apparatus, be it the State capitalists of the former Eastern Bloc countries or China, the bureaucratic bourgeoisie of the dominated countries or even the heads of the nationalised companies, effectively giving rise to serious doubts concerning the way they view socialism and people’s liberation. A record of supporting Maduro in Venezuela does not bode well were they ever to come to power here !

 

For them, Russia and China are not imperialist countries, but uphold people’s liberation though the regimes in place. There will come a time when the scales fall from their eyes and they acknowledge that they are nothing more than big imperialist powers vying with their competitors across the globe, from Latin America to Africa and the Middle East and Asia and even in Europe.

 

Unfortunately, no visible revolutionary current exists in Venezuela which has so far dissociated itself from both Guaidó and Maduro, in favour of a truly antiimperialist project of liberation not only from the USA but also from China and Russia. As a result, in spite of the massive scale of the discontent and anger, the people is only a puppet in the hands of either of the bourgeois factions.

 

The need to develop a proletarian and organisation line capable of setting up an alliance between the workers, peasants, students, informal workers and all of the sectors of society historically oppressed in Venezuela is more urgent than ever.

 

At this time, it is to that Venezuelan people that we express our unconditional support, unfettered by subservience to either of the bourgeois currents or imperialism.

 

Trump, Macron, hands off Venezuela !

 

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