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Venezuelan President Survives Assassination Attempt

Working Class, Oppressed Masses Rally to Support Maduro

By Quest Riggs

In early August the world watched as Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, narrowly survived an assassination attempt. While he was giving a speech to soldiers of the Venezuelan military, two large explosions detonated in the air injuring seven military personnel. The two bombs were attached to small drones that were on course to the stage where the president and his wife were standing, alongside many of the highest ranking officials of the government and military. In this way, this terrorist attack was not only an assassination attempt on the president of the Republic: it was yet another coup attempt by the farright bourgeoisie of Venezuela in cooperation with North American imperialism.

In a speech after the attack, Maduro asked, “What would have happened if this attempt on my life was successful? What would be happening today in the streets of Venezuela?” He went on to say, “I tell the Venezuelan opposition that I guarantee you can live in this country peacefully. If something happens to me, you will have to face millions of Campesinos and humble people making justice with their own hands.”

The next day, thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to show their support for the government and their willingness to mobilize in defense of their revolution. Thousands of workers, peasants and students marched dressed in red, and they were joined by the armed community militias who organize to defend Venezuela’s independence. They rally because of the social improvements for many workers and poor people in Venezuela in housing, education and wages during Maduro’s presidency. But their main objective is to protect Venezuela’s independence from North American imperialism, which is in the offensive to dominate the workers of South & Central America and the Carribean.

Across the continent the forces of imperialism and capitalism, the richest people in the Americas, are murdering poor workers- especially those who organize and fight for their communities. They are plotting to strip all of the independence fighters in Latin America of power and tear down all barriers to their profits and domination. But the people, the workers, will never lie down in the face of oppression and exploitation!

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U.S. Hands Off Iran! Build a Anti-Imperialist War Movement

By Malcolm Suber

Ever since May 8 when the Trump government announced that the US was pulling out of the 2015 agreement between world imperialist powers and Iran over its nuclear program, the US government has launched an aggressive offensive of speeches by members of the state department and the US military threatening war on Iran. The US aims to force Iran to end its nuclear program and its support for the Syrian regime and the Houthi freedom fighters in Yemen.

The Trump government, in typical gangster fashion, is using sanctions against the Iranian regime in an effort to starve Iranian people into submission to US imperialist dictate. The Trump regime believes that as the last remaining superpower it has the political right and military might to reorder the entire globe to its liking. The US sanctions against Iran are meant to disrupt the Iranian economy by requiring that its junior imperialist powers in the European Union and Great Britain support the US sanctions or have their trade with the US disrupted as well.

The aim of the US campaign against Iran is to clear the entire Middle East of regimes which are hostile to US domination of the oil-rich region. The US also requires recognition of the Zionist state of Israel. Already, the US is supporting Saudi Arabia’s bombarding Yemen with the most up to date military planes and battlefield equipment, sold to them by the US military industrial complex.

The war mongering assault by the US is a complete violation of the sovereignty and the right to self-determination of the Iranian people and state. Why should the US have the right to pick and choose who should rule in the other countries of the world? Why should only some countries have the right to nuclear weapons while claiming that others should be denied that right? Clearly the US imperialist government, which is the only government that has used nuclear bombs in war, can’t be that arbiter.

Trump has gotten on Twitter and created a straw man by announcing that the US government will go to war with Iran if they threaten the US. He wrote: “Never, ever threaten the US again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before”.

Of course Iran has not threatened the US; it has condemned US incursions on its territory and warned that it will defend their territory as is their right as a sovereign country. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif hit back at Trump’s tweet. “Color us unimpressed. The world heard even harsher bluster a few months ago. And Iranians have heard them- albeit more civilized ones- for 40 years. We’ve been around for millennia and seen the fall of empires, including our own, which lasted more than the life of some countries. BE CAUTIOUS!”

The US working class must take seriously Trump’s threats to wage war against Iran. We have a duty to oppose all US war plans by building up the anti-imperialist war movement here in the US. The Iranian people and state are not our enemies. Iran and other oppressed countries like North Korea and Venezuela are trying to live independent lives not dictated by US imperialism and need our support. The New Orleans Workers Group will work tirelessly to educate workers about our real interests and our internationalist duty to oppose US imperialist war.

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Stop the Israeli War on Gaza!

By C.T.

Gaza is referred to as the largest open air prison in the world by human rights organizations and freedom fighters globally, but what does this description really mean? What do we know about how truly dire the conditions in Gaza are, and what can the people of Gaza teach us about surviving an ongoing genocide?

Gaza has been under a blockade by both Egypt and the illegitimate state of Israel since 2007. Both Israel and Egypt receive billions of dollars from the United States to serve as guard-dogs for imperialist interests in the Middle East. Israel has led assaults on the people of Gaza several times a year for over a decade by way of US military aid.

For over a decade these attacks have destroyed hospitals, homes, schools, power plants and even the sewage infrastructure in Gaza. Israel’s blockade ensures no one is allowed out, and they closely monitor what is allowed in. Items not allowed into Gaza range from construction materials such as cement, bricks, wood, irrigation materials and pipes to life-saving medicine and even certain foods like chocolate. 98% of Gaza’s water supply is undrinkable, while the remaining 2% is projected to be undrinkable by 2020.

This month Gaza declared there are no more supplies to offer chemotherapy in all of Gaza. Israel has not allowed numbing medication or anesthesia into Gaza since 2017. This means that doctors must choose from the wounded who can be numbed and put to sleep while performing surgeries. This year alone 168 Gazans have been brutally murdered, while the wounded face a battle for survival with dwindling medical supplies.

How are the people of Gaza responding to this ongoing imprisonment and genocide? On August 9, Israel bombed Gaza’s the largest cultural center – Al Mis’hal, killing a pregnant woman and several others who were in the building. The community responded by holding a concert among the rubble the next day, with one performer declaring “The bombing did not stop the music.” Palestinians at the performances said these attacks on infrastructure and life are attacks on Palestinian identity, and this is why Palestinians resist with their culture and dignity as their most lethal weapons against genocide.

All power to the people of Palestine who are steadfast in the liberation of their minds, souls and bodies.