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Defend Venezuela Against U.S. Attacks

by Aminta Zea

The U.S. government continues its war against the workers of Venezuela with harsher sanctions designed to create hardship. Whoever wins in the presidential election, Trump or Biden, the US is expected to continue its policy of regime change to oust Venezuela’s democratically elected leader, Nicolas Maduro. In cahoots with a tiny clique of wealthy Venezuelans, the U.S. wants to steal Venezuela’s oil, and claim its national resources for U.S. corporations.

The PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) is strategizing how to combat this wealthy clique of right wingers who hate Maduro and the PSUV for truly involving the workers in building their country to benefit the majority. This is no easy task as the United States continues to impose heavy sanctions and wage violent attacks that are aimed at strangling the country’s economy and threatening its socialist leaders.

U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo is the once owner of a military aerospace company that profited off the $1 trillion U.S. war budget that deprives the people here of critical help—especially during this period of crisis. Pompeo, speaking about his tenure as CIA Director admitted, “we lied, we cheated, we stole.” Recently, conferring with his fascistic Brazilian military counterparts, Pompeo pledged to send even more millions of tax-payer dollars to the wealthy Venezuelan traitor elites. Pompeo also called for more warships to ring the coast, threatening the Venezuelan people with death.

The United States will continue to meddle in the domestic politics of Venezuela during their elections. Because the right wing opposition is so unpopular they call for a boycott in the elections, thereby allowing the PSUV to win an overwhelming majority, afterward claiming that the election was a fraud. This was the excuse for the wealthy to allow the U.S. puppet Juan Guaido to declare himself president. His phony claim was recognized by Trump and Biden even though working class Venezuelans did not even know who he was. Failing these interventions, the U.S. could attempt a military coup. Thanks to the Venezuelan people, prior U.S. coup attempts have been unsuccessful.

The U.S. government was the hand behind the recent coup in Bolivia where another rich ruling class puppet declared herself leader. But the Bolivian masses led by the Movement for Socialism and rooted in indigenous leadership have fought back and are winning.

The persistent Monroe Doctrine policy of the U.S. that declares ownership of Latin America highlights how little respect the United States has for international democracy. Since the establishment of Chavismo in 2002, the living conditions for the working class in Venezuela have improved dramatically. The failed 2018 coup spearheaded by Trump and Venezuela’s capitalist class demonstrates that imperialists only care about seizing and hoarding profits for themselves. As workers in the south, we denounce the U.S. military and economic intervention on Venezuela and recognize the right of the Venezuelan people to determine their own national destiny.

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Fight Trumps Fascism by Mass Mobilization; Democratic Party Not the Answer

President-elect Donald J. Trump shakes hands with Vice President Joe Biden as he arrives for his inauguration on January 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Photo by: Pat Benic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images

by Sally Jane Black

“Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in the ancient Greek republics: freedom for the slave-owners. The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class shall represent and repress them in [Congress].” – V.I. Lenin

In 2014, Ukraine announced it would not exclusively sell its natural gas to NATO countries but would also sell to Russia. For this, the Obama administration backed a coup that put a fascist government in power in the country. Six years later, the Ukrainian military is sporting swastikas, burning trade union offices, and passing anti-Jewish and anti-LGBTQ laws. Joe Biden, as Vice President, backed and celebrated the fascist takeover because the capitalists that funded the Democratic Party asked for it.

As workers face crisis, it is understandable to place hope in those who promise relief. And we organize to demand that relief. It is understandable to look at Trump’s never-ending assault on our lives and cling to any contender. Compared to the fascist, racist, sexual predator Donald Trump, even a racist, sexual predator like Joe Biden may seem to offer a sliver of hope.

We know that Trump is a fascist and dangerous. He has unleashed anti-worker, racist hatred and encouraged police repression. The question is will voting for Biden stop the growth of fascism? The same Biden who supported a coup against the elected Indigenous leader of Bolivia, Evo Morales, who supports Bolivia’s extreme right-wing oligarchy, which is carrying out mass killings, arrests and cuts to social programs amid a pandemic? Can we count on him to restrain these forces at home? Will Biden, former vice president to deporter-in-chief Obama offer relief to the most oppressed among us? Trump is an outgrowth of the years of promoting oil, chemical, and military profiteering by the Democratic Party along with Republicans. Trump is an executive of the capitalist class, not just an insane individual.

To promote the capitalist Democratic party rather than our own independent party is to ignore the policies they have carried out for decades on behalf of the ultra-rich including the slashing of social programs. Massive deadly unjust wars were carried out by “Democrats” along with the growth of racist mass incarceration, privatization of prisons, and the drug wars designed to fill prison profiteers’ pockets with the fruits of enslaved labor.

Must Trump go? Yes! But the tragedy of the last four years has been to put faith in the Democratic Party instead of forcing Trump out with massive street demonstrations. While pouring millions into the Democrat coffers, the unions have failed to mount one major anti-Trump demonstration while he strips workers of all safety and rights.

We defend the right to vote as we fight against attacks on all civil rights, union rights or threats to the environment. But we have seen that the Democrats are not the opposition party to the Republicans. Their role is not to resist fascism, but to maintain exploitation and help quash the mass movement by false promises. Biden has a history of embracing racist, homophobic, sexist, and anti-worker policies, supporting (and even drafting legislation for) everything from segregation to mass incarceration. In the midst of a pandemic, he has denounced universal healthcare, and in his time as vice president, he supported the rise of ICE. His vice presidency set the groundwork for the federal police forces we face today. He is not the answer to fascism; he has shown already that he supports it when it benefits the capitalist class at home and abroad.

Over 40 million people took to the streets to oppose police terror, and the Democrats picked a “top cop” as Biden’s vice president, who incarcerated thousands, put trans people in wrong-gendered prisons and denied them healthcare, and criminalized truancy in California schools. The Democrats serve the rich ruling class, who want to put down the uprisings and force workers to die for profits.

Change comes from the struggle, not from politicians. The uprisings represent change. The Democrats and Republicans represent the status quo (the dictatorship of the capitalists). We should fear four more years of Trump. But we should also fear Biden’s drive to World War III against China which would destroy us all.

Let the power of the people speak, let us vote with our feet and our bodies to force back not only Trump but the capitalist drive to war, destruction of the planet, and impoverishment of the people.

Biden’s role is not to save the people from Trump. It is to save the capitalists from the people’s anger at Trump. Organizing a working-class movement, creating a working-class party, and fighting for working class interests will win us far more, no matter who is in office.

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Editorial – Oppose Trump’s Attempt to Disenfranchise US Voters

Protect, Fund the US Postal Service

Donald Trump’s brazen attempt to hold onto office has no bounds. He is trying his best to convince the US public that a now sabotaged Post Office is incapable of distributing and returning mail-in ballots. Trump has admitted that he is trying to sabotage the Postal Service to limit how many US voters can vote by mail during the pandemic. This goes along with massive voter suppression in many states.

The headlines in the capitalist media in the past weeks have increasingly reported on how Trump’s crony Louis DeJoy, a millionaire North Carolina competitor of the postal service and Trump donor, is on a mission to destroy the USPS. He has ordered slow processing times, removed mailboxes from city streets, and reduced the number of sorting machines. 46 states and the District of Columbia have been warned that the USPS cannot guarantee that all ballots cast by mail will arrive in time to be counted on election day.

On Thursday, August 16th, Trump vowed to continue blocking aid for the USPS. DeJoy has been on a tear to remove many of the top managers at the Postal Service, reassigning 33 of them. He banned postal workers from making extra trips to ensure same day delivery, leading to long delays in mail delivery across the country to turn the public against the service.

We all must rally to oppose this attempt to disenfranchise millions of voters. The right to vote is a fundamental right and must be protected. The postal system must be saved from the big capitalists who are trying to starve the USPS, privatize it, and destroy the postal worker unions and their jobs. We must force the politicians of both the Democratic and Republican capitalist-controlled parties to stop fiddling while the USPS burns.

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How Should We Fight Back and Exert Power? Women, Workers, Youth: Take to the Streets!

By Gavrielle Gemma

All eyes are focused on the upcoming presidential election to replace Trump who represents the filthy rich capitalist class. Trump has declared war on workers, women, immigrants, people of color, LGBTQ people, the environment, social security and Medicaid, and on all the species of the planet. Trump is funneling trillions of taxpayer dollars to war profiteers, private prison companies, and militarized police, and he is best friend to every racist, ultra-right, anti-working-class dictator in the world.

The Sanders campaign has unleashed a movement that is either anti-capitalist or else critical of capitalism. That many in this movement believe in some form of socialism is a breath of fresh air in the United States. This movement challenges the attacks on social programs that have become the status quo in the U.S. for the last 50 years. Hopefully this movement will grow and continue its political development so as to stimulate a struggle. Already, the movement is more progressive than Sanders himself—especially against imperialist war.

Relying on elections alone puts the movement in a precarious position. Even if Sanders wins the nomination, it’s doubtful the capitalist backers of the Democratic Party will throw their support behind him. The capitalist system is not democratic, as it is presented to be. For example, both parties agree with the undemocratic appointing of the Supreme Court and federal judges for life.

The exploitation of workers, racism, and sexual oppression are built into this system, which will continue to ravage life in order to keep profits flowing to the capitalist class.

If the Democratic Party does not see our movement in the streets on all our issues of concern, they will at best halt the attacks but not reverse them. And Sanders himself, a long-time participant in capitalist politics, needs to feel the heat. He has already indicated he would go to war with Iran, North Korea, and support “humanitarian” (what a lie!) interventions. Notwithstanding a few slipped comments about the great things Cuba has done—which he followed up with the usual imperialist slanders—Sanders ignores the right of self-determination for the people of Venezuela and has done nothing to support Bolivian workers, peasants, and indigenous people in their fight to unseat their capitalist rulers who are violent reactionaries and puppets of the U.S. We cannot separate domestic policy from foreign policy. This error always leads to disaster.

Sanders, who does not want workers to replace the capitalist state with a state for themselves, has sown confusion around his use of the term “socialism.” Sanders is setting the stage for mass disillusionment by merely promising the rewards of “socialism” without promoting the need for workers to orient their struggle towards the total seizure of power from the capitalists.

This has been the historic role of social democrats, especially in Europe, who enjoyed great working-class support and electoral victories. But once in office, their collaboration with the capitalists reversed the course of progress. Failing to really unseat capitalism has led many European workers to turn to right wing parties.

On the other hand, the movement could turn in a revolutionary mass direction.
A movement that does not look to the path ahead will falter. A movement that stays solely in the realm of electoral politics will not win. Many say, “Well, what do you call for? After all, we propose a concrete change.” So do Revolutionary Socialists. We’re not against the Sanders movement—just the opposite: it is potentially a great development. This is especially true for the thousands of young women, women workers, and oppressed women pouring into the campaign associated with socialism.

But why not take this movement into the streets? Laws have always come after the mass movements that won labor rights, civil rights, women’s or LGBTQ advances. Even if the Democratic Party wins, it will be critically necessary to unite and hit the streets so there is enormous pressure and a visible commitment to fight for the needs of the people in solidarity with the workers and oppressed nations of the world.

When the civil rights act of 1966 was declared constitutional by the Supreme Court, there were three justices who were in the KKK, and they voted for it. How do you explain that? It was the power of the people in the streets everywhere.

Women are powerful; we are the rock in every industry in every city in every state. The work of women—paid and unpaid—moves society forward. But without organized action, that power is only potential.

Our challenge is to organize, unite and exert a power that cannot be ignored. This is what the women of Chile, Iraq, the First Nations of Canada, India, Brazil, and many more countries are showing the world under difficult circumstances. We cannot be lulled into the false belief that we can change the world by pulling a voting lever alone. We must fight to win.

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Reject Billionaires’ Red-Baiting Of Bernie Sanders! Defend and Fight for Revolutionary Socialism!

By Malcolm Suber

The billionaire ruling class and its bought-and-paid-for politicians, newspaper editorial writers, and TV talking heads are in a tizzy about the possibility that Bernie Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, could win the Democratic party presidential nomination. They ask: haven’t our scare tactics and fairy tales worked? Have we produced a century of anti-socialist propaganda in vain? Haven’t workers and youth absorbed our basic teaching that capitalism = good; socialism = bad?

Never mind that the rich U.S. ruling class, with its much hyped “freedom of speech,” has done everything in its power to suppress dissent among the working class and oppressed. The billionaires’ control over public education give them years to hammer into our heads that the “free enterprise system” is preferable to “collective ownership.”

The purpose of red-baiting is to prevent the working class and the oppressed from discovering their own history of struggle to achieve checks on the rapacious greed and disregard for human life by the capitalist class. The 8-hour day, the elimination of child labor; the right to have unions, sick pay and paid vacation time, as well as the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid are all progressive reforms wrested from the ruling class through working class struggle.

The U.S. ruling class downplays the revolutionary, violent struggle that led to the founding of this country. “Revolution” is treated as an historical event that was perhaps good and necessary in the 18th century but dangerous today.

Don’t be fooled: to end the rule of the capitalist class, revolution is certainly needed today. Our task is to organize the workers through teaching and defending our revolutionary history as an inspiration and guide to our struggle today.

The billionaire ruling class and its flunkies in the bourgeois state are dismayed at the popular interest in socialism, no matter what brand. A majority of workers and youth are beginning to realize that capitalism holds no hope for the future. This terrifies the billionaires because in a socialist society they would be forced to give up some of their ill-gotten gains. Just about everyone except for billionaires accepts that they should not be allowed to dodge all taxes and shuffle their stolen wealth among off-shore bank accounts.

Both capitalist political parties, Democrats and Republicans are the willing tools of the ruling class and allow the rich to control the US government. Most of the laws proposed by Congresspeople and Senators are actually written by the paid lobbyists of the rich. The capitalists ply “our” representatives with bribes, convincing them that they too can enjoy the leisurely life of the rich if only they pledge to be sponsors for the lucrative government contracts that are awarded to their companies.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) leadership is panicking because their rigged primary system is actually proving an avenue for more people to examine Bernie Sanders’ Democratic Socialism. They are trying to force a Biden v. Sanders showdown where Biden will champion the line that socialism is an unwinnable with the USA electorate. We believe that workers will choose socialism, the only system that promises improved living and working conditions for the masses of people ground down by the current capitalist regime.

We are duty-bound to beat back the vicious red-baiting unleashed by the ruling class. Let us have discussions about the kind of society that best advances the living conditions of the working class.

At the same time, we must distinguish reform and revolution. Reform leaves in place the private ownership of the main means of production such as factories, mines, utilities, banks, etc. Revolution calls for the rule of the working class under which the property of the rich will become the property of the working majority, democratically run and administered to meet the needs of the working class.

We must fight to counter the confusion and deceptions advanced by the capitalists and all their propaganda outlets. We must make the case for revolutionary socialism.

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Louisiana Workers Have No Candidate In Governor’s Race

We Must Build a Workers Party

By Malcolm Suber

The multi-national Louisiana working class finds itself in well-worn and familiar territory as we approach the October gubernatorial election. We are being asked to choose between three rich, conservative, anti-choice white men who are squabbling among their class to see who best represents the interests of the oil and gas millionaires who are the real puppet-masters that run this state.

Neither Ralph Abraham, Jon Bel Edwards or Eddie Rispone have a program that will serve to improve the living conditions of Louisiana workers. All three are pursuing the right-wing goals of more intense exploitation of the workers while promising even more tax cuts for the rich. Rispone and Abraham promise to be the most loyal suck-ups to white supremacist President Donald Trump. Their program boiled down and addressed to the white workers and the white middle class is “if you like Donald Trump, you will love me”.

Meanwhile, the gist of Jon Bel Edwards’ program which is addressed to the white Republican majority is “I have successfully maintained your priorities for four years, why not extend my stay.”

Nowhere are there any promises to move Louisiana from the bottom of the list of places to live and raise your family. New Census Bureau data released in September showed that nearly 1 in 5 Louisiana residents lives below the poverty line. We now have the third highest poverty rate in the U.S. after Mississippi and New Mexico. Nowhere is there a promise to move Louisiana off the list as the most incarcerated state where thousands of working people are held in gulags for minor infractions of the law. Nowhere are there promises to improve the education of our children. Nowhere is there a program to end air pollution from the oil and chemical companies. And nowhere is there a program to lessen the regressive tax burden on the working class, replacing it with progressive taxes on the property of the rich.

Louisiana workers will never get off the bottom until we begin to organize and fight for our class interests, rejecting the program of the capitalist rulers to divide us along race, gender, sexual preference and immigration status. What that requires is for us to realize that the two political parties—the Republicans and the Democrats—are parties controlled by the rich to protect the interests of the rich. We should be working to develop a mass workers party that promotes the interest of the working class in opposition to the program of the capitalists who are hellbent on keeping us from redistributing the wealth created by our labor, which they currently hoard for themselves.

We must engage our fellow workers in discussions about the deceptive role of the Democrats and Republicans whose campaigns lie, lie, lie, proclaiming they represent all classes. We as wage-slaves do not share the same problems as the bosses and rich capitalists. They want to maintain this system of privilege for the rich and forced misery for the working class. We must get clear that we are at war against the rich billionaires and their government. Workers must fight to put political power in the hands of the workers’ political representatives who have no interest in exploiting working people.

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International Communist Victories

Early 2018 has seen two major positive developments in the unity of the worlds revolutionary forces. In Venezuela, the governing United Socialist Party and the Communist Party have re-solidified their unity after years of harsh debate. In an accord established in late February, they both pledged to cooperate in many fields including elections, defense of the county, overcoming the economic crisis, and advancing the socialist revolution. On the other side of the world in Nepal the two major left parties, the Unified Marxist-Leninists and the Maoists, swept the country’s elections and decided to merge into a single party, which would make them the strongest political force in Nepal by far. The merger and the election victory have instilled a great sense of hope in the Nepalese people that their country will soon overcome much of the poverty and instability that they are accustomed to.

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Mayor Elect Latoya Cantrell: No Friend of the Working Class People of New Orleans

By Malcolm Suber

There’s an old saying that you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. If we use this as a measure of our mayor-elect, LaToya Cantrell, we can safely predict that New Orleans workers have four years of hard struggle ahead. Cantrell styled herself as the people’s candidate during her mayoral campaign. She was widely embraced by a number of self-proclaimed progressives like Step-Up Louisiana as being on the side of the workers. Her campaign even issued a statement about forming a people’s transition team that would include residents from all walks of life and social classes.

What we find of course is a transition team made up of the usual suspects, members of rich white ruling class and their most loyal lackeys. The transition team is co-chaired by Walter Issacson, former head of the Aspen Institute; Norman Francis, former President of Xavier University; and Gayle Benson, wife of Saints owner Tom Benson, Louisiana’s favorite charity who became a billionaire on our tax subsidies to his empire. A few community people were thrown in as window dressing.

This ruling class transition team will help mayor-elect Cantrell develop policies for her administration. The make-up of this committee tells us that New Orleans workers cannot put any faith into Cantrell’s mantra that “we’re moving forward together” and that she is a “bottom up organizer”. Hardly. Workers will discover that Cantrell, as all the mayors before her, are solidly in the hands of the developers and local capitalist class that stand for low wages, racism, police terror, mass incarceration, sexism and gentrification. Cantrell will be new wine in an old bottle.

On top of all the above, Cantrell is requiring those who join her transition team to sign “disclosure agreement” which forbids them to discuss transition team proceedings. So much for being transparent and welcoming all points of view.

We in the New Orleans Workers Group are not swayed by sloganeering and empty promises. We will continue to organize and prepare New Orleans workers for a fight against the bosses and their newest servant-mayor LaToya Cantrell.