Despite the bombings, starvation, and the blockade of medical supplies, millions of Yemenis marched across the country on the fourth anniversary of the Yemeni resistance against US-Saudi aggression.
Sultan Al-Samei, a leader of the Houthi resistance, delivered a speech stating that “we are launching today the epic of legendary steadfastness, full of unity and cohesion of the internal front against enemies.” He also denounced the US decision to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, and pledged to stand by Syria to liberate its territory, and to stand with the Palestinian people in their resistance to the fascist Israeli government.
Since March 15, the disastrous effects of Cyclone Idai have been mounting for the people of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi. At least 750 have died because of the floods and at least 600,000 people have been displaced. The U.N. has stated that Cyclone Idai “may be the worst ever disaster to strike the southern hemisphere.”
Covering an area the size of New York City, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Boston combined, the extent of the flooding is unprecedented in southern Africa and is another example of a disaster made worse by the capitalist-caused climate crisis.
Each of these countries would be better able organize themselves to withstand major weather events if only they weren’t still struggling to overcome the crippling effects of centuries of colonialism. Zimbabwe struggles doubly because of US/EU-imposed economic sanctions which have cost its people over $50 billion since 2001. These sanctions remain in place despite the present humanitarian crisis. The International Monetary Fund will likely provide “financial assistance” to Mozambique but it will come as a predatory loan.
Acts of internationalist solidarity show the way forward. The government of Cuba has responded by sending a “field hospital” with full staff and equipment to Mozambique. They will join the 372 Cuban doctors already providing services for the people of Mozambique.
Members of the National Bolivarian Militia, a reserve defense force of 1.6 million volunteers.
By Joseph Rosen
U.S. Supports Wealthy Few Who Want to Destroy Gains
Venezuelan workers, peasants, women, Afro-Venezuelans and Indigenous people are demonstrating and arming themselves to stop an attempted U.S./CIA coup. Over the past few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have poured into the streets to rally against U.S. imperialist aggression, in defense of their homeland and in support of their government. On February 27, thousands commemorated the 30th anniversary of the mass uprising called El Caracazo. Diosdado Cabello, president of the National Constituent Assembly, addressed the assembled masses: “Thirty years ago, the Venezuelan people made their voices heard by taking to the streets. They demanded freedom. They called for imperialism and neoliberalism to stop running over them. To the imperialist powers, I say: I don’t know who you’ll have to rule over Venezuela in the event that your coup succeeds because you will face Venezuelans protesting and fighting back every day in the streets.”
150 Cities Demonstrate Against U.S. Attacks on Venezuela
People across the world are taking to the streets to call for an end to the U.S. economic war on Venezuela and to defend its people’s right to determine their own national destiny. On February 23, people rallied in at least 150 cities to reject the lies and slanders of the capitalist-owned media and to oppose another disastrous war for oil profits. The cries of the millions of Iraqis and Libyans have not gone unheard; around the world, people recognize that these countries were condemned to U.S. war because their governments, like Venezuela’s, committed no crime worse than to try to use their oil wealth for their own national development.
And the world will never forget the crimes of Trump’s henchmen: National Security Advisor John Bolton’s lies have cost hundreds of thousands of lives in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Palestine, while U.S. special envoy to Venezuela Elliot Abrams helped to arm and train the right-wing death squads responsible for the murder of thousands of Guatemalan, Nicaraguan, and Salvadoran men, women, and children.
Anti-humanitarian U.S. Government refused Venezuelan aid to New Orleans and Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Katrina and Maria.
Venezuelan workers have stepped up to the challenge posed by the anti-humanitarian U.S. sanctions by increasing their participation in the Local Production and Supply Committees which distribute government-subsidized food to about six million families every 15 days. Through this program, the Venezuelan government facilitates the distribution of about 50,000 tons of food per month. By contrast, the phony U.S. ‘humanitarian aid’ package that was the focus of the dangerous media stunt at the border amounts to only 60 tons of “food.”
As it happens, that’s nearly the size of the aid package that Bush turned away when the Venezuelan government attempted to deliver aid to New Orleanians after Katrina. The Venezuelan people understand perfectly well that the same U.S. government that is attempting to strangle them by economic blockade has no interest in relieving their suffering with supposed shipments of food. The “aid” ploy was only designed to break the territorial sovereignty of Venezuela so that U.S. and Colombian arms and military personnel could be brought in.
Venezuela Will Not Bend to U.S.
The attempted U.S./CIA coup has failed, and yet the right-wing Venezuelan opposition continue to clamor for war. More than 80% of Venezuelans oppose a U.S. military intervention regardless of their stance on the government. The fact that the would-be puppet Juan Guaido would risk the lives of thousands of his fellow Venezuelans clearly demonstrates that he’s merely a pawn of the Pentagon with no concern for his people.
The government of Maduro has the loyalty of the armed forces, which include 1.6 million Venezuelans who are trained by the government to head up citizen militias. These armed workers and peasants have an enormous stake in the defense of their country and the gains on power they’ve made in the twenty years since the beginning of the Bolivarian Revolution. Describing the Venezuelan people’s will to win, Maduro has invoked the heroic example of the Vietnamese people who fought to defeat the U.S.
A U.S. war would be extremely costly. The Venezuelan people are willing to accept the ultimate cost to defend their freedom from imperialist domination. Workers in the U.S. will also pay if Trump and his gang make war. We can’t afford another rich man’s war. For all the misery that another war would bring, we certainly have nothing to gain. But we have the world to gain when we realize that, like our sisters and brothers in Venezuela, we have the power to stand up to the gangsters who think that their tanks and their bombs entitle them to the wealth that we create.
The Haitian masses continue their march towards revolution. Since February 7—the anniversary of the inauguration of the popular anti-imperialist Jean-Bertrand Aristide—hundreds of thousands of Haitians have flooded the streets in a renewed outpouring of popular protest.
When the working masses rise up against a ruling elite that Washington favors, the big business media looks the other way. So it is with Haiti where day after day, people are taking to the streets to demand the resignation of the Jovenel Moise, head of the corrupt U.S. backed government that has robbed the people of billions of dollars while the majority of Haitians struggle to afford basic necessities. To add insult to injury, Moise’s government has sided with the U.S. in their attempt to force a coup in Venezuela, betraying the solidarity that the Venezuelan government extended to the Haitian people through its PetroCaribe program which afforded Haitians subsidized oil and cheap credit when the imperialist banks would have otherwise fleeced them.
The government has responded with brutal repression. Police as well as government-hired foreign mercenaries have killed more than a dozen people with many more wounded.
But the people’s will for change will not be stopped; they are calling upon their national legacy of revolution to make real their demand for independence and dignity.
“Let us wake up, humankind! We’re out of time. We must shake our conscience free of the rapacious capitalism, racism and patriarchy that will only assure our own self-destruction.”
March 2 marks the 3-year anniversary of the assassination of internationally renowned environmental leader and hero of the Lenca nation, Berta Cáceres. Cáceres was an Indigenous defender of the land and water who was murdered by the Honduran government and paramilitaries. She led protests against the construction of a dam which threatened the livelihood of her people and spoke out against the right-wing dictatorship installed the United States. Since the 2009 US-backed coup in Honduras, the regime has carried out the murder and repression of Indigenous land defenders, social leaders, and members of the LGBTQ community.
Berta’s example has inspired people all over the world take up the struggle for justice and liberation in Honduras. Her daughter has taken up the struggle; in 2017, she was elected General Secretary of COPINH, the indigenous Lenca organization co-founded and led by Berta Cáceres.
The Supreme Court voted in January to uphold the Trump regime’s ban on transgender people serving in the imperialist U.S. military. The ban is an attack on the trans community, designed to whip up transphobia and continue the process of forcing trans people back into the closet. This has been the administration’s agenda since they took office. This move baits people into promoting the idea that those who are fighting for trans rights should also aspire to serve the U.S. military, reinforcing the lie that the U.S. military is a force of progress for oppressed people. The truth is, the U.S. military is the armed wing of the U.S. capitalist class, destroying other countries that stand up to the exploitation and destruction of imperialism. Even with access to the military, trans people would not be made equal in society, nor would participation in imperialist violence bring liberation for any oppressed people.
LGBTQ people consistently experience a higher rate of sexual and physical assaults, arbitrary and outdated restrictions for trans service members, and other forms of control and abuse that are meant to force them to submit their own interest to the interests of U.S. imperialism. The military has preyed on LGBTQ people and our lack of access to healthcare and other basic needs in order to convince us it’s in our interest to bomb and kill our fellow workers in other countries. The answer to this ban is not to demand trans people be allowed to serve, but to demand healthcare, housing, education, and jobs, anti-discrimination rules, and solidarity with the working class worldwide. The answer to the transphobia fueling this ban is solidarity among the working class and the oppressed people of the world.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addresses his supporters at a rally on January 23.
U.S. Is Trying to Seize Venezuela’s Oil
On Jan 10, Pres. Nicolás Maduro was inaugurated for a second term as President of Venezuela with three times the votes of the opposition candidate. In response to Maduro’s overwhelming democratic victory, Trump and his Wall St. coalition are ramping up the war drive against Venezuela. The US State Department have imposed sanctions, blocking Venezuela from the oil trade. U.S. sanctions against Venezuela have already cost its people $20 billion. Sanctions are an act of war whose purpose is to impoverish the people to attempt to turn them against the government. They have failed. For three days in a row, massive rallies of workers and youth in support of the Bolivarian revolution have take place. Protests against U.S. intervention have been held all around the world.
The U.S. government bribed a few officers and encouraged them to attempt a coup. They failed. The vast majority of the military are loyal to the people, refusing to become puppets for the super-rich. Now Trump is talking about “a military option.” All this is done to seize the oil and make Venezuela another country that is bled to death by foreign banks and owned by foreign capitalists.
“In our country, there’s the largest certified oil reserves in the world. Those who lead the empire in the United States want to put their hands on it as they did in Iraq and Libya. That wealth belongs to us.”
—President Nicolás Maduro
Against the will of the people, Trump & Co. handpicked their own candidate who went to George Washington University, a school known as a CIA nursery. They picked Juan Guaidó, the candidate of the rich, oil companies and a C.I.A. puppet. The U.S. attempted to get a United Nations resolution against Venezuela. They have failed. For years the CIA has underestimated the determination of the Venezuelan working class that wants justice, independence and sovereignty.
The Maduro government has not only loyalty among the military but also has the support of popular militias in working class and poor neighborhoods. Pres. Maduro grew up in a poor neighborhood. He was a bus driver and president of their union. He is a man of the people and is Mestizo/Indigenous/African.
His government built 2.5 million affordable homes and directly delivers 6 million food boxes to families every 3 weeks. Healthcare and education are free in Venezuela. Where do the funds for this come from? The Venezuelan government pays for these programs with money from their oil industry. U.S. oil corporations hate this because money is going to the people instead of into their wallets.
Trump, his advisor John Bolton, V.P. Pence, Sec. of State Pompeo, and other cronies all have ties to the oil industry, including Exxon-Mobil. The for-profit weapons industry (companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon) are also thirsty to cash in on Trump’s war drive.
The current attempt by the ultra-right wing to illegally seize control of the government has been cheered on by Wall St. Reuters News writes “the excitement has spread…to the trading rooms of Wall Street, where investors have driven up the prices of the country’s defaulted bonds on hopes for a new government that will be more likely to resume debt payments.” They want the government treasury to be turned over to them rather than to peoples’ needs.
U.S.-LED CHILEAN COUP LED TO A BLOODBATH OF THE PEOPLE, POVERTY AND RULE OF THE GENERALS
The US military has attacked Latin American and Caribbean countries 56 times since 1945, and once in 2002 in Venezuela. Elliot Abrams, who was appointed US special envoy to Venezuela on January 25 played a leading role in the attempted 2002 against Chavez. He also helped to arm the right-wing death squads responsible for mass murder in Nicaragua and El Salvador. The U.S. has carried out many coups against other elected governments such as Chile in 1973 and Honduras in 2014 after which dictators were installed to destroy social benefits. There is not one democratic goal in U.S. intervention, that’s just the lie to cover up their evil intentions.
January 29: Protesters at a demonstration in solidarity with the Venezuelan people, called by the New Orleans Workers Group. Photo: Mya Ebanks
STAND UP NOW WITH MADURO AND THE PEOPLE!
The Venezuelan people and working class New Orleanians have a common enemy: the ultra-rich who are suffocating communities here. The military buildup against Venezuela is at the expense of food stamps, schools, and other social programs at home. Oil companies and arms dealers are out to make profits no matter who suffers.
Republicans and Democrats Hate Any Government That Puts Workers & Poor First.
Once again, we see that the feud between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party is superficial. Just like the European imperialists who criticize Trump but unite against Venezuela, these two parties of Wall Street come together to pursue imperialist intervention on behalf of the oil companies and military profiteers.
WORKERS HERE AND IN VENEZUELA HAVE COMMON NEEDS AND A COMMON ENEMY – U.S. IMPERIALISM
We workers here in the U.S. have no interest in supporting a CIA intervention in Venezuela or anywhere else, but a lot to gain when workers anywhere can liberate themselves from imperialism and the rule of the super-rich like they have done in Venezuela. Hands off Venezuela! U.S/CIA out of Latin America!
Genocide is being waged on the Yemeni people by the Saudi monarchy and the US government. On January 27, the US/Saudi coalition dropped US-made bombs on a camp for displaced people in Yemen’s northwestern Hajjah, killing at least 8 civilians and wounding many more. The bombing of refugee camps is a crime against humanity. In an attack on the Yemeni people of Hodeida just 2 days prior, the Red Sea Silos which house 51,000 metric tons of wheat were struck with mortar shells laying waste to critical food supplies while Yemen is facing “the worse famine in 100 years,” according to U.N. officials.
We, the workers and oppressed of New Orleans, must show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Yemen. We must speak out against these atrocities and demand that the US government withdraw all military aid and cancel all arms sales to the murderous Saudi regime.
Yemen is home to the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. The U.S. Saudi Arabia-led intervention in the civil war between the Yemeni government and the Houthi militia has ravaged the country and has left 80% of the country starving. An estimated 500,000 people along the secondary fronts south of Hudaydah have taken shelter in refugee camps. 1.8 million children in Yemen suffer from malnutrition. Even United Nations projections warn that 14 million people may die if this continues.
The United States has been providing the fascist royal Saudi government with bombs, planes, surveillance, drones, military intelligence and personnel. This is not secret information but known to all members of Congress who have ignored the genocide.
The deaths of Yemenis mattered nothing to Congress until the Saudi royalty murdered a journalist. Only then was a resolution introduced in the Senate that even mentioned the US role in the war. When the US Senate (but not the House) drafted and passed Senate Joint Resolution 54, the world hoped strong measures would be taken to bring an end to this genocidal war. But the resolution only minimally scales back U.S. involvement leaving loopholes for continued total involvement.
What we need is an act of Congress (not a resolution) that immediately withdraws all U.S. involvement, cancels the sales of military weaponry and military aid to Saudi Arabia, lifts all humanitarian blockades, and allows emergency medical and food aid in without conditions. Anything less and the deaths of millions will be on their hands.
