Izquierda Revolucionaria (CWI in Venezuela)\nExecutive Committee<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new leader of the Venezuelan right and\nfar right, Juan Guaid\u00f3, (recently elected president of the counterrevolutionary\nnational Assembly) has proclaimed himself President. He called on his\nsupporters to take to the streets to force through the down fall of Nicol\u00e1s\nMaduro’s government. Immediately, the most reactionary governments in Latin\nAmerica and the world, with far-right Jair Bolsonaro (Brazil) and Donald Trump\n(USA) at the head, have recognized Guaid\u00f3 as Venezuela’s “only legitimate\npresident”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A\ncoup d’\u00e9tat planned by imperialism and the Venezuelan and international right<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wielding all kinds of threats, the US\nSecretary of State (and former director of the CIA), Mike Pompeo, has demanded\nthat the Maduro government resign immediately. \u201cWe have all the options on the\ntable\u201d said Trump. The Venezuelan ultra-right leader, also announced on\ntelevision that \u201cwe are very close to the moment for which we fought for years\u201d\nand told Maduro to resign \u201cif he wants to save his life\u201d. Latin American\ngovernments that stand out for their reactionary and antisocial policies and\ntheir servility to Washington enthusiastically support the coup while cynically\nclaiming to stand \u201cfor democracy.\u201d You only have to see who leads this \u2018Holy\nAlliance\u2019 to understand what is at stake: the Colombian president Duque (linked\nto Urribe narco paramilitarismo), the Ecuadorian President Moreno (The Judas of\nthe Ecuadorian left), Argentine President Macri (responsible for the brutal\ncuts that have provoked the Argentine people to rise up on their feet and\nfight) or the Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez (organizer of an\nelectoral fraud with the support of the White House last year and responsible\nfor the repression and murder of dozens of protesters). As is to be expected\napplauding enthusiastically from the other side of the Atlantic are the\nEuropean right and far right in Spain with Pablo Casado from the PP, Albert\nRivera (Cuidadanos) and the fascistic elements of Vox in the front line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Guaid\u00f3 and the Venezuelan right are trying\nto take advantage of the desperation and indignation felt by the Venezuelan\npeople in the face of the economic and social collapse that the country\nsuffers. GDP and living standards have fallen by 50% in the last four years and\nthe situation has only worsened with price increases of up to 1000% since the\nbeginning of this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we write these lines, tens of thousands\nof people in different parts of Venezuela have responded to the call of Guaid\u00f3\nnot to leave the streets until Maduro resigns or the military takes him down,\ncopying the script of the failed right-wing coup against Chavez in April 2002.\nOn the other hand, Government supporters who had gathered in the Plaza O’Leary\nof Caracas and other central points of the big cities have been called upon by\nDiosdado Cabello, leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), to\ngo to the Miraflores Palace, as happened in 2002, and keep a vigil to defend it\nand Maduro from a possible opposition assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\npacts of the government with the capitalists open the way to the reaction<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The main difference of this coup with that\nperpetrated against Ch\u00e1vez in 2002 is that the parasitic, corrupt and\nreactionary Venezuelan right is managing to mobilize not only young university\nstudents, professionals and small owners belonging to the middle classes, as\nhappened during the violent guarimba that caused more than 100 deaths between\nMarch and July 2017. On this occasion, significant sectors of the youth,\nunemployed, and even workers, desperate because of the economic situation and\nthe brutal price increases, are marching from poor neighborhoods called onto\nthe street by the right and the extreme right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since August 2018, when the government of\nMaduro applied the so-called Economic Reactivation Plan and devalued the\nbolivar by establishing a new currency, the Sovereign Bolivar (60 BS equal to 1\ndollar), hyperinflation – which was already out of control – has reach\ndevastating levels. Before the start of this latest crisis, the dollar was\nexchanged for 3,000 sovereign bolivars! Some analysts forecast six or\nseven-digit inflation for this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A simple consultation in a private clinic,\nsomething to which not only the middle layers but also many workers are forced\nto have because of the collapse of the public health service, has soared in\nprice in a few days from 2,000 to 15,000 BS. The state company mobile phone\ncompany Movilnet has raised its lowest rates from 169 to 1,300 Bs! While\naccepting these increases, or even applying them in services and products that\ndepend on public companies, the governments\u2019 only response was a\n\u201ctriumphalist\u201d, a new salary increase of 400% ( from 4,500 BS to 18,000 Bs per\nmonth). That is worth barely $ 6, completely insufficient to deal with the rise\nin basic commodity prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The promised wage increases, that\nhyperinflation eats before being they are applied, together with the\ntriumphalist and even contemptuous tone of the leadership and the PSUV\nbureaucracy against those who protest, the recourse to repression against many\nworkers who have staged defensive strikes in recent months, together with the\nfact that most of the bureaucrats who wear the red flannel live with all kinds\nof privileges and material conditions similar to that of the capitalist class,\nhas only intensified the rage of people. On this objective basis, the right has\nregained the initiative and launched this new assault for power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the victory of the right wing\nreactionary forces will not solve the problems of the working people. On the\ncontrary! The objective of the imperialists who are pulling the strings behind\nGuaid\u00f3 is to force an intervention by senior military officers or at least of a\nsignificant layer of them to overthrow Maduro and give power to the right. For\nyears, Maduro has tried to stay in government by giving more and more\nconcessions, economic power and weight in the government to the military high\ncommand. This has contributed to an increase in corruption and provoked unrest\namongst workers and the people. However, it will not guarantee the loyalty of\nthe Bolivarian National Armed Forces (FANB) to Maduro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During its previous offensive to take power\nin 2017, the Venezuelan right had already managed to open a breach in the state\napparatus with the support of Attorney General Luisa Ortega D\u00edaz and the\nresignation of some senior military officials. Then, a key factor for the\nmilitary leadership, was that the right wing opposition strategy was not\nenabling them to secure the mass mobilizations they hoped for and they did not\nspread from the urban middle class to the working class and poor\nneighborhood\u2019s. In addition, the terrorist actions of the fascist gangs\nconvinced hundreds of thousands of workers, who were very dissatisfied with the\ngovernment’s policies, to give the PSUV and its National Constituent Assembly\n(ANC) a last chance. But now the situation has undergone a qualitative\ntransformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The\nPSUV bureaucracy does not defend socialism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The media of the ruling class and\ninternational world reaction present the events in Venezuela as the failure of\nsocialism. In Venezuela itself, with the inestimable help of the bureaucratic\nleaders of the PSUV – who classify this disaster and its policy of pacts with\nbusinessmen of a “transition to socialism” -, the right uses the\neconomic collapse to sow confusion amongst the masses, undermine its morale and\ndiscredit the idea of socialism, workers control and in general everything that\nsmells left or revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, the program applied by Maduro and\nthe PSUV leaders are light years away from socialism and what millions of\npeople expected in 2013, when they voted to keep the social plans and reforms\ncarried out by Ch\u00e1vez in trying to respond to the aspirations of the working\nclass and the most oppressed sectors of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Since then, Maduro and his collaborators,\nalso inspired by the Chinese government and a whole legion of Stalinist\n“fellow travelers”, have tried to convince the Venezuelan and international\nruling class that they could manage the worst crisis in the history of\nVenezuelan capitalism with less social upheavals than the right wing would\nmean. During recent months they have approved very hard social cuts and wage\nreductions, the dismissals of thousands of workers from public companies by\ntrying to cover them up with a fraudulent and impotent \u201crevolutionary\nmysticism”. Through these policies they have only managed to erode in\nrecord time the massive social support that the PSUV had. Now the same\nbourgeoisie and businessmen who benefited from the government aid and signed\nagreements with the regime are manoeuvring with imperialism to regain direct\ncontrol of government and state power. This crisis is the result of the\nbureaucratic “socialist” model of a caste of demoralized and corrupt\nofficials, military and politicians, who have risen totally above the living\nconditions of the people who have been fighting to maintain their privileges.\nTheir actions have undermined the conquests of the Bolivarian revolution and\nallowed the reaction to advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organize\naction committees in each neighborhood and each factory. Build a united front\nof the left to defeat the coup and end capitalism and the bureaucracy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Guaid\u00f3 is like a wolf in a lambs clothing\nand speaks of a government for all and reconciliation. Yet if this right-wing\nreactionary and the forces that support him come to power, the result will be a\nnightmare for millions of workers and peasants, who are suffering from the\nsocial and economic crisis. Their political and economic agenda can only be\napplied with even more massive layoffs, brutally cutting social spending and\nrepressing unions, social movements, and activists on the left, on an even more\nbrutal and bloody scale than they do in the countries of their sponsors –\nDuque, Bolsonaro and Macri .<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first task of the working class and the\npolitically conscious and combative people of Venezuela is to organize\nresistance against the coup. We must begin by denouncing the true objectives of\nGuaid\u00f3, the right wing and imperialism. We have to organize assemblies in each\ncompany and place of work to discuss what our needs and demands are and how the\neconomic plans and policies of the right mean a mortal danger. It is urgent to\ncreate action committees in defense of the rights of workers and the people in\neach work center and each neighborhood, defending a genuinely socialist class\nprogram, which proposes the expropriation of the big private monopolies and\nbanking to end the hyperinflation and corruption, the abolition of the\nprivileges of the bureaucracy and that strives to transfer real power to the\nhands of the working class and the oppressed. We must organize massive\nmobilizations and the legitimate self-defense of the people against the\nviolence of the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The experience of recent years shows that\nwe cannot have the slightest confidence in the Maduro government, the\nbureaucracy or the senior army officers if we want to prevent the victory of\nthe reaction. It has been Maduro\u2019s policies, his bureaucracy and his corruption\nthat have opened the way to the right wing and the coup. The only way to avoid\na tragic result for the working class and the people of Venezuela is to raise a\nunited front of the left, completely independent of those who have caused this disaster,\nto openly fight for the conquest of power to establish a democratic\nadministration of the workers\u2019 and exploited people, based on direct democracy\nin all aspects of social and economic life, that advance an economic plan,\nthrough the expropriation of capitalists and the management and democratic\ncontrol of workers, to create employment and increase production and the social\nconquests won previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no time to lose. Massive\nresistance must be waged against the blow of reaction and imperialism with mass\nmobilization from below, raising a revolutionary socialist and internationalist\nprogram. The peoples and the working class of the whole world, beginning with\nthose of Latin America, have the duty to reject the bloodbath that the\nrightwing coup and its international mentors are preparing. Only the working\npeople can save the people!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The situation in Venezuela has reached a critical point<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[148,124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"category-news"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/5c376b9109219-600x319.jpg\")
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