US IMPERIALIST ATTACK ON VENEZUELA SHOWS NEED FOR COMMUNIST REVOLUTION

Whose Oil? here ♦ No Blood for Oil here ♦

The Oil Belongs to the International Working Class

January 6— “The United States will govern Venezuela,” declared Donald Trump on the day US forces captured Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro. “Our very big oil companies are going to go there and fix the oil infrastructure and start making money.” Trump claimed that these countries built Venezuela’s oil industry and “the socialist regime stole it from us.”
Many worldwide responded that “It’s Venezuela’s oil!” We disagree. The International Communist Workers’ Party believes that the world’s resources belong to the international working class. It’s our labor that gives them value. That makes them available for use.
Only through communist revolution – not socialism, not nationalism – can our class gain control over our lives and work. Only in communism can we collectively decide how best to use natural resources and our labor to meet the needs of the masses. “From all according to ability and commitment, to all according to need.”

Communism Versus Nationalism

“We, as communists, condemn without reservation the US imperialist invasion of Venezuela,” declared a comrade in El Salvador. “The response can be neither support for imperialism nor defense of the bourgeois government of Maduro responsible for the destruction of wages, the repression of workers’ struggles, the criminalization of the working class.”
Another comrade in El Salvador responded critically to friends who cheered for Maduro. “Imperialism does not liberate peoples: it plunders them, subjugates them, and massacres them. This marks the beginning of more capitalist aggressions against the working class, not only by the United States, but also by Russia, China, and Israel.”
He noted that this “new Monroe Doctrine” continued long-term US policies under both Democratic and Republican administrations, including the fascist “Operation Condor” (1975-1983).
A worker in the United States asked his former teacher, an ICWP member, about Venezuela. “It’s an attempt to seize the oil since they have lost control of Middle East oil. And to keep it away from China and Russia,” the comrade responded.
“It’s another step towards World War III. These Russian, American, Chinese imperialists are willing to kill millions of our brothers and sisters to stay in power. Damn them all! We need to mobilize the masses around the world for the communist revolution.
“It’s not enough to say, ‘hands off Venezuela’ or ‘we stand with the Venezuelan people,’” the comrade continued. We must all unite for the communist revolution.”
“That’s exactly what I think too,” the worker responded. “It’s theft and kidnapping to seize the oil and gain power.”
Maduro’s party has a mass base in Venezuela that will make direct US control difficult. This in spite of its repression of the impoverished workers. A comrade in South Africa struggled to understand why.
Another comrade compared Maduro’s mass base to that of the African National Congress. Workers in the townships no longer believe the empty promises of the nationalist and socialist parties. They are not won ideologically.
Instead, they are controlled by gangsters bought off with guns and money to terrorize the masses. “Multiply that by a thousand and you get Venezuela,” the comrade concluded.

Inter-Imperialist Conflict Will Sharpen

“Our dominance of the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump crowed.
But his illusions are buried under an avalanche of Chinese exports, loans, and infrastructure investments throughout Latin America. The inter-imperialist struggle will continue.
Chinese imperialists can afford to wait. They know Venezuela’s oil is difficult and expensive to extract. They spent $1 billion to set up one offshore oil rig there. And Chinese state capitalism can take bigger risks than US companies that look for quick, large returns on investment.
Meanwhile, Trump’s “spheres of influence” doctrine could untie the Russian rulers’ hands in Ukraine and the Chinese rulers’ hands around Taiwan.
Since 2017, Venezuela has sold oil in Chinese yuan. The US petrodollar, once the pillar of its global economic hegemony, has already toppled. Trump’s Venezuela adventure will show whether US military force can restore it.

Build the International Communist Workers’ Party

We must fight day by day to organize more workers in the International Communist Workers’ Party. Imperialism, nationalism, and jingoism can only be ended through organization in factories, barracks, hospitals, schools, and communities.
“This is a good opportunity to share the struggle against national ism with our friends and on the street, so they see more clearly the need of communism,” concluded a comrade. “More of these situations will arise. The masses will be more open to thinking politically.”
Red Flag is the spearhead. Let’s read and distribute this communist newspaper of the international working class!

No Blood for Oil!

CENTRAL CALIFORNIA (USA), January 3— Hundreds demonstrated in several cities to denounce the US military action in Venezuela. (Pictured: Los Gatos)
In San Jose, many took copies of Red Flag. The core organizers there have also helped to lead weekly protests against genocide in Gaza. Some have been reading Red Flag and ICWP’s Palestine pamphlet. One, from El Salvador, was very moved by the horrific atrocities in Gaza. She originally asked many questions about how communism could work. She had been very religious in El Salvador, but life in San Jose showed her that workers are the same everywhere.
Our international outlook impressed her. She and her friend from Jordan spent hours talking with us about ICWP’s work in Gaza and Israel. We got to know some people in Code Pink, who took a handful of Red Flag. They soon introduced us to an IT professional from Iran. This core group enabled us to struggle with dozens at the Venezuela rally and will help us expand Red Flag distribution to many more.

Read articles about Venezuela from Red Flag (2015-2019) here

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