New York Young Communist League's statement against U.S. Imperialism. Hands off Venezuela!
In the early hours of January 3rd, the United States military (as directed by Donald Trump, the self-proclaimed “President of Peace”), launched a violent attack on Venezuela, including its capital city Caracas, home to more than 3 million people. Families woke up terrified, desperately running for cover.
Trump’s mission? To illegally kidnap Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, leader and former deputy, Cilia Flores. In addition to being a blatant violation of domestic and international law, these attacks — currently being celebrated as a gesture of “liberation” for the Venezuelan people — are nothing but a cynical attempt to undermine the sovereignty and self-determination of a foreign nation for the purpose of seizing their natural resources; another act of aggression in a decades-long pattern of the United States intervening in the affairs of Latin American countries to further its extractive agenda. Internationally, trust in the United States declines rapidly as it tightens its grip, even on countries once considered allies.
Trump claims that total U.S. control of Venezuela’s government and oil will “free” the Venezuelan people. But the primary beneficiaries of this attack will be corporations including ExxonMobil and Chevron. The government is selling out our schools, our healthcare, and our futures to fund a violent agenda abroad and grow the wallets of oil executives. As the U.S. economy continues to worsen, another war is simply something we cannot afford.
To be clear, do not be fooled by the "kinder" face of the Democratic Party. While Republicans in power openly enact a flagrant coup, corporate Democrats in power merely prefer a different tactic – to slowly starve the Venezuelan people with sanctions – for the same imperialist goal of political surrender and regime change. They fund far-right opposition leaders and militaries abroad, pushing not for democracy, but for a government that will openly terrorize its citizens to fully hand over their country's resources to Wall Street.
Trump is already threatening to use the same playbook here at home: he calls for the deployment of more and more National Guard troops to enact federal control of U.S. cities, a grim warning that any community resisting MAGA’s fascist program will be brutally repressed. The policy of imperial aggression abroad is the same policy of the police state at home. We must unite and resist this blatant oppression!
To the working class:
The capitalist government will always fund forever wars while our cost of living skyrockets. They'll find BILLIONS for bombs, but not for housing, healthcare, or debt relief. These wars are paid for with our labor, our money, and our lives. When capitalism is in decay, it lashes out. It thinks full blown fascism and bloody violence can solve its crises. We are the generation that says NO MORE!
