https://themilitant.com/2019/02/02/us-hands-off-venezuela-stop-threats-against-cuba/
SWP STATEMENT
US hands off Venezuela! Stop threats against Cuba!
Vol. 83/No. 6
February 11, 2019
The following statement was released by Seth Galinsky, Socialist Workers
Party candidate for New York City Public Advocate, Jan. 30.
The U.S. government — backed by Democrats and Republicans alike — has
unilaterally declared the government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela
“illegitimate” and turned its U.S. bank accounts over to self-proclaimed
“president” Juan Guaidó. Washington is calling on the Venezuelan
military to overthrow Maduro’s government. And the U.S. rulers are
spewing slanders about the Cuban internationalist volunteers in
Venezuela. With shameless cynicism, they claim to be acting in the name
of “democracy.”
The Socialist Workers Party condemns this blatant violation of the
sovereignty of Venezuela. Only the people of Venezuela have the right to
decide their own future, free of outside meddling and interference.
Washington claims it has the right to decide which governments are
“legitimate” and which are not. This is nothing new. Since the
Spanish-American War in 1898, every U.S. administration, no matter which
party was in the White House, has overthrown governments in Latin
America and around the world that weren’t to the capitalist rulers’ liking.
Working people in Venezuela face a real challenge. Despite the banner of
the Maduro government that it was building “21st century socialism,” the
fact is that working people in Venezuela never took political and
economic power out of the hands of the capitalist class. Battered by the
capitalist crisis, with no leadership pointing a working-class road
forward, many have become demoralized or have left the country.
Washington knows this full well. Together with its imperialist and
capitalist allies, the U.S. government is taking advantage of the
economic and political crisis facing Venezuela’s toilers to try to get
what it wants — a regime totally under the thumb of U.S. imperialism.
And they are using the crisis in Venezuela to prepare new attacks
against the Cuban Revolution.
The Cuban Revolution shows the only way forward for workers and farmers
around the world. On Jan. 1, 1959, a massive popular insurrection swept
Cuba in response to the call by Fidel Castro and the Rebel Army for a
general strike. They ousted the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship and
brought to power a government of workers and farmers, and created a new
kind of army out of the rebel forces, based on working people.
At crucial turning points — like the U.S. invasion at the Bay of Pigs,
Cuba’s massive response to the request from the newly independent
Angolan government for military help against the invasion by apartheid
South Africa, and the loss of most of its trade when the Stalinist
regime in the Soviet Union collapsed — Cuba’s revolutionary leadership
and government responded. They mobilized the masses and told the truth
about the challenges they faced. They organized to increase the
understanding, class consciousness, self-confidence and discipline of
the island’s workers and farmers. Working people proved they are capable
of organizing society in the interest of the vast majority.
This is what remains ahead of workers and farmers in Venezuela, like in
the U.S. and the rest of the capitalist world. Working people in
Venezuela need time and space to be able to forge a leadership in
struggle that can organize them to take political power into their own
hands. Working people the world over should demand that Washington and
its allies stop violating the sovereignty of Venezuela and stop their
relentless attacks against Cuba.
U.S. hands off Venezuela! End the U.S. embargo of Cuba!
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In This Issue
Front Page Articles •US hands off Venezuela! Stop threats against Cuba!
•Davos Forum marks political crises afflicting capitalist rulers
•Virginia teachers march over low wages, school conditions
•‘I want to join your campaign!’ SWP gets hearing in Texas working class
•Chicago, DC meetings celebrate 60 years of Cuba’s revolution
•Coal miners face rise in scourge of deadly black lung disease
Feature Articles •Cuban leader pays tribute to José Ramón Fernández
Also In This Issue •Kurdish protesters push back against Sulaymaniyah
censors
•‘Militant’ winter special appeal wins contributions
•SWP candidate campaigns for abortion, prisoners’ rights
•‘Amnesty for immigrants is key question for working-class unity’
•US rulers move to oust Maduro government in Venezuela
25, 50 and 75 years ago
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Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind
and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says
everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the
fallibility of all the human beings involved?”
― Carl Sagan
