No to the Meddling by Donald Trump and the European Union !

Hands Off Venezuela!

Dear comrades,

In a few days, 30 July, the elections to the Constituent Assembly called by president Nicolás Maduro will be held in Venezuela.

The supporters of the ILC in Venezuela, militants and unionists organised in an organisation called the “Labour and Youth Collective”, have sent us the following communiqué:

“The United States has publicly taken responsibility for the offensive, along with the allied and subordinate governments that amplify and support its position on Venezuela. The message is clear: they want to pursue their offensive by economic sanctions, the objective being to further turn the screw, that’s to say, to the point of jamming the workings of the Venezuelan economy. It has been shown in broad daylight in the different declarations by the president of the United States, Donald Trump. And to this end they have resorted to several mechanisms of pressure.

On the economic front: the attempts to block pathways of importation of food destined for local resupply and production committees, which are a tool used by the government to ensure that families have access to food staples at a just price. There is also the international economic pressure and the participation of the Venezuelan Federation of Chambers of Commerce (Fedecá- maras) – the grande bourgeoisie – while reserves of food and medicine are being burned as well as food transport trucks.

In the political domain: it is the Venezuelan opposition at this time that goes forward with its attempt to install a parallel government; and to this end, the National Assembly has made its own magistrates swear an oath to form the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (all of whom are publicly marked as opposed to the government), and the Mesa de Unidad Democrática (“Demo- cratic Unity Roundtable”, the opposition) has announced that it will choose the president of the “unity government” through primaries; it has even already presented the program of the new government.

And to consolidate this “national unity government”, MUD relies on extremely violent means such as the atrocious act of burning people alive, completely blocking access to opposition zones, making incursions into working class areas with shock troops, laying siege to public institutions, hospitals, television channels – such as VTV, radio stations and community access television –, with the use of guns, mortars, Molotov cocktails, and assault weapons (AR15) inbroad daylight in several places. They thus fire on state security forces and barracks, all of which is accompanied by the permanent call addressed to the officers of the armed forces to “rise up against the government”. They also do not hesitate to intimidate and assassinate “Chavists” (or those who could be taken for such because of their skin colour or their clothing). They have also succeeded in cutting off the systems of distribution of food and medicine in several cities.

Another domain greatly used in their attacks has been the that of communications: before the international community, they have legitimised all the violence deployed as just, heroic and necessary (…).

Another very important reason to vote this Sunday (30 July) is to respond to the threats by the president of the United States, who has had the audacity to demand the suspension of these elections. It is also the case for other organisations such as the European Union, Mercosur, and the governments of a few Latin American countries that, by their policy of submission regarding American initiatives, have joined this insolent meddling demand.

Finally, in this framework, the Labour and Youth Collective participates and supports the 79 worker candidates on the list of the Bolivarian Socialist Workers Central body (CBST) on which is presented Raúl Ordóñez, president of the Federation of water workers, militant in the Labour and Youth Collective and one of the signatories of the call for the 9th Open World Con- ference of the International Liaison Committee of workers and peoples (ILC).

For our part, we call all workers, their union organisation, the federations, the central union bodies, all the workers’ fronts, the delegates of social welfare and all the union currents to mobilise in a unified manner on the side of the power of the people, to struggle together for a Constituent Assembly that defends the sovereignty of the nation and amplifies the mechanisms of direct democracy and to consolidate and reinforce the social and labour rights of working people.

We now call to vote 30 July, to demonstrate to imperialism and its indigenous mercenaries our indestructible will to defend our homeland. So that they know, clearly: Venezuela is nobody’s backyard, it is a free and sovereign nation!”

The International Liaison Committee of workers and peoples, which is preparing the 9th Open World Conference in the coming months, faithful to its principles of internationalism, of the defence of the interests of workers, of the independence of their organisations and of the sovereignty of nations, makes this call known to all its correspondents, to the whole of the labour movement, to its organisations and to the movements of national emancipation throughout the world, with the aim of helping the Venezuelan nation, threatened by imperialist meddling.

The coordinators of the ILC:

Louisa Hanoune (Worker’s Party of Algeria)

Geoffrey Excoffon (Independent Workers’ Party – France)

Algiers, Paris, 27 July 2017