Venezuela – the hidden agenda
What lies behind the barrage of misinformation about Venezuela emenating from the imperialist media?
When trying to understand what is happening in Venezuela, it is hard for the impartial observer to reach a balanced conclusion – because there is a dearth of basic objective information.
One has to contend with a steady stream of one-sided propaganda emanating from from the USA’s conservative elite, and the mainstream corporate capitalist media. That campaign is aimed at demonising the Bolivarian revolution, and its inspirer Hugo Chávez.
Since his demise, the black propaganda has switched seamlessly to denouncing Nicolás Maduro, who we are led to believe is among the world’s ‘great dictators’. We note that Jeremy Corbyn, supposed ‘left-wing’ leader of the British Labour party, was put under enormous pressure to jump on that bandwagon and, lamely, the best he could muster was to “denounce and abhor violence on all sides”.
This pious pacifist sentimentalism does nothing to defend the workers of Venezuela and their hard-fought revolutionary gains from the warmongering US and British capitalists, who are so keen to manufacture a ‘humanitarian’ reason to invade Venezuela.
It does nothing to inform British workers about who their enemies and friends are, and the position they should take on the question. It is a wretched and cowardly statement that tells us much of what we can expect of Corbyn’s principles and a ‘Corbyn’ Labour government.
Maduro, so far from being a ‘dictator’, is a worker turned politician. He was formerly a bus driver and union organiser. Maduro has reluctantly taken over the mantle of leadership at the request of his comrade-in-arms, Hugo Chávez, and of his party, the PSUV, and he is unquestionably advancing the interests of the labouring masses of Venezuela.
It is precisely for this reason that such a concerted attempt is being made to overturn President Maduro’s leadership, and the leadership of the PSUV.
Chávez himself pointed out that Venezuela was fundamentally important to the economy of the US, with its huge oil reserves situated so geographically close to the USA’s all-consuming market. Throughout its history, therefore, any independent Venezuelan government seeking to use the country’s wealth for its own development has been illegally overthrown by the US overlord.
This in fact is the precise meaning of the US imperialists’ Monroe doctrine of the 1850s. Not that the USA would guarantee the freedom of the American hemisphere against European colonialism, but that the USA considered itself the principle colonial power in the western hemisphere.
In fact, the US was already reaching beyond the Americas, and today considers itself the ‘world’s policeman’; the chief colonial exploiter of the entire world.
This documentary gives a first-hand account of the Venezuelan people’s struggle for independence, starting with the struggle of Hugo Chávez, a military officer of working-class origin who was incensed by his country’s usurpation; and leading us through the rise and enlightenment of the Venezuelan masses.
This documentary is reproduced with the kind permission of the filmmakers, and was showed at the Venezuelan Embassy in London on 2 March 2018. Essential viewing – please watch and share.
