UNISON seeks peaceful resolution in Venezuela

Statement by UNISON
6 February 2019

UNISON has called on the government to promote dialogue to foster a peaceful solution to the Venezuelan crisis, instead of stoking tensions.

The UK has joined a number of countries, including Germany, France, Spain, the US, Canada and several Latin American countries, in endorsing Juan Guaidó, Venezuelan opposition leader and president of the national assembly, who has declared himself interim president of Venezuela.

UNISON is concerned at the escalation of international interference, including the possibility of military intervention, in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation.

The union vehemently rejects a militarised solution to this crisis; the people of Latin America have not forgotten the history of US-backed military rule in the region.

UNISON believes that Venezuelans need to resolve their differences through constructive dialogue and democratic processes, without resorting to violence.

International intervention risks intensifying existing political divisions and inflaming tensions that are the consequence of the severe social and economic crisis facing the country.

UNISON calls on the government to abstain from seeking regime change and intervening in the sovereign affairs of Venezuela. Instead, the UK should promote stability through constructive dialogue with the international community.

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CUPE Statement on the situation in Venezuela

Canadian Union of Public Employees
January 25, 2019

On January 23, Juan Guaidó, Venezuelan opposition leader and president of their national assembly, declared himself to be the interim national president of Venezuela.

The Canadian government was one of the first governments in the world to declare support for Juan Guaidó. In doing so, they have chosen to side with a self-declared leader over President Nicolás Maduro, who was duly elected by the people of Venezuela. They have also chosen to side with Donald Trump and US foreign policy.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) rejects any attempt by the Canadian government to interfere with the democratic processes and sovereignty of the Venezuelan people. Given the history of US involvement in the region, the actions of Guaidó have all the signs of a coup d’Etat. We warn Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against playing any role in bringing about regime change in another country.

The people of Venezuela have the right to determine their economic and political future. CUPE believes Canada has an important role to play in the ongoing crisis in Venezuela, by providing humanitarian support. We also believe Canada should engage with the international community to foster dialogue and peace between the elected government and the opposition.

CUPE offers our solidarity to the Venezuelan people.

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Workers Uniting: Our Statement on Venezuela's Unelected President

January 25, 2019

Workers Uniting joins the democratic trade unions of the Western Hemisphere, represented in the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas, in condemning the US-led recognition of an unelected opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, as president of Venezuela. Workers Uniting also condemns the actions of the governments of the UK, Canada and other countries that have slavishly followed the US lead.

Over the past 20 years the US has endeavoured to destabilise Venezuela with economic warfare and a financial blockade in their attempt to assert its influence and control over the oil, gold and mineral-rich country. These actions, which clearly violate international law, now culminate in the recognition of an unelected opposition leader as president of the country - effectively a right-wing coup attempt.

Workers Uniting strongly condemns the US threat of military action and its attempt to add Venezuela to the list of state sponsors of terrorism in order to justify such action.

The problems and difficulties that exist in Venezuela must be resolved democratically by the Venezuelan people, free from outside coercion. We encourage the international community to follow the initiative of Mexico and Uruguay to promote a new process of inclusive and credible negotiations with full respect for the rule of law and human rights.

Workers Uniting is the global union - representing more than two million workers in Canada, Ireland, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States - formed by UNITE the Union, the United Steelworkers, and the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalúrgicos, Siderúrgicos y Similares de la República Mexicana (Los Mineros).

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Congress of South African Trade Unions condemns the coup attempt in Venezuela

A statement issued by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU)

COSATU condemns the imperialist attack fostered mainly by the United State government, under the helm of Donald Trump, to overthrow the constitutionally elected government through a coup d'état.

Venezuela has, for while, been at the receiving end of multi-forms of aggression and economic sabotage spearheaded by the US. The most recent aggression comes after the US refusal to recognise the legitimate electoral process that took place in May 2018. This despite the fact that everything was done in accordance with the laws and norms that govern the Venezuelan electoral system.

COSATU stands firmly in solidarity with the people of Venezuela in their struggle to assert their national independence, right to self-determination and justice. We implore Venezuela to never surrender the rights of its People and the resources of its territory to the will or caprice of foreign powers.

The federation also calls on the governments of the world and all progressive forces to speak out and wage a fight against the United States of America. This is the time for strengthened solidarity networks in defence of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in ensuring that their self-determination and their own kind of democracy prevails.

We offer our solidarity to the leadership of the Bolivarian revolution led by President Nicolas Maduro, who is under attack from the imperialist forces and their internal rightwing agents.

Issued by COSATU

Sizwe Pamla (Cosatu National Spokesperson)
Tel: 011 339 4911
Fax: 011 339 5080
Cell: 060 975 6794

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South African Federation of Trade Unions condemns Trump’s plan for coup in Venezuela

February 7, 2019

The South African Federation of Trade Unions strongly condemns the attempt by the forces of international capitalism to instigate a regime change in Venezuela and urges all workers to join the international protests now being organised.

US president Trump, Brazilian president Bolsonaro and Argentinian president Macri, along with other right-wing governments, have backed and recognized the self-appointed ‘interim’ president, the right-wing opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

This was clearly part of a pre-planned, coordinated intervention, led by Trump and US imperialism to carry through a coup and remove incumbent elected president Nicolás Maduro from power.

This brazen intervention by Trump was followed by European governments, arrogantly demanding that Maduro call fresh elections within eight days.

Trump has “ruled nothing out” and hinted at military intervention if Maduro refuses to step down. The bloody nature of Trump’s intervention is made clear by appointing Elliot Abrams as special envoy to Venezuela. Abrams was convicted for his involvement in arming the ‘Contras’ – paramilitary forces in Nicaragua – in the 1980s.

These western imperialists condemn the Maduro government but have collaborated and supported brutal regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and military dictatorships in Chile, Argentina and Brazil.

It is possible that the attempted coup will not succeed in forcing Maduro out, because it is reported that Trump has failed to secure the first elementary requirement for a successful coup: ensuring the military is on your side!

The military high command are said to be remaining with Maduro, though this could change, or divisions could rapidly open up, if it appears that the regime faces the prospect of being overthrown or imploding.

Should these forces succeed in Venezuela, the repression and attacks that workers and socialists are currently suffering will dramatically worsen. Any right-wing regime coming to power to replace Maduro will enact revenge on the working class and socialists. It will mean privatisation, austerity and frontal attacks on the workers and the poor.

If Trump does carry out his threat to intervene militarily it would mean even greater repression of workers.

An economic and social catastrophe is engulfing Venezuela. GDP collapsed by 35% between 2013 and 2017, a greater collapse than in the US depression between 1929 and 1933, when it fell by 28%. IMF predictions indicate that hyper-inflation will soar to up to 10,000,000% this year, making wages worthless.

This economic collapse that has wiped out the gains in healthcare, education and other areas introduced by the Hugo Chávez-led government.

An estimated 90% of Venezuelans live in poverty. Hunger and starvation have returned, and the crime rate is soaring in the major cities. An estimated three million people have fled the country – about 10% of the population – in the largest refugee crisis in Latin American history!

This catastrophe has enabled Guaidó to mobilise not only the middle class but also sections of the working class and poor who had previously supported Chávez and, until recently, were prepared to ‘give Maduro a chance’.  Now, out of despair and desperation, some workers from former Chávez strongholds have joined pro-Guaidó protests.

This extremely explosive and unstable situation, against the background of a social collapse and disintegration, has provided the ruling class with a weapon to try and discredit socialism.

But it is not socialism that has failed but the attempt to introduce reforms in a top-down bureaucratic manner, while remaining within a ‘mixed’ capitalist economy, in which economic power remained in the hands of the capitalist class who are now plotting to reimpose their dictatorship.

This has important lessons for South African, where workers are faced with an economic and social catastrophe because of the failure of the ANC government to transform the ownership of the economy but to leave economic power in the hands of the white, monopoly capitalist  exploiters.

SAFTU fully agrees with NUMSA’s view, that:

“It is our duty to do all we can to defend the gains of the working class majority and the poor of Venezuela. We call on all our comrades locally and abroad to give their full support and to do all they can to defend democracy.”

Zwelinzima Vavi, SAFTU Gen

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Trinidad and Tobago: YES TO NON-INTERFERENCE; NO TO THE INVASION OF VENEZUELA!

A statement issued by the National Workers Union
January 25, 2019

The National Workers Union (NWU) calls on the people of Trinidad and Tobago to pay serious attention to the ongoing fast climaxing creeping coup that has been taking place in Venezuela orchestrated and financed by the government of the United States.

It has already had a serious impact on Trinidad and Tobago and which, if it continues, as all indications suggest it will, promises to be a game changer in Latin America and the Caribbean and for Trinidad and Tobago in particular.

Our country has always adopted in times like these a stance of non-intervention in the political affairs of sovereign countries, just as we would desire other countries, whether great powers or not, to refrain from interfering in our political affairs.

The NWU urges the Rowley administration to hold fast to that principle, which we applied to our relationship with Cuba, in the face of opprobrium from the United States in the 1970s. We urge the Rowley administration to recall that the government of Trinidad and Tobago resisted the pressure from the Reagan administration and many Caricom heads of government and did not participate in the shameful assault on Grenada in 1983.

The danger of war is looming large in the Caribbean. This possibility becomes a frightening probability if the masses and the military in Venezuela do not follow the script penned by the USA.

We must remember as David Rudder said that we are in the Orinoco mouth and any military assault on Venezuela will affect us in that the USA will have no qualms about violating our sovereignty in order to carry out its assault on Venezuela. T&T is the ideal staging post for sabotage, surveillance and even the massing of troops and material in case of war.

We must remember that T&T had the biggest American base in the Western Hemisphere during the Second World War and that the treaty giving the USA the right to operationalise that base is still in force and only lapses in the late 2030s. So any invasion of Venezuela may also result in an occupation of T&T.

If as some people believe that our analysis is alarmist, just remember that the USA has been engaged in never-ending wars since the end of World War II. Over the last few years the USA has implemented military action in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya where they murdered Gaddafi, turned Libya into a number of warring factions which resulted in a massive refugee crisis form which Europe is reeling and revived a human trafficking trade that is no different to slavery.

The Russian government has already warned the United States not to intervene militarily and this raises the possibility of the Venezuelan situation morphing into a wider war as hyper-military powers square off or it may have the effect of making the US think twice.

The people of T&T must not allow the government to succumb to the, admittedly, overwhelming pressure that may be applied by the declining superpower to support their position. We must insist that the government hold fast to the position that they have publicly expressed and act in the best interests of Trinidad and Tobago and not act as pawns in the effort of a declining, but militarily dangerous superpower, to maintain its dominance in the face of challenges from fast-rising militarily powerful adversaries.

Further massive continued destabilisation of Venezuela which already impacts Trinbago and foreign military intervention will create chaos and economic, military and social problems never before experienced in our country.

- END -

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:


Gerry Kangalee (National Education and Research Officer – Cell: 785-7637)

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