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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COSATU Statement on Israel bombings of Gaza - Do unto apartheid Israel what you did to apartheid South Africa

Congress of South African Trade Union
10 July 2014

On the night of the 8th July, 2014, Gaza woke up to the tremors of earth-shaking bombings by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). It is said since then more than 27 Palestinians, including more than 6 children amongst them, were killed and more than 200 have been injured as a result of the airstrikes by Israel. Dozens of homes have been demolished and several families lost relatives.

The Israeli cabinet has further authorised the reactivation of 40 000 army reservists in anticipation or signalling a possible ground offensive, to top up those already deployed in and around Gaza. How do we explain 60 airstrikes in one day?

The intensification of the mass arrests against Palestinians in various parts of the occupied territories, such as in West Bank where about 500 Palestinians have been arrested in a space of 3 weeks. Mohammed Abu Khdier a Palestinian child was kidnapped, tortured and burnt alive in Jerusalem. Mohammed is amongst millions of Palestinian children who have for years been murdered by the state of Israel in the name of self-protection against “terrorists”.

We firmly support the ANC statement that, “In line with our 2012 policy resolutions, that called on "all South Africans to support the programmes and campaigns of the Palestinian civil society which seek to put pressure on Israel", branches and structures of the ANC across the country will be joining the Palestine solidarity and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in organizing protests and pickets calling for the immediate end of Israeli violence against the Palestinian people. We call on all South Africans, Black, White, Jewish, Muslim, Christian and all others to join us in expressing our solidarity. Solidarity will bring us together as different South Africans just as how the international anti-apartheid movement brought people together”.

It is only those who have lost their humanity who cant feel or share in the pain felt by the suffering people of Palestine from the barbaric and savage attacks by what has become the most acceptable, deliberate and legalised murder and deliberate violation of international law by a country.

Israel is only able to commit all these ruthless atrocities because of the licence from the US, EU and allies. The UN must be ashamed of itself for failing humanity and the people of Palestine, always pleading for restraint from the victim, equally. We cannot equate an aggressor to a victim or coloniser to a colonised. Nelson Mandela was also called a terrorist for fighting for freedom, hence the natural task of oppressed people to wage a liberation struggle and our natural responsibility is to support them.

We call on the international trade union movement, various civil society organisations, international religious bodies and even business to speak out against savagery and barbarism against fellow human beings. We support the call to recall South African ambassador to Israel, kick out the Israeli ambassador from South Africa and move with speed to decisively isolate Israel and all who sympathise with racism and Zionist occupation all over the world.

Now is the time for the world to stop words of pity and lamentation, but take action by doing what it did to apartheid South Africa when its policies were declared a crime against humanity. Indeed, apartheid remains a crime against humanity wherever it happens. If apartheid cant outrage us, our humanity is called into question and our morality is hollow.

Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Streets
Braamfontein
2017

P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa

Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct 010 219-1339
Fax: +27 11 339-6940
Mobile: +27 82 821 7456
E-Mail: patrick@cosatu.org.za

- See more at: http://www.cosatu.org.za

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Syria: The extermination of the people in revolt - The regime’s chemical weapons

Statement of the Revolutionary Left Current,
21 August 2013
Damascus.
Reposted from International Viewpoint

The dictatorial regime continues its policy of extermination of our people. Hundreds of Syrians, including a significant number of women and children, died in the early morning of August 21, 2013, the victims of weapons of extermination using toxic gases and the undeniable use of chemical weapons, in the neighbourhoods of eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, in the context of the most violent military attack by the regime carried out this morning on the areas in revolt.

For more than two years, the list of abuses and sacrifices suffered by the masses of our people has grown incessantly. It is impossible to count the hundreds of thousands of martyrs, the wounded, the imprisoned and the millions of exiles and refugees. The torture of our people continues. Their cries are lost in the air and a deadly silence engulfs human consciousness.

The massacre and coercion of our people continues, perpetrated by the machine of death and destruction of a regime which transcends fascism in its savagery. It is a tragedy that the world has not known in a long time, the tragedy of a people insurgent for its freedom and its liberation from the grip of a dictatorial regime, savage in its repression and in its exploitation of the oppressed of our country, in the service of the interests of a small bourgeois clique.

Our revolution has no sincere ally, except for the revolutions of the peoples of the region and the world and the militants who work to free themselves from obscurantist, oppressive and exploitative regimes.

This odious criminal act by the ruling clique against isolated civilians reflects cynicism about human life and this at the very moment when the counter revolutionary forces have begun to organise their attack against the revolutions at the regional level, led by Saudi Arabia and its allies. The regime will have found there an opportunity to commit its abominable massacre. Yet our people, in revolt and determined, tested by their wounds, will continue their resistance against the criminal tyrants, will defeat them and punish them as they deserve for their crimes.

We will bury our dead and tend to our wounded. We will be more determined and resolute in our struggle for the fall of the murderous and predatory regime and the victory of our popular revolution.

For the building of a Syria of freedom, justice, equality and social justice!

Neither Washington, nor Moscow!

Neither Riyadh, nor Teheran!

Glory to the martyrs! Recovery to the wounded!

Victory to the popular revolution!`

All power and all wealth to the people!

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