Posted by: John Phoenix
British workers must organise themselves to stop the Nato war machine in its tracks.
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On Saturday 3 January 2026, US forces followed up months of provocations, piracy and naval blockade in the Caribbean by launching an entirely unprovoked bombing campaign against the peace-loving people and sovereign government of Venezuela.
Military and logistical sites were hit as the USA launched a nighttime raid on the president’s residence, which managed to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, murdering most of the presidential bodyguard in the process. The presidential couple have since been paraded through the streets of New York in a disgusting show of imperial hubris, and the gangsters have begun a risible ‘court process’, presenting trumped-up ‘narco-terrorism’ charges.
Nail in the coffin of the ‘international order’
This ludicrous ‘justification’ for naked, barbaric aggression is convincing nobody. Even tame western journalists have been moved to ask awkward questions about legality and jurisdiction as President Trump and his henchmen try to browbeat the world into repeating their story about a “law enforcement operation”. Indeed, our own prime minister squirmed uncomfortably when he was asked these questions, making it clear that while Britain will not stand up to the USA, this act has weakened the position of the entire imperialist bloc.
While attempting to prove that the USA remains an invincible power whose military and economic might cannot be withstood, the imperialists have actually highlighted the complete illegitimacy of a world order ruled by monopoly-finance tycoons. In the long run, this will only make it harder for the imperialist powers to maintain their rule at home and abroad. And in the short term, it will accelerate the development of alternative trade and finance mechanisms for the global majority, including the quest for a new system of international security that bypasses the US-controlled United Nations.
Few today are surprised to find the imperialist-in-chief launching aggressive wars in violation of the international law it claims to uphold. Former Serbian defence minister Aleksandar Vulin correctly pointed out that Washington is trying to repeat what the Nato bloc did to Yugoslavia in 1999, stating that while that US-led aggression tried to kill his country, it instead “killed international law”.
The bombing of a UN member state and the abduction of its president serves as a warning to countries without nuclear weapons, he said: either arm yourself until you are too costly to attack, or abandon any hope of pursuing an independent path. The history of the DPRK provides strong proof of his assertion.
Oil and the petrodollar
As in the case of his government’s recent failed regime-change operation against Iran, President Trump was shameless in making clear the real motivations for the attack, somewhat prematurely announcing that the USA would be installing a new government to run the country’s oil industry for the benefit of US oil corporations.
US refineries were set up to process the kind of heavy crude oil that Venezuela produces, and which is getting harder for them to acquire. The USA’s own strategic reserves of this fuel have been drastically reduced in recent years as the government has worked to avoid the civil unrest that would arise from high fuel costs.
Even more worryingly for the USA, Venezuela has successfully diversified its economy to feed its people, and also created a complete sanctions-bypassing mechanism that is enabling it to transport oil out of the country and receive payment outside the US-controlled Swift system – thus demonstrating to the world that trade in dollars is no longer a necessary condition for selling oil. It has also signed a development deal with China that will enable the restoration and modernisation of facilities that have been damaged by US sanctions over the last decade.
With the global capitalist economy teetering on the brink of a massive meltdown, an over-inflated AI bubble that could burst at any moment, and unprecedented levels of government and corporate debt, the ability to print dollars and export inflation is the only thing standing between the US ruling class and total systemic failure. Moreover, the plan to restore profitability by looting Russia has completely backfired, resulting in a further weakening of Nato’s economies and powers of military coercion.
Hence the imperialists’ desperation to stop the rise of the anti-imperialist bloc, with China at its head, by any means necessary.
Psychological warfare
The USA is also using propaganda methods to wage a psyop that aims to confuse and demoralise the Venezuelan masses and demobilise their supporters around the world.
Rumours are swirling about sell-outs from within the administration and army, yet there is as yet no evidence of any such thing. While western and social media channels endlessly repeat imperialist assertions, the vice-president has been sworn in as interim leader and the government has called on the people to mobilise. Masses of citizens have taken to the streets in a show of support for the Bolivarian Revolution and the Chavista government.
Media outlets which want to show ‘support’ for regime change are publishing pictures of small groups living outside the country. There is little evidence of such scenes taking place within the country, where the mood has remained calm yet determined.
All the signs are that the military remains overwhelmingly loyal to the revolution, despite the many and varied incentives and threats offered by successive US regimes over 26 years. The best indicator of this continued loyalty is the Trump regime’s inability to platform an alternative military leadership at its press briefings.
Moreover, the government in Caracas long ago made a point of supplementing its regular armed forces and police with a large people’s militia, which has recently mobilised to an unprecedented degree. Millions of Venezuelans are now under arms and, with the slogan ‘Loyal always, traitors never!’ on their lips, stand ready to defend themselves and their country, whether or not their rightful president is returned to them.
For all the savage threats and theatrical proclamations of the Trump regime, this is a fact that cannot be brushed aside by Hollywood narratives or Trumpian bravado.
Nato is losing the military and economic wars against Russia and China. It has failed to destroy the resistance in Gaza, Lebanon and Yemen. It has failed to topple the Iranian, Cuban and DPRK governments, or to bring down the revolutionary Sahel states.
But it will remain dangerous to workers at home and abroad so long as it is unopposed in its rear. British workers must now seriously organise themselves to stop the suicidal drive into WW3.
No cooperation with the criminal imperialist war machine!
Death to imperialism!
Free President Maduro!
Victory to the Venezuelan people!
El pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido!
We demand:
- The immediate release of President Nicolás Maduro, the only legitimate president of Venezuela.
- The release of Venezuela’s $1.4bn gold reserves, which were stolen by the Bank of England in 2018.
- An end to British involvement in all forms of collective punishment and economic sanctions.
- A new system of international relations that genuinely protects the sovereignty of every nation.
- A mass campaign of non-cooperation with all aspects of the imperialist war machine.
- The building of a mass anti-fascist, anti-zionist and anti-imperialist antiwar movement in Britain.
- The disbanding of the criminal and aggressive Nato military alliance, which is spreading fascism and war across the globe.
- The dismantling of the imperialist colour-revolution machine, which is unleashed on any country that tries to use its resources for development.
- The rebuilding of our trade unions on a democratic and popular basis in order to achieve the above, and to fight for decent jobs, pay, pensions and services at home.
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Find out more about the need for a mass campaign of non-cooperation to stop the war machine.