VANGUARD - Expressing the viewpoint of the Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
For National Independence and Socialism • www.cpaml.org
From the Political Bureau of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Venezuela,
Caracas, January 2019
As the leadership of our party has been stating in various national and international documents and places, the fundamental contradictions are becoming sharper. This has been seen with greater impudence in recent days by the actions of the US government and its lackeys. Every moment the imperialist policy becomes clearer, which makes it possible to remove any possible doubt about the effects of the interventionist, aggressive and anti-popular action against the peoples of the world, of the region, and now against the Venezuelan people. These politics have caused serious damage to the economy and the population, relying for its implementation on the native bourgeoisie, the local and regional instrument that affects, more than any other, the working majorities.
The administration of the ultra-reactionary Trump has counted on the support of some sell-out governments that act against the right to self-determination, endorse the condemnable action of the puppet Almagro in the OAS, as well as of all the instruments at the service of the monopolies. Meanwhile they apply anti-people measures designed by the IMF to increase the exploitation and repression against the majorities in their countries. This makes it clearer every day to all revolutionaries on which side we should be at this moment.
The main contradiction in this regional situation is, in general, between imperialist oppression and the struggle for liberation from this dependence. In particular this becomes a struggle between imperialism, mainly US imperialism, which has traditionally maintained its domination, and the interests of the exploited majorities. They sometimes support reformist, revisionist projects and other times support the revolutionary line. This depends in large part on the application of the correct tactics, which for true communists is the line of the Third International. At 100 years since its foundation, this remains in full force, with the tactic that promotes the unity of forces to confront the great imperialist capital and the embryos of fascism, unifying the proletarians in the march towards the total liberation of the oppressed of the world.
In Venezuela, the struggle against the US-EU imperialist bloc is progressing well, with ever increasing direct struggles involving different social classes. Mainly this is expressed in the major media in the struggle between the traditional pro-Yankee bourgeoisie, which intends to retake control of the government at all costs, and a many-sided tendency, with manifestations of national demands. This has shown itself close to the China-Russia bloc, leaving the objective of the proletariat and the popular masses in second place. But we must state that we are on the street, in the main struggles, in the debate and mobilization. This opens up great possibilities to strengthen the popular line of struggle for national liberation and socialism. It poses an immense challenge to the forces revolutionary; we are working continuously to consolidate higher levels of organization and mobilization of the revolutionary popular movement.
We Marxist-Leninists have a duty to continue gaining the confidence of the people for the consolidation of the political current of class independence. This demands the accumulation of its own forces and in alliances to organize resistance against the US-EU imperialist bloc, as well as in the struggle to improve the living conditions of the popular majorities. This helps them to identify their enemies, capitalism and imperialism as its higher phase, as the cause of their hardship, as well as internal and foreign accomplices. The Venezuelan proletariat is advancing under various difficulties, being clear on the achievement of the strategic objectives of the working class, the peasants and the people, with a position of critical support together with demands on a government under attack by imperialism.
We are adjusting our tactics with the most objective view of the circumstances, and our party, from the very terrain of the struggle, has understood that we are not only living through a complex political situation, marked by the consequences of the economic crisis, an increasing imperialist aggression, but also by errors of past and present government policy, by weaknesses of the revolutionary movement. Despite this the revolutionary movement has grown over the past 20 years, but in addition to the present situation, there is a structural problem of the bourgeois state. This state has shown a process of decomposition, which can be seen in the inability of the contestants to subdue their opponent and emerge as a parallel power. This shows us that this conflict of the structural base will not be solved in the short term and that it opens the possibility for fundamental changes. That is why we must also work on the strategic perspective.
The events of these last days affirm our thesis on the decomposition of the State, as well as the role of the US-EU imperialist bloc and its lackeys. Even with contradictions, as a result of their internal struggles, they maintain a line of conduct to take advantage of the economic, political and social disturbances that Venezuela is experiencing, contributing to the process of decomposition of the State. This process is deepening every day, leading to a negotiation to distribute the country’s wealth among the imperialist powers, to foreign aggression, a coup d’état or even a revolutionary situation. This is a consequence of the struggle among the different tendencies in conflict and the emergence of popular actors, as happened at other periods in the history of the country.
Faced with these scenarios, which are leading to situations of violence, we call on all revolutionaries, patriots and democrats, on the workers of the world, on the peasants and worthy people, to prepare the conditions of concrete solidarity, being certain that the Venezuelan people are resisting and struggling. They will continue resisting and fighting under any scenario; the working class, we Marxist-Leninists and especially our party are working to organize the defense, based on the legitimacy of the actions that the proletariat will take to safeguard their interests and those of the majorities, convinced that the contradictions present in the region are creating the conditions for a struggle that is expanding, and to work for the unity of the working class and peoples on the basis of tactics of a regional character in order to confront the main and common enemy of our peoples without dispersing the forces by attacking scarecrows.
Socialism Is Only Built with the Worker-Peasant Alliance in Power and the People in Arms!