Venezuela and Australia, we’ll fight for our independence and we’ll win!

Written by: (Contributed) on 6 January 2026

 

(Above: Lindy Nolan.  Photo credit Peter Boyle)

As a low flying police helicopter roared overhead for 45 minutes to silence Sydney’s rally for Venezuela on Sunday evening, ex-high school teacher, Spirit of Eureka’s Lindy Nolan, roared back. Part of nationwide snap rallies, right now Sydney is the sharp end of fascism’s rise.

The helicopter was deliberately used as a weapon to unsettle people. Fortunately, it was unable to fly as low or deafeningly as police helicopters inflicted on western Sydney from 7am to 11pm during Covid lockdown, a practice run for wider lockdowns.

Since Sunday, Trump’s words have backed the actions. Rubio may dress it up as a police operation, but the US aims to run Venezuela and steal its resources. 

Speaker after speaker reinforced this, and US imperialism’s other targets, Colombia and Cuba first in line. It gives great scope for building wider unity as the veil of legality is torn away.

Defiance

As first speaker, Lindy set the tone of defiance and the demand for independence that resounded around the country.

“Great to see everybody here today! We’re seeing an old playbook – allegations, blockade, crash the economy, divide the people, come in for the kill. Iraq, Iran, Gaza. 

“Then you’ve got the online trolls, ‘We want the US to take our oil, because China was already taking it.’ She was interrupted by police demands that protesters clear more of the footpath.

She continued, “I’ll keep shouting. Here’s how much is getting out. The biggest oil reserves in the world, their exports were worth $4 billion in 2023. Saudi Arabia’s were worth $181 billion, the US $125 billion, Russia $122 billion. How much have they been exporting? It’s been crushed by the blockade.” 

(Now the media is reporting these facts, speaking of rundown Venezuelan infrastructure and thick, hard-to-drill oil. But barely a word about nine years of destructive US sanctions. And Monday night’s NSW ABC news is further complicit in lies, because it showed people dragged from the rally, without saying they were right wing men who barged in nearly knocking people over. Its coverage made it seem as if they were supporters of Venezuela.)

New legislation means NSW police can extend bans on rallies for months. The Commissioner is relishing the new power, and has not ruled out using it to stop the Invasion Day rally and march. While Sydney is the current focus, First Peoples have always been on the sharpest end of imperialist rule.

When too much oil is never enough for the USA

Ms Nolan bellowed, “And on oil, Chevron’s been here in our country for years, because we have the same enemies. They’re already allowed in Venezuela. For decades, they paid no tax here. In 2023, on a $9.2 billion revenue, they paid $30 tax! 

“Then in 2024 we finally had a tax crackdown. And they’re boasting, ‘We’re paying $4.64 billion tax and for royalties’ – “That’s for our product, that’s our oil!” she roared –  ‘we’re paying $195 million.’ 

“They paid $3 a barrel, sold for $60 a barrel, 20 times more, 2000 percent more, they sell it for than we give it to them! And on top of that the Australian Government has to pay $500 million for the cleanup of their wells because they’ve nearly taken it all, and the WA Government $129 million for cleaning up their offshore wells.

“And drugs,” she bellowed, “We all know it’s a lie. Even the US National Intelligence and Drug Enforcement Agencies know it’s a lie. Oh! Who started this problem of fentanyl? An American company, headed by the Sackler family. They’ve killed half a million of their own people! Not one of them is in jail. And in 2023 they were given immunity from civil suits. And they’re still worth $10 billion!

Get out of our country! Get out of Venezuela!

“That’s who the US stands for. Corporate profits! Stealing other peoples’ resources. And we pay for the privilege. 

“People here, and in the US are homeless and hungry. Hospitals, schools and all the other things people need are shortchanged. Teachers, nurses, doctors, cleaners – they hold the system together. Workers hold it together. But we’re paying $30 million a day for the next forty years for AUKUS’s outdated submarines that will offer us no defence … and we still pay! 

“We’ve got US military bases all over this country, in every state. We get no defence from it.

“We say, ‘Bugger off! Get out of our country! Get out of Venezuela! Get out of every other country you’ve invaded!

“We don’t want your wars!

“We like your people.

“We don’t like your corporations! We don’t like their US governments! They’re a bunch of warmongers.

“Like Venezuela, we want our independence.

“We need our independence!!!

“We’ll fight for it. And we will win!!!”

 

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