Speech at Venezuela solidarity rally, Melbourne, January 4

Written by: Shirley Winton on 5 January, 2026

(Shirley Winton, member of the Australian Anti-AUKUS Coalition, speaking at the Melbourne rally on January 4.)

We stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela.  We condemn the US invasion and it taking control of this sovereign country and the abduction of their elected President Maduro.

We demand the US immediately leave Venezuela and return President Maduro and his wife to Venezuela.

The US has fabricated drug trafficking  and weapons trade by Maduro as pretext for the murderous invasion and coup of sovereign Venezuela to seize its rich oil reserves for US oil corporations.  Yet the world’s biggest drug traffickers and weapons runners are US imperialism and its oil and weapons corporations.  It is unfolding as a repeat of US invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of weapons of mass destruction to seize Iraq’s oil for US oil corporations.  The latest desperate action is a sign of economically weakening US empire.

This is the naked face of US imperialism.  From Venezuela and Latin America, to Palestine, Middle East to South East Asia and the Pacific, US is the biggest danger and threat to peoples of the world.

Yet our Labor government dutifully follows US imperialism, turning Australia into a US military base, taking away $368 billion of public funds from people’s social needs – housing, health care, child care, aged care – to fund AUKUS and prop up the US empire, and will lock Australia into a disastrous US-led war with China. 

We must unite and resist the scourge of US imperialism where ever it raises its head.  

We demand Albanese government condemns the US invasion and taking control of sovereign Venezuela and its oil, and demands immediate release of Venezuelan president Maduro and his wife.

Yankee Go Home!  must echo around the country.  

US out of Venezuela, out of Latin America, out of Palestine and the Middle East, out of Asia-Pacific!

Yankee out of Australia! – Break the US-Australia Alliance, Cancel AUKUS, Close Pine Gap and all US military bases in Australia!

Victory to people of Venezuela!  Victory to people of the world fighting colonialism, imperialism and capitalism.

The UN is a toothless tiger.  The fight lies with united working people of the world.

The fight to scrap AUKUS, end US alliance and throw the US out of Australia is Australian working people’s contribution to ridding the world of US imperialism.

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