By Bhabani Shankar Nayak
US imperialism and its European allies are promoting a planetary crisis through an unprovoked attack on Venezuela, carried out under the pretext of controlling drug cartels and arresting its democratically elected president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. The American attack on Venezuela is not the first instance of Yankee imperialism seeking to seize a nation’s natural resources, nor will it be the last. The attack on Venezuela is an imperialist warning to all countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
From Cuba, Vietnam, and Korea to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, and Yugoslavia, American imperialism has devastated lives, livelihoods, peace, and prosperity across various regions of the world. American imperialists have been directly involved in approximately two hundred and thirty military conflicts and one hundred and ninety-three non-military interventions across the globe. The US manufactures conflicts to exploit people and their natural resources in order to uphold capitalism and conceal its systemic failures.
Imperialism is fundamentally opposed to the peaceful lives and prosperous livelihoods of ordinary people, as well as to global peace and stability. Imperialism relies on war and conflict as strategies to undermine democratic norms and forms alliances with reactionary, dictatorial, and religious fundamentalist forces to suppress populations and control their resources. US imperialism is pushing the world toward a third world war, dismantling democracy and peace while creating a permanent state of crisis to mask its own failures through military means. In this process, the working masses suffer the most, while the US military-industrial and corporate complex profits from death and destitution.
Therefore, the struggle against imperialism and the struggle for world peace are inseparable and constitute a common struggle. Only a united working-class movement can defeat imperialist designs and establish stability and order in the pursuit of deepening democracy and expanding peace and citizenship rights. The application of the historically successful united front strategy against imperialism is the call of the hour. The united front strategy is all about bringing together all peace-loving people into a common struggle against all forms of imperialism. Such a broad-based united front consists of both revolutionary and non-revolutionary individuals and their organisations, working collectively to halt and defeat the forward march of US imperialism, which threatens life on the planet. The working class is the primary victim of imperialist conflicts, suffering the loss of lives and livelihoods. So, it is in the fundamental interest of working people everywhere to resist and fight all forms of imperialism.
From the October Revolution to anti-colonial struggles and other successful revolutionary movements throughout history, united front tactics have been widely employed to ensure to achieve, uphold and celebrate freedom, peace and democracy while protecting interests of the working masses. The united front strategy must uphold the right to self-determination, the sovereignty of peoples to own, use, and distribute their natural resources, and a firm opposition to all forms of exploitative and oppressive regimes promoted by imperialism. The values of internationalism, world peace, and the united front strategy can serve as the three core agendas of the anti-imperialist struggle, aimed at upholding international solidarity, global peace, and democracy. If US imperialism is allowed to pursue its heinous agenda of capitalist governance—protecting American corporate interests by exploiting the natural resources of other countries and subduing people through reckless violence, wars, and conflicts—the world will face a bleak future in which individual freedom and democracy are buried. Standing with Venezuela and its people today means standing up for yourself tomorrow.
The writer teaches at the London Metropolitan University.
