Why Black People Must Stand With Venezuela
Venezuela is not socialist. Neither is Bolivia or any other so-called “pink tide” government. Nor is Cuba, Vietnam, etc. One of the major points of what we know as Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is that there is no actually existing socialism currently existing and the task of Communists is to reform Communist parties, build revolutionary stable base areas, and launch protracted people’s war in both imperialist and colonized countries. This must eventually happen in Venezuela. We must not confuse what must eventually happen with what actually is happening right now. There are no Maoists waging protracted people’s war in Venezuela. The history of anti-revisionism in that country is a stupid one — apparently a Hoxhaist sect back in the day denounced Hugo Chavez as a “social fascist” and decided to support the opposition which was basically a liberal mishmash.
Listen, the United States, the headquarters of imperialism in the world today, is not concerned about any of our internal polemical arguments about what is and is not socialist. Anything that poses even the slightest threat to their crumbling hegemony will be subject to coups, regime change, and as last resort, direct military intervention. When bombs are being prepared to fall, it is not the time or place to drag out Left critiques of the country that your country is preparing to destroy. Nor it it the time to refer to what nonexistent “Maoists in Venezuela” have to say on the situation. If “Maoists” went around the slums of Caracas declaring that the solution is for the masses to wage protracted peoples war against both the government and the United States/Brazilian/Colombian fascists, they would be laughed at if not turned over to the authorities as possible opposition agents or unwitting CIA operatives. The Left may not have common sense, or may think common sense is “bourgeois”, the masses do. Whereas leftists in the United States should by no means call the Bolivarian Revolution “socialist” or “a revolution”, it is a progressive thing that the masses of Venezuela are preparing and ready to defend with their very lives. Who are we to preach to them when they are preparing to die? New Afrikans in the US and Venezuela, a heavily Afro-Latino country, share a common enemy. What happens to Black people in the US is what happens to Black people in Venezuela because of the US. If the opposition wins, Afro-Venezolanos will be subject to the most brutal violence and repression just like in the old days in both countries.
In international solidarity and relations, Maoists learn from the Filipino united front, the NDFP, which correctly recognizes US imperialism as the major cause of chaos in destruction in the third world today. The Filipino revolutionary movement is the shining star of world proletarian revolution and must be learned from in all aspects for our terrain. This is their statement on this matter. Note the lack of dogmatism, sectarian preaching, bombast, and stress on unity in the face of imperialist onslaught. Now, compare this statement from an actual vanguard who has earned that title from the masses with decades of blood spilled and revolutionary war with the average polemic or “analysis” released by marginal sects and self-proclaimed vanguards in the United States who have no mass base or mass prestige. The Filipinos don’t need to boast or declare themselves a vanguard because their reputation and work speaks for itself. In the First World, it is necessary to learn from this example and build our own mass base not just for struggle here but for real material solidarity with comrades overseas. Enough small protests and sign holding rallies, more deep base building and mass mobilizations of hundreds and thousands with a militant political line in command to effectively paralyze the US Empire from within.
