Yep Capitalism needs to be Overthrown!!!👹👺👹👺👹👺👺👹👺👹👺👹👺

"fascistic"? No. Fascist.

Navalny as a good little poodle of USA praised the attempted coup. Of course, Navalny's support in Russia is about 2%.

I suspect he hopes that the US government will do this for him soon since he can't win an election on his own.

Navalny is a right wing poplulist, he supports every neoliberal imperialist policy pushed by the US. Good to know most Russians reject Navalny and his lies.

I think the analysis , as far as it goes, is spot on; and indeed, if only the Venezuelan working class would become the leader and maker. of its own destiry. But, aside from simply dismissing Chavez/ Maduro's leftism the analyse fails to describe its modest progressive achievements, and that it laid the groundwork not just for its own dissolution that is presently occurring, but for a better way of managing a socialism based on oil exports within a world capitalist neo-liberal economy. Will Boliivia be next to be overthrown???

Venezuela hasn't been overthrown yet..the US and their pet stooges in Columbia try this every year..ita failed every year for 20 yeara so far because the Venezuelan people defend their country...we will see...

MATTERS dont look good for Maduro especially since so many ordinary Venezuelans now disapprove of him. Of course the coup was orchestrated , even the Wall Street Journal writes as much https://www.wsj.com/article...

Another excellent report.

Is this another Syria? Although sectarianism is unlikely tool but what is not mentioned here is that Catholic Church plays critical role in supporting bourgoise and opposition and was staunchly and Chiaves for decades.

But economic, financial attack, polarization of Venezuelan oligachy and defection from military uncannily resemble early Syrian war developments. Also fact that Maduro still have overwhelming support of population like in Assad case likely calls for CIA military rebels option sent, in this case from Colombia US bases, new Contras.

By Chavez and Maduro regime had that coming as they heavily depended US dominated oil Markets and financial markets while neglected self sufficiency in consumer products that was easily exploited by the West.

But most of all they refused moving into system of people self governance and instead created a nation of welfare clients, and as it goes without saying exposed themselves as government to public demands they could not fulfill, spelling disaster to their populist policies of feeding pageants.

More bloodshed now working class to come and hence more urgency of international socialist revolution.

This makes me so furious I don't know what to say.

The whole system needs to be dismantled.

Great piece. Linked to it from an NYT comment. But...
"The working class in the United States must oppose the reactionary intervention of the Trump administration and fight to unite its struggles with those of the workers in Venezuela and throughout Latin America against the common enemy, the capitalist system."
...what a weak ending.
Might as well say the working class should go out and trap fireflies to reduce electricity consumption and fight global warming.
Wish I could think up a more inspiring one.

All of you should be ashamed for supporting maduro, i have talked with a lot of venezuelans who had to flee their country. It is a dictatorship and its suppressing its people. None of you know the real situation in latin america, and no, most of these countries dont "strangle" their working class. What a ridiculous statement.

Read the article properly.

Where in the article did they support Maduro or his capitalist government?

Maybe if you read the article instead of assuming what it said. You would notice that the piece is against imperialism and US empire dictating to others who their "leaders" should be.

Next time read the article.

"Maduro, for all of the rhetoric about “Bolivarian Socialism,” heads a capitalist government that defends private property in Venezuela and has imposed the full burden of the country’s deep-going economic crisis onto the backs of the Venezuelan working class, whose strikes and protests have been brutally repressed."

You call that support for Maduro?

Apparently you didn't read the article, or didn't read it carefully. Try again and take your time this time.

Opposition to imperialism is not support for Maduro. In fact, the WSWS has warned repeatedly against bourgeois nationalism of the Chavez/Maduro variety for years, and has covered the suffering of the Venezuelan working class, the only force deserving of support, for years. And it has been consistent over the years, warning what was in store. (See the linked early article about Chavez, whom also the WSWS did not support.)

https://www.wsws.org/en/art...

Not content with torturing mere human beings, Washington has branched out into the bloodletting of entire countries. Of course, this is not a new phenomenon, but it is reprehensible all the same. I imagine the Trump Administration will be feted by the corporate media as "presidential" and "assertive" if this shameless coup is successful.

Consider this view of the world on www.foxnews.com today :
" As Venezuela teeters... Socialism rising : the Universities and radical profs helping steer leftward shift in politics, critics say "
There is a heads image of Mao, Chavez, Lenin, Castro .
In truth, any well informed SOCIALIST would not recognize anything resembling a SOCIALIST movement on college campuses today.
What I see are young, relatively affluent , neo-cons and ILLIBERAL LIBERAL budding fascists.
We live in a capitalist social order just incapable of thinking rationally about its economic system.
There is a saving ONE PERCENT of thoughtful individuals who do constitute a future VANGUARD of a saner world.
This ONE PERCENT has much spiritual and intellectual capital. They do not own much financial " capital " . They remain a passionate minority . Ignored TRUTH does not just go away or sink into black despair.
As old Freud said , sooner or later the Voice of Reason gets a hearing. THAT keeps the human race from rotting .

The hypocrisy of US capitalist/corporate entities know no bounds as they spread freedom and democracy with the subsequent lies to justify these egregious actions. Venezuela has the juicy prize of rich oil reserves of which the US has been at for many years. The citizenry suffers as a direct result of these puppet regimes installed by capitalist's govt, the US in this case.

Now is not the time to celebrate socialist purism. This hour demands that all forces, which carry their hearts left not only in the literal sense of the word, raise their voices together against the political reactionarism, which is becoming more and more pressing also in Venezuela. Fascism is everywhere at the gates, here and there it has already penetrated. Now it believes that the situation is favourable to move forward in Venezuela too. That must be prevented! Solidarity is needed, political differences must be put aside.

Why again and again do we hear this siren call saying that purity is impractical even detrimental in time of crisis, Lenin heard it, Luxemburg heard it ,Trotsky heard it.

And not incidentally those who stand for revolutionary principles were murdered by or on orders or with acquiesce of their former comrades who advised dirty political expediency, dealing with bourgoise and oligarchic factions, tactically compromise buy confidence by also means of murder of so called purists as they stand against sellout of revolution.

Ther could be no more reactionary stand as "let's make a Deal" political show in exigent circumstances of "barbarians at the gates" propaganda.

Nationalism of political left and war on terror were few of many such discredited calls by phony left to unite or rather submit under command of slave masters.

Why so called left decries purity of socialist revolution, why don't they ask capitalist class to agree tactically to impure capitalism with no private property but commons, no profit, no accumulation of wealth, no banking mafia or money changers, no exploitation or wage slavery for measly a century or two while later that can return to their old wicked ways all they want.

Why capitalists are so purist and reject that generous offer of slightly impure capitalism and instead reacting with brutal violence and war.

And should we on the left heed such a nonsense of advantage of ideological impurity and tactical unity with hudlums and murderers so supposed purity of socialism can be reached some day but not today.

That political stand is nothing but religious preaching promising dignity, justice and good life as soon as you are dead. It is nothing but counterrevolutionary propaganda of confusion aimed to divide working class.

Capitalists want it all and they want it now and we Marxists must stop them all and stop them now via socialist revolution.

On the contrary, now more than ever is the necessity for a struggle for political clarity and program essential. The long historical record of those demanding that this struggle be put aside is the record of the betrayals of the working class. Inevitably, this rhetorical device is used to cover for the subordination of the independent interests of the working class to the interests of one or more sections of the bourgeoisie.

The general trend of the toiling masses is clearly to the left. But the trend of every ruling class and pseudo-left party is a sharp turn to the right. And you would have the working class join this constellation of political charlatans intended to strangle them?

Trotsky analyzed this question with his usual remarkable prescience in the political crises consuming mid-1930s France. His article, "Committees of Action–Not Peoples Front" is well worth close study. It calls, as does the article above, for popular assemblies to be formed to carry out the program of arming the workers.

"The general trend of the toiling masses is clearly to the left."

Then everything will be all right and the time is near when Trotskyism will no longer be just a splinter in the political landscape. In the meantime, we will allow the fascists to come to power. The doctrine must remain pure.
You quote Trotsky from a text that is 80 years old. Who knows what he would say today. I don't think he would want his statements to be understood in later times as gospel, as revelation.

Your statement does not follow from what I said. Instead, more than ever the question posed is that of political leadership, to arm the masses, moving to the left, with a fighting program and to build that leadership. And to that task this site is dedicated.

As for "doctrine," any serious reading of Trotsky demonstrates that every prescription flows from a detailed analysis of the concrete development of the particulars of that moment in the class struggle. And this is why his call in France in 1935, for Committees of Action, is different from his call for a United Front in Germany in 1931. The power of Trotsky's thought, as the last of the Old Bolsheviks alive and independent to provide the living Marxist analysis and response to the events of the 1930s, is not in the particular of this and that, but in the *method*.

If you think the Fourth International regards Trotsky's writings as "gospel, as revelation," then you simply haven't been reading this site seriously.

And in your imploring for unprincipled political alliances, you remind one more than anything of Trotsky's warnings against opportunism written very early, in his 1907 analysis of the failings of the 1905 revolution.

In periods when friendly and hostile social forces, by virtue of their antagonism and their interaction, create a total political standstill; when the molecular process of economic growth, by intensifying the contradictions, not only fails to disturb the political balance but actually strengthens it and, as it were, makes it permanent – in such periods opportunism, devoured by impatience, looks around for “new” ways and means of putting into effect what history is not yet ready for in practice. Tired of its own inadequacy and unreliability, it goes in search of “allies.” It hurls itself avidly upon the dung-heap of liberalism. It implores it, it appeals to it, it invents special formulae for how it could act. In reply, liberalism merely contaminates it with its own political putrefaction. Opportunism then begins to pick out isolated pearls of democracy from the dung-heap. It needs allies. It rushes from place to place, grabbing possible allies by their coattails. It harangues its own adherents, admonishing them to be considerate towards all potential allies. “Tact, more tact, still more tact!” It is gripped by a special disease, the mania of caution in respect to liberalism, the sickness of tact; and, driven berserk by its sickness, it attacks and wounds its own party.

Opportunism builds on relations which are not yet ripe. It wants immediate “success.” When oppositional allies fail to be of use, it rushes to the government, pleading, arguing, threatening. In the end it finds a place for itself inside the government (this is called ministerialism), achieving nothing thereby except to show that history cannot be overtaken by administrative means any more than it can by theory.

Opportunism does not know how to wait. And that is precisely why great events always catch it unawares. They knock it off its feet, whiz it around like a chip of wood in a whirlpool and sweep it forward, knocking its head now against one bank, now against the other. It tries to resist, but in vain. Then it submits to its fate, pretends to be happy, waves its arms to show that it is swimming, and shouts louder than anyone else. And when the hurricane has passed, it creeps ashore, shakes itself, complains of headache and painful limbs and, in the wretched hangover following its euphoria, spares no harsh words for revolutionary “dreamers.”

Thanks for posting. Pearls from the dung heap. Indeed!

Venezuela is not about unholy alliances. It's about letting go of any criticism at the moment and taking the right side without any ifs or buts.
Yes, Trotsky analyzed each situation individually. So if you want to be faithful to him, you can't stick to the wording of an analysis that refers to a completely different situation. I don't have the opportunity to go into detail here (and English is, by the way, not my mother tongue.) The current global situation is critical, the empire is weakened, but still very powerful. All those who do not identify with it must now stand together. Only then does one have a chance that a decisive blow can be dealt to it.

Would you be happier had the article ended with, "Defend Venezuela against imperialist attack!" ?

Yes, a little bit.

The US manufacturing another war, yet again. They just can't keep their sticky fingers out of other countries oil. It doesn't help that their own economy is tanking and totally reliant on sales of debt, militry hardware and wars of plunder.

The drop in oil prices and US sanctions were beyond Maduro's control, these factors along with Chavez and Maduro's modest capitalist accomodating "pink tide" reforms has wrecked Venezuela's economy. All of the right wing fascist regimes in Latin America "solutions" to their countries economic problems are to enslave their populations to the austerity measures dictated by the IMF and the World Bank, as they plunge into further debt and can't even pay off the interest on the debt. It's the same story every time, police state violence, repression and more austerity and debt to the big Wall Steet banks.

As always Bill an immaculate analysis and presentation .

This has become a well rehearsed modus operandi . Let the bourgeois ''social nationalists'' create division as they dutifully put the world economic crisis of capitalism on the backs of the working class , then under the banner of 'who dares wins' make a coup d' etat under the cloak of ''saving the country from dictatorship.''

As with Egypt, the Ukraine and elsewhere, in the absence of the intervention by the world working class this will be played out time and again .

Where next one has to ask , Iran , the UK ?? The rule of thumb for Imperialism is ''create dissent by whatever means and then capitalise on it.''

With the mainstream media and the Democrats in toe the whole political apparatus will be brought to bare on the working class as history attests to.

We live at a pivotal point in world affairs, where the opposing classes in history will make their moves and decide the fate of humankind.

Only the ICFI and its parties for revolution can make the difference .

"On less specious grounds than Washington is using to declare Maduro an “usurper,” any government in the world could claim that Trump’s own government—elected with less popular votes than those of his opponent and opposed by the majority of the American people—is “illegitimate” and should be overthrown."

This is ironic and sadly true. In the US 120 million did not vote in the last presidential election. That's nearly half the electorate. And out of those that did vote Trump received 3 million less votes than Hillary Clinton, but is proclaimed the winner based on an anachronistic procedure known as the Electoral College.

Only 60 million voted for Trump In a US population of 320 million. More than 70% of the population did NOT vote for Trump yet he's president. Does this sound like a functioning democracy.

And it should be noted, that in a country where 70% of the electorate did NOT vote for its leader the population has nothing to say about the wars and military invasions conducted by its leaders.

Taxes are collected predominantly from the working-class since the wealthy have enacted laws allowing them to contribute very little, and yet the working-class who bear most of the financial burden have NO control over how their funds will be used.

No plebiscite is offered to the population to choose how taxes are allocated. The public cannot vote to rebuild the infrastructure, to guarantee free health care, to ensure good public schools, to give workers a living wage. The public has NO power to decide any of these issues. Instead, the fate of all tax money is decided by politicians whose campaigns are funded by multinational corporations and the military/security state who write the legislation they want enacted.

This is the way the US government operates--it's an oligarchy protected by the military/security/surveillance state and it freely decides which leaders will rule other sovereign countries.

If a "democratically" elected leader is deemed an economic or geostrategic threat to the Western ruling class then he/she is removed. And in the case of the Buffoon Trump it's done with a tweet. The Empire has spoken.

.

@Charlotte Ruse.
Democracy in the so-called "democratic nations" of the west, is at best an illusion and at worst an insidious assault against the plebs, namely the working class at the bottom.

The ongoing right wing coup in Venezuela reminds us of the maiden square protests in Kiev Ukraine when Washington in the name of "Freedom and democracy" had supported fascist takeover back in 2014. Today a similar dynamic is being unfolded in Caracas Venezuela which in my opinion could very likely end-up into another dangerous geopolitical flashpoint in the coming days. Yesterday in light of these convulsive events President Maduro had ordered all US diplomatic personnel to leave the country within 72 hours. However, today the US imperialist secretary of State Mike Pompeo had responded by saying" US will conduct diplomatic relations with Venezuela through the government of interim President Guaido. US does not consider former President Maduro to have legal authority to break diplomatic relations". So as we can see here US imperialism aims to bring a novice puppet figure like Juan Guaidó and open up once again Venezuela for Wall Street bankers and oil companies.

Why did you refer to Pres. Maduro as "former"?

No I was quoting Mike Pompeo's words that came out today. Read the paragraph carefully.

You are correct and I apologize to you.

And has anyone heard even a word of protest from "socialists" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders?

It's hasta luego for them until it's all over. They're preparing some comments for afterwards when they've determined the "lay of the land."

In the rats nest of the US government is precisely where they should stand up for principles, if they had them. The point of electing socialists is not to convince the billionaire government to become nicer by hiding your politics but to form a rallying point for the masses of people in opposition to the crimes of the government and expose the government's hostility to democracy.

You can't do that by simply going along with every war crime and calling for secure borders.

They aren't better than the millionaire corporate puppets if they participate in every major crime the millionaire corporate puppets demand. Sanders is a nationalist, and militarist. You are what you do. Socialism cannot be brought about through backroom deals, cowardice, and hiding the truth from the working class.

Start with what's necessary, not what you think is possible and then work tirelessly to make what is necessary the reality.

We're at a point where masses of workers are entering into struggle. The millions who struck in India, the wildcat strikes in Mexico, the teachers struggle in the US, the yellow vests in France. For those of us based on the revolutionary potential of the working class it's an awfully crowded "wilderness".

But what is necessary to turn these spontaneous outbursts into a concentrated force to end capitalism? On the one hand are all the bourgeois charlatans like Sanders who are constantly telling workers to stop fighting and trust billionaires like Bezos to do the right thing, to back our military, and to work with Trump on "border security." On the other hand is the Trotskyist movement educating and organizing workers to stand on their own two feet and place no faith in the capitalists or their "socialist" hangers-on.

The vote for Sanders was a sign of the large leftward shift in the American population. Millions of people voted for him because they hoped he was serious about a "political revolution against the billionaire class," then they found out what he meant by that was voting for Clinton and campaigning for every right-wing Democrat. That put us in the interesting situation that millions of Americans who voted for Trump, hoping for some alternative (any alternative), are to the left of Sanders.

Our task is to organize workers on their independent demands, not that they need to hide their politics to be respectable to their class enemies like Trump, Clinton, and Sanders.

You could instead try organizing the working class struggle instead of telling them to back the politicians backing US war crimes like Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.

In France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon did. But President Macron said he "support the restoration of democracy".
https://twitter.com/JLMelen...

No, because they are trogan Horses ( not to be confused with Trogan "French Safes". Bernie and Alexandria are just there to split votes.

No because they have greater objectives, their own political careers...

Well said, Pete. There will be nothing more disgusting than the reaction of the Democratic Party to events in Venezuela.