[News] Canadian Parliament Passes Resolution against Bolivarian Government

[Anti-Imperialist News]

  Canadian Parliament Passes Resolution against Bolivarian Government

By Camilo Cahis - Fightback, March 27th 2014
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10541

The Canadian government has become the latest imperialist power to jump 
to the defence of the far-right protests in Venezuela.  Parliament has 
just passed a unanimous motion that places the responsibility for the 
current violence in the country on the shoulders of the Venezuelan 
government rather than the opposition gangs that initiated the unrest.  
We have become accustomed to both the Conservatives and Liberals 
attacking the Venezuelan revolution, but what is concerning this time 
around is the fact that the NDP has sided with the two right-wing 
parties in condemning the Bolivarian government.  As Canada's labour 
party, we think that the NDP should be standing against the right-wing 
at home and in Venezuela, while championing the successes of the 
revolution as an inspiration for our own struggles against capitalist 
austerity.

Since 1998, when Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela, the 
Venezuelan revolution has become a beacon of inspiration for the poor 
and the working class around the world.  Whereas almost every other 
government has cut and attacked workers' rights and standards of living, 
the Bolivarian government has stood up to the bosses' agenda.  Before 
Chávez's election, Venezuela was known as one of the poorest and most 
unequal societies in Latin America.  This has radically changed since 
the beginning of the revolution.  Moreover, through the social programs 
initiated by the revolutionary government, illiteracy has been 
eradicated and services such as health care, dental care, child care, 
and post-secondary education have been made free and universal --- some 
of these achievements have not even been accomplished in a country like 
Canada.

The government has become the mortal enemy of the Venezuelan 
bourgeoisie, which was accustomed to pillaging the wealth of the 
country.  The government also earned the enmity of the major imperialist 
powers, who are no longer able to exploit Venezuela's wealth and 
resources without limit.  Moreover, the social achievements accomplished 
in Venezuela serve as a valuable example to the workers and oppressed of 
the world who are told that, "There is no alternative," to capitalist 
austerity.

Since the revolution began over 15 years ago, the Venezuelan opposition 
has waged a relentless struggle to overthrow the gains of the 
revolution.  Unfortunately for them, they have never been able to win 
over the majority of the Venezuelan masses and have repeatedly failed at 
the ballot box --- since 1998, the revolutionary forces have won 18 of 
19 elections.  Because of this, the opposition has resorted to illegal 
and terrorist means to accomplish their aims. The most extreme measure 
they undertook was the military /coup d'état /in April 2002, which 
briefly overthrew the government, killed nearly 100 people, and captured 
Hugo Chávez.  However, the spontaneous uprising of millions of ordinary 
Venezuelans forced the safe return of President Chávez.  However, this 
is not the only attempt the opposition has taken to destroy the 
revolution.  Throughout the years, they have sabotaged the economy and 
even used links to Colombian paramilitaries to attack and intimidate 
workers' leaders and activists.

The recent round of protests in Venezuela is simply the latest attempt 
by the oligarchy in Venezuela to undermine the revolutionary 
government.  There is nothing peaceful or democratic about the protests 
currently being waged by the Venezuelan opposition.  Contrary to the 
myth that is being portrayed by the international bourgeois press, or 
the Venezuelan opposition on social media, the protests have nothing to 
do with democratic rights, the shortages in basic goods, or the 
conditions of students in Venezuela.  In fact, the protests were sparked 
by calls made by two of the ultra-right-wing politicians in Venezuela, 
Leopoldo López and Maria Corina Machado --- both of whom were intimately 
involved in the 2002 coup attempt and who are pursuing /La Salida/ ("The 
Exit") of current president, Nicolás Maduro.  López and Machado are 
hoping to use middle and upper-class students as pawns in their own game 
against the Bolivarian Revolution.

Although wealthier students have been involved in the protests, 
particularly at the demonstrations on Feb. 12 that appear to have marked 
the start of the violence, they are only a tiny minority and hardly 
represent the general student population of Venezuela.  The most 
generous estimates of the Feb. 12 protests put the number of 
participating at thirty or forty-thousand; this is a fraction of the 
estimated 2.6-million students currently enrolled in post-secondary 
education in Venezuela.  Moreover, the largest of the student protests 
pales in comparison to the majority of the counter-demonstrations 
organized by the revolution's supporters; a solidarity rally organized 
by the oil workers at PDVSA (the state oil company) drew nearly 100,000 
versus the 5,000 on the side of the opposition 
<http://www.marxist.com/venezuela-the-counterrevolutionary-offensive-and-how-to-deal-with-it.htm>.

Around the world, the media has focused on the deaths that have come as 
a result of the wave of protests, especially focusing on the deaths 
occurring on the opposition's side.  As of Mar. 13, there have been 30 
deaths connected to the protests.  The international media has assigned 
blame for the majority of the deaths on the supposedly harsh measures 
taken by the Venezuelan government, but the vast majority have occurred 
at the hands of other people. According to the website 
Venezuelanalysis.com <http://venezuelanalysis.com/blog/ewan/10477>:

    /- 17 people died in barricade-related deaths, which include people
    shot while trying to clear a barricade, "accidents" caused by
    barricades and street traps, and patients dying after being
    prevented from reaching hospital by a barricade. This number also
    includes a pro-opposition student who was run over while trying to
    block a road./

    /- 5 of the deaths appear to be due to the actions of state security
    forces. All these cases are under investigation, and arrests have
    already been made in several./

    /- The other 8 cases are deaths in which either there exist
    contradictory accounts, it is very unclear who the perpetrator was,
    the killer was a third party, or where the death was an accident
    related to the violence./

    /Based on information from press reports, 12 of those who died were
    civilians without an open political affiliation, 9 were identified
    as pro-opposition, 5 as pro-government, 3 were National Guard
    officers, and 1 was a government lawyer./

At least one of those five killed at the hands of the security forces 
was a Bolivarian militant from the 23 de Enero /barrio/ in Caracas, 
assassinated by a member of the Venezuelan secret police.  In all five 
cases the perpetrators have been charged with murder --- which contrasts 
sharply with the opposition's assertion that the government is cracking 
down with impunity.

As the opposition's protests have intensified, it increasingly appears 
that the right-wing students are being used as a cover for more 
nefarious forces who are attempting a "slow-motion" coup.  In cities 
such as San Cristóbal and Mérida, pictures on social media appear to 
link some of the "student leaders" as members of Colombian neo-Nazi 
organizations.  Many of the so-called "students" are armed with sniper 
rifles, automatic machine guns, grenades, and body armour --- certainly 
not traditional student garb!  The protesters have set up burning 
barricades and fired incendiary bombs at government institutions 
recognized as symbols of the revolution, such as the Attorney-General's 
office and the public buses and metro in Caracas.

These fascistic elements appear to even be targeting other opposition 
supporters in an effort to further discredit the government.  One of the 
most prominent opposition deaths so far was the killing of Génesis 
Carmona, a 22-year-old former beauty queen.  However, ballistic evidence 
and eyewitness accounts 
<http://ojopelao.com/testigo-opositor-confirma-genesis-carmona-murio-por-bala-disparada-a-sus-espaldas-video/> seem 
to suggest that she was actually shot from within the opposition's ranks 
during a demonstration.  This would not be the first time that the 
opposition killed its own supporters in order to justify the overthrow 
of the Bolivarian government; in 2002, opposition snipers were largely 
responsible for the scores of deaths that were used to justify the 
military coup, as vividly shown in the famous Irish documentary, /The 
Revolution Will Not Be Televised/.

The opposition has also stepped up its attacks on revolutionary workers 
and students.  At a pro-revolution demonstration in the state of 
Bolívar, nine trade unionists were shot by a sniper 
<http://www.marxist.com/venezuela-the-counterrevolutionary-offensive-and-how-to-deal-with-it.htm>.  
Just last week, Gisella Rubilar Figueroa, a Chilean mother of four who 
was pursuing graduate studies in Mérida, was shot dead 
<http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/giselle_killed_merida.htm> when trying 
to clear up one of the opposition's barricades in the city.  However, 
the international press was completely silent about the killing.  The 
media has not commented, either, on the wire booby traps being set up by 
oppositionists that have decapitated two innocent motorcyclists, nor the 
deaths of three members of the National Guard and the death of a public 
employee. These are not "peaceful" protesters by any definition!

The international press has even used outright lies and manipulation to 
create a distorted account of the violence in Venezuela.  In one of the 
most egregious examples, CBC News presented an online gallery of 
pictures that had been tweeted out by the Venezuelan opposition that 
supposedly showed the brutal "repression" being committed by the 
Venezuelan government.  The CBC did not mention, however, that many of 
the pictures in their gallery were not even from Venezuela!  Two of the 
pictures, for example, were of police crackdowns against student 
protesters in Chile last year.  One picture, which showed a young woman 
who had been savagely beaten, was actually taken in Egypt at the height 
of the Arab Spring three years ago!

Why the distortion?

These are not simply mistakes or examples of incompetence by the 
international media (including journalists in Canada); the lies and 
manipulation of the events in Venezuela are part of a general campaign 
to discredit the Venezuelan government and the gains of the revolution 
in the eyes of people around the world.  As every government on the 
planet continues to place the burden of the capitalist crisis on the 
backs of working-class people, the Venezuelan revolution stands against 
capitalist austerity.  The fact that the Venezuelan government has 
placed the interests of the masses ahead of the profit margins of 
foreign multinationals is something that cannot be tolerated by imperialism.

Canada has taken a lead role in assisting the opposition to the 
revolution in Venezuela 
<http://marxist.ca/canada/federal/183-workers-must-send-clear-message-to-canadian-state-hands-off-venezuela-and-bolivia.html>.  
The Canadian embassy in Caracas has funnelled tens of thousands of 
dollars to Venezuelan opposition groups.  In February 2010, the former 
Secretary of State for the Americas, Peter Kent,travelled to Venezuela 
to accuse the government of the "narrowing" of democratic space in the 
country 
<http://marxist.ca/international/venezuela/530-canada-accuses-venezuela-of-stifling-democracy-while-parliament-remains-prorogued.html>; 
Kent forgot to mention that at the same time, his Conservative 
government had shut down Parliament during the prorogation scandal.  As 
this article goes to print, Air Canada has decided to indefinitely 
suspend all flights to Venezuela 
<http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/air-canada-suspends-flights-to-venezuela-as-protests-continue-1.2576829>, 
claiming, "Due to ongoing civil unrest in Venezuela, Air Canada can no 
longer ensure the safety of its operation... Air Canada will continue to 
monitor the situation and will evaluate the reintroduction of flights 
with the objective of resuming operations on the route once Air Canada 
is satisfied that the situation in Venezuela has stabilized."  This is 
despite the fact that Air Canada sees no jeopardy to its operations by 
flying into well-known safe havens such as Iraq or Sierra Leone.

Venezuelan oppositionists living in Canada have been encouraged to 
mobilize and push their agenda here.  In January 2013, dozens of 
right-wing Venezuelans across Canada met virtually with coup-apologist 
Maria Corina Machado. In these meetings 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/daniel-l-rodriguez/venezuelan-crisis-canada-assemblies_b_2518323.html?utm_hp_ref=tw>, 
Machado exhorted the Venezuelan opposition in Canada to paint Venezuela 
as a "neo-dictatorship... a regime deeply totalitarian with a democratic 
façade."  Not surprisingly, they have found an eager audience amongst 
the Conservative and Liberal parties.  Members of the opposition met 
with Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis who has, on several occasions 
<http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/karygiannis_attacks_venezuela.htm>, 
attempted to pass resolutions in the House of Commons denouncing the 
Venezuelan government and its supposed crackdown on democratic rights.  
And elements of the Venezuelan opposition have even brought their 
terrorist tactics to Canada; as this article is being written, 
oppositionists are believed to be behind a series of death threats 
<http://chha1610am.ca/560/> aimed at a left-wing Catholic priest, Father 
Hernán Astudillo, and the left-wing Toronto Latino radio station his 
church sponsors.

The most recent motion that ended up being supported by the House of 
Commons was supposed to be a "softening" of Karygiannis' latest attempt 
to defame the Bolivarian government and place responsibility for the 
violence at the hands of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.  After 
back-room dealings between the three main parties (the Conservatives, 
the Liberals, and the NDP), a compromise motion was put forward by the 
NDP's foreign affairs critic, Paul Dewar, which gained support from all 
MPs in the House:

    /"That the House express its deep concern at the escalation of
    violence in Venezuela; convey its condolences to the families of
    those killed or injured during the ongoing public protests; ask the
    Government of Canada to urge*Venezuelan authorities to proactively
    de-escalate the conflict, protect the human rights and democratic
    freedoms of Venezuelan citizens, release all those detained during
    the protests, immediately cease all government interference with
    peaceful protesters,* and ensure that those people who perpetrated
    the violence be brought to justice and bear the full weight of the
    law; encourage the Government of Canada to play a leading role in
    supporting a political dialogue in Venezuela that respects
    legitimate grievances and differences of opinion; and *call for an
    end to divisive rhetoric and actions that only delay and jeopardize
    the inclusive political solution that the Venezuelan people
    deserve.*" (My emphasis)/

The NDP's parliamentary caucus may believe that in putting forward this 
"compromise" resolution, they are doing their best to remain "neutral" 
in the current provocations in Venezuela.  However, the resolution 
appears to place the onus on the Venezuelan government to ending 
violence when it has been the opposition that has been waging the 
campaign all along!  The Venezuelan government has the duty to defend 
and protect the majority of its citizens from lethal booby traps, 
blockades, and armed individuals.

The hypocrisy of the Conservatives and the Liberals is particularly 
galling to those who have fallen victim to the state violence and 
clamping down on democratic rights that is occurring in Canada today.  
The resolution calls for the Venezuelan government to cease all 
interference with "peaceful protesters", but where was the federal 
government's outrage at the historic mass arrests and crackdown at the 
G20 summit in Toronto or during the Quebec student strike in 2012?  When 
Mi'kmaq protesters where trying to protest the danger posed to their 
community by fracking, the government's response was to send in RCMP 
snipers.  Although Parliament may call for civil dialogue in Venezuela, 
the Conservative government is in the process of changing Canada's 
election laws so that poor and working-class Canadians are denied the 
right to vote!  Where is the Liberal and Conservative grandstanding when 
these government attacks occur in Canada?

For these reasons, the NDP is greatly mistaken to have supported the 
Conservatives and Liberals' resolution.  There is no middle ground in 
the provocations occurring in Venezuela at the present time, and the 
NDP's statement on the issue is essentially supporting the line of the 
Venezuelan opposition --- the same opposition that is using fascist 
tactics in order to attack and murder honest workers and revolutionaries 
in Venezuela.  The NDP has a tradition of international solidarity with 
those fighting oppression around the world.  In fact, it was only a few 
years ago when NDP MP Peggy Nash was the featured speaker 
<http://marxist.ca/about-us/hands-off-venezuela/544-launch-of-latin-american-peace-initiative-stop-war-and-defend-social-gains-in-latin-america.html> at 
a Toronto meeting of the Latin American Peace Initiative, a discussion 
organized to combat the threat of imperialist intervention in Bolivia, 
Ecuador, and Venezuela.  In 2010, NDP MP Wayne Marston commented on his 
concerns 
<http://marxist.ca/about-us/hands-off-venezuela/559-hovcblr-and-hovsbq-defend-venezuelan-human-rights-in-front-of-parliamentary-committee.html> about 
potential coups and foreign intervention in Venezuela at a parliamentary 
committee investigating human rights in Venezuela.

The motives of the NDP's parliamentary caucus are still unclear.  The 
best-case scenario is that the NDP MPs are not aware of the genuine 
situation currently taking place in Venezuela and that their position in 
the House of Commons was based on misinformation.  On the other hand, as 
the NDP gets closer to power, there may be a desire amongst elements of 
the NDP leadership to cozy up to the Canadian ruling class and 
demonstrate that they will be "responsible managers" of Canadian 
capitalism and imperialism.  If this is the case, then it must fall upon 
the NDP rank-and-file to ensure that the party stays true to its 
working-class roots and stop representing the interests of the bosses 
both at home and abroad.  Instead of tail-ending Canadian imperialism, 
the NDP should be supporting the revolutionary movements of Latin 
America and bringing those successes home in our own struggles against 
capitalist austerity.

Instead of whitewashing the violence of the opposition, the NDP should 
instead be calling for an investigation of the role being played by the 
US, Canadian, and other governments which are funding and backing this 
slow-motion coup. Unlike the cuts and attacks being implemented by the 
Harper Conservatives, the Venezuelan government has been able to expand 
social programs that have radically improved the standard of living of 
the Venezuelan masses.  In contrast to the shutting down of factories 
that has devastated many parts of Canada and put tens of thousands of 
workers out of a job, the Venezuelan government has encouraged the 
nationalization of shut-down factories under the democratic control of 
their workers.  Instead of supporting the Conservative demonization of 
the revolution, the NDP should be working to informing its members and 
the rest of the labour movement of the revolution's successes, and using 
it a source of inspiration for our own struggles here at home.

*No support for the fascist reaction!*

*Support the Venezuelan Revolution!*

*Hands off Venezuela!*

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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