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Workers’ Voice newspaper: March-April edition
The U.S.-Israel war on Iran is a major escalation in the Middle East that has dangerous implications for working people everywhere. The brutality of the imperialist assault internationally is paired with the attack on civil liberties by the Trump regime inside the U.S. This includes the continued operations of ICE and Border Patrol, the threats to the 2026 mid-term elections, environmental rollbacks that deeply impact the Black community, and unchecked police brutality.
Our editorial in this issue warns us: “There is a great danger of underestimating the determination of the U.S. corporate elite to drive through this effort. We cannot rely on court rulings or upcoming elections to save us. We must organize now, not only for mass demonstrations and community networks against ICE violence, but to find our way to building a new working-class party through which we can organize our political defense on every plane and on every day.”
In this issue we also have articles on the Epstein files and the ruling class, the San Francisco teachers’ strike, and a review of the new album by U2.
The March–April 2026 edition of our newspaper is available in print and online as a pdf. Read the latest issue of our newspaper today with a free pdf download! As always, we appreciate any donations to help with the cost of printing.
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Against the last war and the next war too
By JAMES MARSH
In the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 3, the U.S. military launched an attack on Venezuela and kidnapped the president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife. Top U.S. officials have said that a major objective of the action was to seize Venezuela’s oil and to sell it on the open market.
This blatant act of aggression followed at least 35 drone strikes on civilian vessels, which killed more than 115 people. This was accompanied by the seizing of oil tankers coming out of Venezuela as part of an illegal blockade; the piracy has continued in recent days with the capture of a Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic on Jan. 7 and another ship near the Caribbean. The Trump administration has simultaneously expanded the network of U.S. military bases in Latin America.
The U.S. government is waging this campaign of imperialist terror on its neighbors because of the interests of multinational corporations and foreign investment. American workers must recognize the gulf between their interests in cooperation with other workers internationally and those of a narrow group of capitalists gorging themselves on the blood of neocolonies in the Global South.
This is not the first campaign of imperialist terror waged by the U.S., only the most recent. No one has forgotten the seemingly endless list of governments overthrown and counter-revolutionary dictators brought to power by the U.S. government. Haiti, Guatemala, Chile, Congo, Indonesia—listing them all would blur into senselessness.
No one has forgotten the bold-faced lies used to justify these interventions: Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that never existed, fabricated charges misrepresenting the complicity of Panama in the drug trade, “enlightenment and democracy” for the carpet-bombed and the massacred of Afghanistan, Vietnam, and other countries.
No one has forgotten the systematic torture and mass slaughter carried out by the U.S. to bring these collaborators to power, or the systematic torture and mass slaughter carried out by these collaborators with U.S. support. The bombing of Rafah and the starvation of Palestine, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib, Agent Orange and My Lai. Or collaboration with Pinochet, with Suharto, with Trujillo.
The U.S. government would prefer that people forget. No one has forgotten the blood on this government’s hands, but the past century and more of imperialism, and the genocide of native peoples before, are histories too detailed for any one person to remember in full. And it is easy to feel hopeless: too late to un-do the wars and colonial occupations, too late to save the maimed and the dead, too late to act.
But if we mean to stop the next war, we need to understand what drives imperialism, and the power we still have to act. This bloodshed is the price of global capitalism. It greases the wheels of a machine of exploitation that slashes open the veins of the formerly colonized world and imposes new regimes of neocolonialism to turn a profit in markets now conquered and controlled by the U.S. capitalist class.
We endure exploitation of workers abroad and exploitation of workers at home, so that a narrow minority of capitalists can see another dime in their portfolios. Why Venezuela? So its oil might be sold by U.S. companies and its minerals critical for military and energy technologies remain in supply chains dominated by U.S. firms. So its markets might be restructured to allow U.S. and international finance to step in and privatize any service which has resisted neoliberal pillaging of public resources. So its government which has taken a defiant stance in negotiating with U.S. companies or trading with Cuba can be brought to heel before the totality of U.S. political hegemony starts to have holes poked into it. None of these represent the interests of the U.S. working class in labor-led internationalism.
Why now? Because inter-imperialist rivalries with competing capitalist powers like China threaten to establish a beachhead against U.S. domination of its neocolonies in Latin America. Because authoritarian populist tactics under Trump use unrestrained military force as a tactic of international negotiation that discards the rules of the old order of legalist international regulation organized under the UN. Because the declining rate of profit for capitalists in the U.S., a crisis that has stretched into a long recession since the 2008 banking crisis, has led them to violently turn on the working class at home and abroad.
All of these threaten to bring another war in which the U.S. working class is sent as the soldiers who die fighting workers abroad for the profits of a narrow group of capitalists. All of these bring us closer to an inter-imperialist war, the kind of world war that does not stop until one of the warring great powers is leveled to ash, and its people with it.
What can advocates of peace and workers’ internationalism do in the face of this campaign of imperialist terror? There is no reforming imperialism, no talking it down, no reasoning or pleading. The power used to counter it must come from the working class itself. Activists fighting for peace and the labor movement as a whole must fight together in workplaces, in classrooms, and in the streets against the capitalists calling for blood. War with Venezuela is deeply unpopular in the United States; anyone supporting it must face an organized backlash strong enough that it seems like political suicide. This organized pushback must be deep enough that no soldier can be drafted or recruited without drawing from a pool of people already opposed to another war.
The halls of power and the Department of War belong to the capitalists; the streets and the forces of peace belong to the people. We must fight to organize a mass movement calling for peace so loud that all the world knows that regardless of the terrorists in power, the American people are against war in Venezuela.
Photo: Zhang Fenguo / Xinhua
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Mamdani, a ‘democratic socialist,’ takes office as New York’s mayor
By TONY STABILE
Thousands of people braved below-freezing temperatures on Jan. 1 to attend the public inauguration of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Despite the extreme cold, the mood near City Hall was jubilant, and the crowd “warmed against the January chill by the resurgent flame of hope,” as Mamdani himself put it.
For many years, hope has been dim that the millions of workers, oppressed people, and youth in New York City might be able to fight for a less oppressively expensive city. Rents and prices for basic goods have skyrocketed, while the owners of New York City-based corporations and financial entities rake in massive profits.
Mamdani’s promises of a rent freeze, free child care and transportation, and a $30 minimum wage resonated with a city whose capitalist politicians have refused to contemplate even basic measures to reduce the cost of living. Moreover, the fact that he is an Uganda-born Muslim and an advocate of New York City’s remarkable diversity has made him a powerful symbol of opposition to President Trump’s racist and Islamophobic nativism.
Mamdani’s significance is not merely local, however. His campaign has piqued the interest of working people around the country and gathered headlines internationally. Though his campaign was narrowly focused on issues of affordability—without really addressing the need for a major restructuring of the system—Mamdani’s open advocacy of “democratic socialism” has raised interest in building an alternative to the slow, painful decay of global capitalism.
While Zohran’s election is an important event in U.S. politics, it raises basic questions: How can the workers of New York City—and elsewhere—secure basic reforms, and press beyond them to further victories? In our opinion, it will be the mass movement of workers, youth, and oppressed peoples that can win significant social change.
Mamdani’s strategy
Mamdani’s campaign, despite its dynamism, struggled to hold together two contradictory forces: The thousands of radicalizing young people and others who mobilized to get out the vote for him, and the affiliation of the campaign with the capitalist Democratic Party.
During the campaign, Hakeem Jeffries, the current unpopular leader of the House Democratic Caucus and Representative from New York’s 8th District, mounted a full-scale offensive against Mamdani. Even after Mamdani had won the Democratic primary, Jeffries even refused to endorse him for a full three months. New York’s financial elite, for their part, were early opponents of Mamdani, spending over $40 million to torpedo his campaign.
Despite the outright hostility, redbaiting, and Islamophobic attacks directed toward Mamdani and his campaign platform from major forces in the Democratic Party leadership, there is substantial pressure on Mamdani and his supporters to reconcile with the mainstream of the party and its wealthy backers, and to generally offer support to the party’s policies. That is the course that fellow democratic socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who were present at Mamdani’s inaugural, have been following.
So far, Mamdani appears to have been able to form a truce with the Democratic Party leadership and the moneyed interests that the party represents. For instance, former President Obama told Mamdani that his campaign was “impressive to watch,” while the hedge fund manager and billionaire Bill Ackman publicly congratulated Zohran on his win.
Perhaps the most shocking of Mamdani’s new supporters is President Trump himself. On Nov. 23, Mamdani met with President Trump at the White House. After threatening to arrest Mamdani, Trump fawned over the then mayor-elect, stating, “I’ll be cheering for him.” Zohran, for his part, mirrored the president’s friendly tone. In fact, reflecting on their conversation, Mamdani stated that “[i]t was a productive meeting focused on a place of shared admiration and love, which is New York City and the need to deliver affordability to New Yorkers.”
This truce has not occurred without compromises on Mamdani’s part. He maintained Jessica Tisch as the Commissioner of the NYPD. Tisch, a billionaire heiress and law-and-order technocrat, has been a controversial pick among Mamdani’s activist base. She is a staunch Zionist who has overseen the deepening of the city’s surveillance apparatus. Tisch was not Mamdani’s only contentious appointment. He has opened the ranks of his transition team to top-level Democratic Party insiders.
However, rather than soothing this opposition, conciliatory tactics will only increase the urging by ruling-class figures to “compromise” and “work with the system.” As long as Mamdani remains enmeshed in the Democratic Party and its attendant social and financial networks, the pressure to conform with party policy will only increase. Any bolder reforms that his administration might wish to undertake, under pressure by its working-class constituency, will be countered bitterly by the ruling class.
A different way forward
History has shown that the only practical method to gain major reforms is through a mass movement of the working class and oppressed. Without a movement like this, reforms are either illusory or quickly undone by capitalist forces. This movement would have to mobilize its members not as followers of Mamdani, but as part of a working class that can articulate and fight for its own demands.
Mamdani’s statements and actions do not indicate that this will be a focus of his time in office. However, the possibilities for a socialist in City Hall are tremendous. The new mayor occupies one of the largest bully pulpits in the nation. A principled, revolutionary socialist in such a position could push public ownership of Con Edison and other utilities, lowering rates and moving to decarbonize energy production. They could place the city government squarely and unambiguously on the side of working people in their struggles. They might offer city facilities to strikers and to host a national Congress of Labor to organize and support workers’ struggles.
Of course, affiliation with the Democratic Party would severely hobble any effort to carry out these measures or any other major reforms. The task would instead require an independent party of the organized working class.
Workers, youth, and our allies are waking up to the power that we possess when we free ourselves of the pressure to placate the ruling class. Mamdani and his supporters must choose whether to support the growing desire for working-class independence or stand in its way.
Photo: Mamdani speaks at his public inauguration ceremony on Jan. 1. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
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U.S. hands off Venezuela!
By THE EDITORS of WORKERS’ VOICE
In the early morning of Jan. 3, U.S. Special Forces bombed Venezuela and conducted a raid on the Fort Tiuna military installation, the residence of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores. Agents of U.S. imperialism kidnapped the couple and took them to New York City, where they will be tried on murky charges having to do with drug trafficking. Over 150 aircraft were sent into Caracas and other cities, allegedly striking both civilian and military sites. Reports from Venezuela state that at least 80 people were killed in the attack; the figure includes 32 Cuban citizens.
The reason for the attack has nothing to do with the “war on drugs” or building “democracy” in Venezuela. The “Donroe Doctrine” is the order of the day. The massive display of military force was meant to remind all semi-colonial governments of the ability of the United States to strike anywhere and depose any leader. The coup operation, backed by heavy firepower, is one of the most arrogant displays of Trumpian “dealmaking,” and the newly minted “Donroe Doctrine’s” motto of “peace through strength,” since the new administration took office.
Soon after news of the attack became known in the United States, protest demonstrations were organized in cities all over the country. Countering U.S. aggression does not mean giving political support to Maduro. There is an indication that Maduro was willing to make large concessions to the U.S. According to The New York Times, in October, Maduro “offered to open up all existing and future oil and gold projects to American companies, give preferential contracts to American businesses, reverse the flow of Venezuelan oil exports from China to the United States, and slash his country’s energy and mining contracts with Chinese, Iranian and Russian firms.” After this report was released, the U.S. cut off diplomatic relations.
Trump asserted in a Jan. 3 press conference that the United States is “going to run the country until a proper transition can take place.” He stated that the transition would be led by the people “behind” him, referring to Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Imposing an imperial junta is common for the United States, from PROMESA in Puerto Rico to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
In a surprising rebuke to longtime anti-Chavismo figures, Trump did not support opposition leader María Corina Machado, saying, “She doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country; she’s a nice woman but doesn’t have the respect.”
While Trump and Rubio asserted that kidnapping Maduro most likely marked the end of military operations, Trump also stated that a second, larger attack might be necessary if the U.S. encountered any resistance; he indicated a willingness to put “boots on the ground.”
The U.S. war machine will not be satisfied with all of Venezuela’s oil. More important is solidifying control of the whole hemisphere, with special concern toward displacing the economic and political incursions into the region by China, which has been taking 80% of Venezuela’s oil exports. The attack and coup are a warning to Cuba as much as Venezuela.
The fates of workers, students, and oppressed people in Venezuela and in the United States are intimately connected. As the U.S. sanctioned, threatened, and ultimately invaded Venezuela for the benefit of Big Oil and the banks, those same ruling-class forces are decimating the gains of the civil rights, labor, and other social movements in this country. Scapegoating working-class Venezuelan migrants and sending them to CECOT to be tortured are all part of the ruling-class propaganda campaign that violates Venezuelan sovereignty and threatens every one of its residents.
Instead of allowing an international order based on domination and violence to continue, the working class and oppressed masses worldwide need to unite, mobilize, and organize around a program based on solidarity in the fight against imperialism. They must demand that the U.S. dismantle its military bases throughout Latin America and stay out of the affairs of Venezuela and other Latin American countries. Only the people of Venezuela—and not U.S. imperialism—have the right to decide the future of their country.
(Photo) Soon after news broke of the U.S. attack on Jan. 3, protesters hit the streets in Philadelphia. (Yong Kim / Philadelphia Inquirer)
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The persecution of African immigrants
By BRIAN CRAWFORD
Never one for subtlety, Donald Trump declared that he did not want Somali immigrants in the United States and demanded that they “should go back to where they came from.” The president directed his immigrant hunters (ICE) to Minnesota with Somali immigrants as their prey. The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are home to 80,000 Somalis; the majority are citizens. Somalis were granted protected status over 30 years ago due to the ongoing violence in their home country. Trump wants to end Temporary Protection Status for Somalis, which would affect a few hundred people across the United States.
The administration is using every pretext to amplify the propaganda against the immigrant population. Listening to the administration and its spokespersons, all immigrants detained and deported are criminals. African immigrants are facing greater legal obstacles in both the U.S. and Europe despite their presence for decades. For Africans seeking refuge in the U.S. and Europe, gaining asylum is nearly impossible.
Despite American mythology that glorifies immigrants and their contributions, discrimination and exclusion historically have prevailed in policy. Past policies greatly limited non-European immigration. The change came with the Immigration Act of 1965.
Subsequent legislation addressed refugee crises and attracted skilled workers from African countries—as of 2024, two and a half million from Sub-Saharan Africa. Africans represent 5% of the 50 million immigrants in the United States. Allison Rutland and Jeanne Batalova, writing for the Migration Policy Institute, characterize these immigrants as “generally more likely than the overall foreign-born population to have become U.S. citizens, be active in the labor force, have arrived after 2010, and have higher educational attainment” (“Sub-Saharan African immigrants to the United States,” migrationpolicy.org, Oct. 16, 2025).
However, since Trump’s return to power, the administration has imposed bans on 12 African nations and partial bans on an additional 15. This is based on U.S. assessments that characterize these countries as violent state sponsors of terrorism, or on their refusal to accept their deported nationals. In fact, people from these countries have strong cases for asylum based on these assessments.
More than 120 million people represent the stateless millions. This exceeds the population of most countries. Asylum seekers are not leaving by choice but because of state repression, poverty, famine, natural disasters, and climate change. Yet, a world in which capitalism creates crises also makes criminals of the millions fleeing its consequences.
Britain has altered its immigration policy to imprison the desperate, the impoverished, the victims of rape and torture. Legislation passed last year by the French parliament makes it more difficult for immigrants to obtain benefits or citizenship. This legislation was supported by President Emmanuel Macron and the leader of the major far-right party, Marine Le Pen. The far right increases their influence aided by mainstream political parties. Rather than offer an alternative to racist xenophobic arguments, mainstream politicians cynically propose and implement laws creating hardship for immigrants. At the same time, they make asylum nearly impossible.
Europe has made pacts with Morocco, Mauritania, Algeria, and Libya to deter asylum seekers. Security forces in these countries exhibit a total disregard for human rights. Migrants experience racial profiling, beatings, rape, torture and extortion. In December 2025, nine migrants froze to death when they were left in the mountains on the border between Morocco and Algeria; many others have been abandoned without food and water in the desert. In the past decade over 22,000 have died attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. Many of them leave via northwest Africa (the Maghreb) to the Canary Islands. Others attempt the voyage from Libya.
Ibrahima Bah, a Senegalese migrant, began an odyssey that illustrates the plight of many Africans seeking asylum. Bah originally traveled to Gambia, and eventually to Libya. After surviving a hazardous voyage to Sicily, he travelled through France. In December 2022, smugglers coerced him into helming a boat of migrants across the English Channel. There was a mishap and four people died. Bah was charged with manslaughter.
At trial the judge acknowledged that Bah had experienced forced labor and coercion, and that he was less culpable than the smugglers. Yet he was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison. Despite testifying that the smugglers threatened to kill him, the judge ruled that “the physical pressure he was placed under fell short of duress” (The Guardian, Feb. 23, 2024). It could have been worse. The Nationality and Borders Act of 2022 increased the maximum sentence for “facilitating” entry to life in prison.
In contrast to the rhetoric of governments and right-wing parties in Europe, Luisa von Richthofen writes in DW that the typical African immigrant is “someone waiting at the airport gate with their passport and ticket in hand.” (“African Migration to Europe: A Fact Check,” DW, Nov. 16, 2024). Many of the new arrivals are joining family members. Only 8% of Africans in Europe are refugees.
The persecution of African immigrants and asylum seekers will not in any way benefit the working class. In Europe and the United States, imprisoning asylum seekers should be denounced in the strongest terms. Mass deportations must end.
The working class in Europe and American should come to the defense of immigrants. This would be the case if class consciousness saturated the workers of the U.S. and Europe and was promoted by the trade-union movement. The hypocrisy of the ruling class must be exposed before the workers of the world. When it does, the greatest fear of the capitalists will be realized: a united class-conscious working class not susceptible to their racist propaganda.
Photo: Anti-ICE protest in Elizabeth, N.J. in March 2025. (Seth Wenig / AP)
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December 2025 edition of Forja Socialista
Check out the November-December 2025 edition of Forja Socialista, the newspaper of Corriente Socialista de los Trabajadores, sympathizing section of the IWL-FI in Mexico. Click through the link for articles on social polarization in Mexico, farmers’ blockades, the November “Gen Z” protest, workers’ conditions, environmental threats and more! Contents in Spanish.
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International joint statement: Down with U.S. aggression! Defend Venezuela!
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The grave threats facing Venezuela urgently require mass unity of action from anti-imperialist groups
STATEMENT BY INTERNATIONAL WORKERS LEAGUE (IWL), INTERNATIONAL WORKERS’ UNION (IWU, UIT) and REVOLUTIONARY COMMUNIST TENDENCY (RCIT)
The U.S. government, led by the far-right Donald Trump, is advancing its warmongering and interventionist offensive in the Caribbean, particularly against Venezuela.
In December, it declared a total blockade on oil tankers entering or leaving the country, after arbitrarily seizing several ships from Venezuela and appropriating tonnes of Venezuelan oil. This comes after having perpetrated nearly three dozen attacks against ships in the Caribbean and Pacific seas, leaving a hundred dead, under the false pretext of “combating drug trafficking.” This is extremely serious for a country that is highly dependent on oil export revenues.
Alongside this blockade, Trump is preparing a military intervention in Venezuela to remove Maduro and impose a far-right government. To this end, he has stationed a huge naval fleet in the Caribbean. Whether by invasion, air strike or economic suffocation, the objective is the same: to impose a puppet government on the country.
The excuse of the “war on drugs” is only a pretext for imperialist maneuvering. The history of U.S. interventions shows that its policies are not intended to stop drug trafficking. On the contrary, U.S. federal agencies have collaborated with drug cartels in Mexico and Colombia, and their interventions have not served to stop trafficking, but rather to reorganize it under U.S. control. Trump’s pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras who was serving a 45-year prison sentence in the U.S. for drug trafficking, exposes the farce.
The Trump administration’s recently published document on National Security Strategy explicitly states its goal of having puppet governments in Latin America. Pro-imperialist governments that implement neoliberal plans and open the economy to multinationals are no longer enough. They want far-right governments that are completely subservient to Trump. To that end, they are even exerting economic and political pressure to influence elections. They are making progress with Milei, Kast, Bukele, Asfura and want to continue with Uribe in Colombia.
As part of this, Trump has rejected Maduro’s proposal to hand over all the country’s oil and minerals in exchange for remaining in power, as reported by The New York Times. Trump wants to impose María Corina Machado as a puppet government, by any means necessary. However, Trump does not have everything in his favor. More than 70 percent of Americans oppose the plan to invade and attack Venezuela.
This position of the U.S. government is extremely dangerous, as it will affect workers in Venezuela, Venezuelans living in other countries and the peoples of Latin America as a whole. It has been decades since there has been a military attack or direct invasion by the U.S. on the Latin American continent.
That is why we call for a broad united campaign with all those who oppose imperialism’s attacks on Venezuela and Latin America. So far, there has been no anti-imperialist mobilzation against Trump’s intervention that meets the magnitude of the existing threat. It is very important and urgent to change this and move forward in unity of action in view of the seriousness of the situation.
No confidence in Maduro
Fighting against Trump and his interventionism does not mean, under any circumstances, giving any kind of political support to Maduro. His government is not anti-imperialist, much less socialist. In fact, to this day, the U.S. transnational Chevron continues to operate in Venezuela and is the main exploiter and exporter of Venezuelan oil. It is a capitalist dictatorship that governs by imposing austerity measures on the working people, a government of doublespeak and fake socialism.
The wages of Venezuelan workers have been pulverized by inflation. Today, the minimum wage is less than one dollar per month. Labor and trade-union rights have been violated as part of Maduro’s pro-boss and anti-worker austerity policy. As a result of all this, basic services are in a state of complete disrepair.
Imperialist sanctions, and now this warmongering and interventionist offensive, only serve to aggravate the situation, further deteriorating the already dramatic living conditions of working people. That is why we will be at the forefront of the fight against Trump’s intervention in Venezuela, but without giving political support or placing our trust in Maduro.
We must wage a strong and united anti-imperialist campaign
We reject Donald Trump’s statements demanding that “all the oil, land and other assets stolen from the United States be returned,” as if these resources had ever belonged to him. The truth is that it is U.S. imperialism, in collusion with the Venezuelan governments of the day, both those of Punto Fijo and those of Chávez, and even more so the current Maduro government, that have historically plundered energy, oil, mineral, land and other resources. What Trump intends, in his inter-imperialist dispute on the continent, is to reinforce and reassure this plundering with a puppet government, such as that of María Corina Machado and the bourgeois sector she represents.
The Maduro government, for its part, with its austerity and repressive policies, is only facilitating an eventual intervention by increasing the unpopularity of his regime among the working population.
In this sense, we believe that to confront imperialism we need to unify workers and the Venezuelan people to demand that Maduro’s government implement a program that begins with the defense of democratic freedoms, the release of political prisoners who repudiate imperialist aggression, an increase in the minimum monthly wage and pensions to the level of the basic basket of goods, the restoration of curtailed labor, contractual and trade union rights; an end to the repression of workers’ organizations; the granting of political rights to left-wing parties such as the PCV, PPT, Marea Socialista, PSL, among others; the cessation of the surrender of resources from the Orinoco Mining Arc (AMO) and the Orinoco Oil Belt (FPO), and the rejection of imperialist interference and its threats of intervention.
It is essential that we, as labor and mass movement organizations, promote the broadest unity of action to reject and confront military aggression, the criminal bombings in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific, the oil blockade––all of which are acts of war––as well as any further military intervention. In any confrontation between the armed forces of the United States and Venezuela, workers and popular organizations must advocate for the military victory of the latter and the defeat of U.S. imperialism.
In the United States, we recognize how these imperialist attacks are directly linked to the Trump administration’s attacks on the American working class, as well as to the long history of U.S. interventions against Latin America and the working class in general, and we encourage mass mobilization to stop this completely, including the cancellation without payment of all neocolonial debts controlled by the U.S.
Latin American governments that claim to oppose Trump’s intervention must call for mobilizations, something they have not done so far. Lula, Petro, Sheinbaum—who claim to reject Trump’s intervention—must call for days of mobilization and directly help Venezuela to evade sanctions, assisting in the export and import of goods and providing military support against U.S. aggression.
Our call is for the workers and peoples of the United States and Latin America to unite and mobilize against the actions being carried out by US imperialism on the continent, which must be denounced for what they are: acts of war against all the peoples of this continent in general and against the Venezuelan people in particular.
•We completely reject the naval blockade against Venezuela and its oil!
• No to the theft of Venezuelan oil and the hijacking of oil transport ships!
• Down with imperialist sanctions against Venezuela!
• Stop the bombings and assassinations in the Caribbean and the Pacific!• No to the invasion of Venezuela!
• No confidence in Maduro!
• Arms for the workers! Full freedoms to mobilize against imperialism! Suspend debt payments and reverse the sell-out contracts for the resources of Orinoco!
• We completely reject Donald Trump’s acts of war on the continent!
• Lula, Petro, Sheinbaum—who say they reject Trump’s intervention—must directly help Venezuela to repel these actions militarily!
• Trump and U.S. imperialism out of Latin America and the Caribbean!
— International Workers’ League (IWL , www.litci.org)
— International Workers’ Union – Fourth International (IWU, www.uit-ci.org )
— Revolutionary Communist International Tendency ( RCIT , www.thecommunists.net)
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Struggle in India’s Hasdeo forest: Proletarianization and environmental destruction
By MAZDOOR INQUILAB
The region of Eastern and Central India is rich in the most critical minerals—such as iron, coal, uranium, and rare earths. Chattisgarh is one of India’s most mineral rich states, and it is also one of India’s poorest. Much of the state falls under areas of tribal land, inhabited by scheduled tribes like the Gond and Murias. For long decades the Indian state exploited them and their land for its mineral wealth, agricultural wealth, and forest resources. The scheduled tribes remained among the poorest communities in India, even as their land fueled the rise of Indian capitalism, building the foundations of a modern nation.
After liberalization, the exploitation of tribal land and people only intensified. The state which had neglected and oppressed them, now turned its powers to enable the exploitation of the land and resources of the scheduled tribes, displacing and impoverishing them for the benefit of steel and mining companies. The persistent marginalization and oppression suffered by the scheduled tribes compelled them to take up arms under the leadership of the armed Maoist parties of India, known collectively as the Naxals.
There is a direct overlap of the spread of iron and coal resources, tribal land, and Naxal insurgency. After a decade and a half of brutal counter-insurgency warfare by the Indian state, the area affected by Naxalite insurgency has been reduced to just two districts. The final push against Naxalites launched by the BJP government under operation Kagaar preceded the latest scramble for resources.
Mining and steel companies had ravaged the forest lands of Chattisgarh’s tribal population, yet tribal populations have resisted bravely. Today, the point of confrontation is the Hasdeo forest of Chattisgarh Arand, known for long as the lungs of Chattisgarh. The Hasdeo Arand forests are home to a rich biodiversity of elephants, sloth bears, leopards and valuable water reserves. Several tribal hamlets home to a population of people belonging to the Gond and Araon tribes, as well as several smaller tribal communities. The forests are spread over 170,000 hectares over land rich in coal.
For long, the region has been subjected to intensive coal mining, producing about 5 million tonnes per annum. Reserves of up to 5 billion tonnes of coal are found in the Hasdeo-Arand coalfield. Despite opposition from the scheduled tribes inhabiting the forest, environmental activists and experts warning of the grave damage that expanding mining would cause, the government has decided in favour of allocating more mining rights. Over the last year alone, there have been several protests against proposed mining expansions, in Ambikapur, these protests have culminated into open armed confrontation with the police forces.
Proletarianization : The foundation of Indian capitalism
The media often talks about India’s “demographic dividend,” India having the largest population of young working age population in the world. Much of this population is yet to be incorporated into the ranks of the working class, many of whom have been rendered unemployed or survive off petty production or service. Crucially, most of this population lives in the countryside.
For Indian capitalism, this population represents a huge unexploited asset. The ‘demographic dividend’ is nothing but the potential pool of working class that Indian capitalism can exploit cheaply. To do it, the system must ensure that the youth have no option but to sell its labour power to survive, that requires the wholesale destruction of small scale production, farming, retail, and it requires the destruction of any support system which could keep communities rooted where they are.
The destruction of tribal lands for mining serves two purposes, securing the resources of the land and throwing the people who live off the land into the system of proletarianization. India’s scheduled tribes inhabiting the vast stretch of East-Central India count among the most vulnerable population, and a prime target of this process.
Chattisgarh has one of the worst poverty rates in the country. Nationally, the scheduled tribes of India suffer one of the worst poverty rates in the country, at nearly 50%. This state is one of the richest in minerals, yet remains trapped in poverty. Indian and foreign capitalist companies exploit tribal land for resources resulting in the displacement of hundreds and thousands from their ancestral land, the destruction of traditional support structures, leaving them no option but to become workers in cities, often in the most exploitative sectors such as construction.
India is the fastest growing major capitalist economy, yet most of the population continues to live in poverty. For the last thirty years, the process of proletarianization has intensified. Millions of scheduled tribes have been displaced as a result of Indian infrastructure and mining projects. ‘Liberalizing’ reforms allowed greater exploitation of the working class, the deeper penetration of foreign capital, and the growth of Indian multi-national corporations. Fueling this rise is the ruthless destruction of small scale production and tribal land.
Millions have been forced to leave the countryside for work in the cities, or find work in small industrial units spread near urban suburbs. To continue this growth, Indian capital is hungry for resources. All eyes have turned to the resource rich states of Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal, regions which have most of India’s scheduled tribe populations.
Scramble for resources
Chattisgarh has 4 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves, accounting for 19% of the total iron ore reserves in India. Four states along Eastern and Central India account for 4/5th of all iron ore reserves in India, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. This region also holds much of India’s coal and uranium deposits, most of which again sit on tribal lands, or adjacent to tribal lands. The states also account for a bulk of India’s forest cover and biodiversity.
As Indian capital emerged, so did its hunger for resources. Lands belonging to tribes inhabiting these areas for millennia were now a target for mining companies, steel companies and power companies. Coal fuels most of India’s power needs, even today while much of the world turns to renewables, ensuring these states and the scheduled tribal population of these states, would continue to be at the receiving end of displacements caused by large scale mining projects.
India has grown as one of the largest steel and coal producers in the world, much of it on the back of iron mined in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand. Mega mining projects here have caused immense environmental harm as well as displacement of millions. The upending of tribal life and livelihoods has had the effect of creating a large pool of workers for India’s expanding cities, who have no other means of sustaining themselves, than becoming cheap labour.
This scramble for resources went hand in hand with a commodity boom in the early years of the 21st century, and fueled the rise of Naxalite insurgency. To their credit, the armed wing of the CPI(Maoists) were one of the few to mobilize and arm tribal populations against the terror tactics of the Indian state. The stiff armed resistance of these communities did not deter the Indian state, even if it may have slowed down the pace of mining expansion for a while.
The struggle of tribal populations culminated in the passage of the Forest Rights Act in 2006, a landmark legislation that accorded rights of tribal populations and those who lived off the resources of Indian forests to that land. The state could no longer exercise arbitrary control over the land rights of scheduled tribes. Despite this measure, the Indian state and corporations found ways around protections to ensure the steady expansion of mining.
It was under the Congress government that Operation Green Hunt was initiated, combined with a large scale crackdown on whatever the state declared to be “Naxals”. This gave the state a wide mandate to hunt down any intellectuals who stood in solidarity with fighting tribal populations against the wishes of mining companies. The conflict between the capitalist state and tribal populations of East and Central India became an undeclared war, largely fought by India’s paramilitaries against the insurgents of the Maoists. The so-called red-belt was the frontline of this war.
Today Naxal affected zones have shrunk to two or three districts around Eastern Maharashtra. The armed resistance of tribes have largely been done away with, and under the Modi government, hard won rights and protections are being slowly done away with. Indian capitalism is not immune to the crisis affecting capitalism as a whole, across the world there has been a slowdown, a decline in the rate of profit. Indian capitalism’s solution is the same that every capitalist country has undertaken, expand and deepen the penetration of capitalism, intensify proletarianization, and expand the exploitation of resources.
We are witnessing the new phase of a very old scheme of exploitation, where the scramble for resources continues and intensifies, once again this has pitted tribal populations against the armed forces of the state.
The history of persecution of tribal populations
The region comprising the Chotanagpur plateau and Eastern Ghats accounts for the most mineral rich region of India. For centuries, this region remained dominated by autonomous tribal communities, with large centralizing empires barely having any sway over it. This changed when the British extended its sway over this region.
The tribes of this region, chiefly the Gonds and Santhals, bravely resisted British colonialism and they were brutally punished for it. The tribal population were subjected to indentured labour for tea plantations in the Himalayas, thousands were deported and many died en route. The subjugation of the tribes following the crushing of the Santhal rebellion opened up this region for capitalist mining. For the first time, the Gonds, Santhals and others now faced a threat to their very existence, for mining challenged their link to the land, critical to their very being.
Over the course of the mid to late 19th century, the populations of this region were exploited for supplying cheap indentured labour for British plantations along the Himalayas and beyond. From the early 20th century onwards mining was intensified in the region, steel production was established, pioneered by the Tatas who established the integrated steel plant in Jamshedpur, modern day Jharkhand state.
The tribal populations suffered displacement terror and incessant violence, this reality remained unchanged even as India gained independence. The British bureaucrat and state forces were simply replaced by their Indian counterparts. Independent India kept the colonial army and police, virtually unchanged. While they served foreign masters before independence, after independence they served Indian capitalists. Their aim was indistinguishable from the British, to exploit tribal land and people for the enrichment of a handful of oligarchs. The Tatas pioneered this exploitation, others today have carried it forward.
Today, the Modi government is hastening the exploitation of tribal land, bringing the so-called war against Naxals to a bloody close, and weakening diluting protections till they become more worthless than the paper they’re written on. Under his leadership, Indian and foreign mining companies have gained unprecedented freedom to exploit tribal lands.
The Modi government and Indian environmental laws
Since coming to power, Modi and the BJP went on an all-out war against environmental restrictions. Mining clearances were made easier, forests were either denotified or cleared for mining, even as the Modi government claimed false victories, such as the expansion of forest cover. In truth, the new government has changed the definitions of forests to include plantations.
On paper funds for afforestation has increased fivefold, but in reality most afforestation projects do not exist. At the same time, environmental clearances have increased from 577 in 2018, to 12496 in 2022. The time required for attaining an environmental clearance has also decreased from 600 days to 162, giving less time to conduct a proper assessment of environmental impact for projects.
Since coming to power, the Modi government has fast-tracked several industrial and mining projects in sensitive land. The government has sought to undermine environmental protections and the rights of forest dwellers to favour capitalist land-grabbers. Projects have been allowed to continue without prior environmental assessment or consultation.
The most damaging move however, would be in the amendments to the Forest Conversation Act (1980). The new Forest Bill seeks to reclassify forests, extending protection to only those forests notified in the records as on 25th October 1980. If the bill passes into law, a third of India’s forests may lose any protection. It further dilutes protections for forests, removing the requirement for consultation with Forest dwelling tribes, and allowing eco-tourism projects on sensitive land. Furthermore, the protection for sensitive forests would be altogether removed for land within 100 km of international borders.
The government’s dismal track record on environmental protection continues, with the recent ruling of the Supreme Court on the Aravalli hills. The state representatives submitted an absurd criterion for the protection of the hills, confining the definition of hills to only those with 100 mts of height, ignoring the unique and ecologically sensitive geography of the Aravalli range. What is set to be done to one of the oldest mountain ranges is already being done with the forests in Hasdeo.
Hasdeo and the world – the bloody global scramble for resources
It must be understood what is happening in India is not unique. World over, environmentally sensitive zones are under threat, indigenous and tribal populations are subjected to constant terror and violence. Capitalism states everywhere are diluting environmental protections to ease the exploitation of unexploited protected land.
Capitalism is in crisis now, and in such a state it seeks new avenues to keep the rate of profit from falling. That means only one thing, the intensification of exploitation of land and labour. The capitalist thirst for resources is unquenchable, it has brought war to Africa, climate catastrophes across the world, and now a war in the Americas.
This scramble for resources, be it gold, iron, coal, oil, or rare earth minerals, is one of the most dangerous and toxic manifestations of capitalism. We must recognize that this is not a matter of policy alone, but a feature of the capitalist system.
There is no struggle to save the environment that does not also call for the abolition of capitalism.DOWN WITH ADANI ! DOWN WITH CAPITALISM ! SAVE THE PLANET ! DESTROY CAPITALISM ! BUILD SOCIALISM ! FOR TRIBAL AND INDIGENOUS RIGHTS !
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUjbTkKxlmM
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRzxDnaDENm/
https://www.rightsofnaturetribunal.org/cases/hasdeo-arand-india/
https://101reporters.com/article/Society/Poverty_on_rise_in_Chhattisgarh_Tough_Times_For_Tribals
Photo: Coal mine in Jharkhand, 2023. (Harshaddu via Wikimedia Commons)
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COP30: Another victory for fossil fuel industry, as humanity moves toward climate catastrophe
By JEFFERSON CHOMA
The COP30 international climate conference was yet another victory for the fossil fuel industry, which comes as no surprise to those who follow these conferences. But this time, it was even more frustrating because, at the beginning of the conference, there were mentions of a supposed “roadmap” to gradually reduce the burning of fossil fuels in the coming years.
However, that “roadmap” turned out to be another fantasy in the face of enormous pressure from the fossil fuel industry. The COP ended without a plan to phase out fossil fuels and without funding targets for climate adaptation. In fact, even though fossil fuels are primarily responsible for global warming, explicit mention of the need to phase them out is always removed from the final COP documents.
Once again, the conference served as a showcase for climate- and environment-hostile capitalists. At least 1600 oil lobbyists circulated in the Blue Zone, forming a delegation larger than that of any individual country except Brazil, the host country of COP30. In addition to the mountain of greenwashing (a deceptive marketing practice whereby polluting companies present themselves as sustainable), COP30 was the scene of bizarre episodes, such as the presence of a Brazilian agribusiness space—the Agrizone—where landowners responsible for the destruction of Brazilian forests and the murder of socio-environmental activists gathered. This group even held a barbecue in the Agrizone, bringing together landowners implicated in the murder of missionary Dorothy Stang, who was assassinated in 2005 in Anapu, Pará, for having spoken out on behalf of the rural poor and against the agribusinesses destroying the forest.
Mobilizations expose contradictions of the Lula government
Brazil is trying to present itself as a leader in the construction of a “plan” for energy transition. Lula gave pretty speeches about the need to reduce fossil fuels and about the peoples of the Amazon, but he was unable to hide the enormous contradiction of his political practice. In addition to liberalizing oil exploitation in the Amazon weeks before COP30, the government has been preparing to unleash climate bombs that could lead to the collapse of the world’s largest rainforest, such as the paving of the BR-319 highway and the creation of waterways on Amazonian rivers (by presidential decree and without consulting the traditional communities affected, as required by law) to facilitate the transport of soybeans, corn, and iron extracted in the region.
That is why COP30 was marked by various protests, led mainly by Indigenous peoples, who blocked diplomatic delegations’ access to the Blue Zone, occupied the venue on the first day of the conference, participated in marches, and made indignant statements against the Lula government’s policies, demanding the immediate demarcation of their territories.
The high point of the popular protests was the Global Climate March, one of the main events of the People’s Summit, a parallel event to the COP, which brought together between 50,000 and 70,000 people on Nov. 15—including indigenous peoples, activists, and social movements from around the world—who did not spare their criticism of capitalism and the Brazilian government.
The PSTU [Unified Socialist Workers Party] was present at the march, as part of the CSP-Conlutas contingent, with approximately 200 activists, including quilombolas, Indigenous people, trade unionists, students, and construction workers from Belém.
Faced with the climate of unrest, the Lula government mobilized Environment Minister Marina Silva (REDE), Indigenous Peoples Minister Sônia Guajajara (PSOL), and Guilherme Boulos (PSOL), now Minister of the General Secretariat, to try to contain the mobilization. Boulos proposed a “prior consultation” after the decree paving the way for the creation of the waterways had already been issued. Instead of advocating for its immediate revocation, Boulos presented a measure with no real effect, seen by Indigenous peoples as a maneuver to demobilize resistance and facilitate agribusiness projects. Indigenous peoples are demanding the revocation of the decree, respect for the right to consultation, and an end to projects that threaten their territories.
“Green capitalism” is a farce
In addition to the greenwashing, COP was dominated by proposals for so-called “green capitalism,” such as carbon credits, which are financial assets traded on stock exchanges and allow polluters to emit greenhouse gases at a lower cost than fines and penalties. It is like a food voucher that allows capitalists to buy the right to continue polluting and deforesting. On the other hand, the carbon credit market harms traditional and Indigenous communities through fraud, violations of territorial rights, and limitations on their subsistence activities.
Another initiative is the funds for the protection of rainforests, heavily promoted by the Lula and Marina Silva governments. The Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF) promises to protect forests, but prioritizes financial market investors. According to a study by the Arayara Institute, more than 95% of the TFFF’s annual return is allocated to purposes other than conservation, instead going straight to the financial system.
“Nature becomes collateral; the peoples of the forest, residual beneficiaries. This is not compatible with the discourse of climate justice. (…) Without safeguards, the fund can finance sectors that destroy the Amazon and weaken mechanisms such as the Amazon Fund,” the Institute critically assesses.
The world is moving towards climate barbarism
While COPs are spaces for major negotiations between fossil fuel and extractive capitalism, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) reinforces the accelerated progress of the climate crisis and the imminent failure of the goals set out in the Paris Agreement. According to the document, even if all the commitments currently made by countries are fully met, the global average temperature is set to rise by between 2.5°C and 2.9°C by the end of the century, a level considered extremely dangerous by scientists.
This would mean crossing several points of no return, making global warming uncontrollable. A world above 2°C would be ravaged by pandemics, the destruction of coastal cities, the collapse of forests, and vast continental areas left uninhabitable by humans due to extreme heat. One of those regions would be Belém, the host city of COP30. Scientific projections indicate that the city could become uninhabitable due to extreme heat as early as 2070 if the 2°C barrier is exceeded.
The projections are even more alarming when the current trajectory of emissions is considered. According to UNEP, the chances of limiting warming to 1.5°C are already nil, and the probability of keeping it below 2°C falls to just 8% if the world continues at the current pace of mitigation.
Even if the climate targets offered by countries so far are fully adopted, the outlook is not encouraging: the chances of stabilizing warming at 2°C by 2050 rise to only 25%, a stark warning about the inadequacy of the promises and the urgency of more profound and immediate action.
The report reinforces the understanding that the window to avoid the worst-case scenarios of climate collapse is rapidly closing, while governments remain far from taking the necessary measures and plan to explore even more oil over the next decade.
In practice, the leaders of imperialism and big capitalists have already made their decision: they will not prevent climate catastrophe, even if it costs the murder and genocide of a large part of humanity. Only the overcoming of capitalism and social control of production can prevent the worst.
Photo: Indigenous people in the Blue Zone of the COP30 conference.
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Podcast: Venezuela and the challenge of international solidarity
On this episode of Solidarity Without Exception, host Blanca Missé interviews Venezuelan journalist and researcher Simón Rodríguez Porras about the crisis facing Venezuela in the face of the Trump administration’s illegal attacks. With open war looming, dozens killed, and serious economic disruption already underway, Rodríguez Porras and Missé take up the need for working people around the globe to oppose Trump’s imperialist aggression and stand in solidarity with the Venezuelan people without excusing or ignoring the political crisis within Venezuela itself.Solidarity Without Exception is sponsored by the Ukraine Solidarity Network and The Real News Network, and features interviews with intellectuals and activists discussing particular countries and peoples’ struggles for liberation.
Find it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2DVBYAiQXVKTodh31d42N1Become a supporter of the podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/solidarity-without-exception–6535723/support -
Unrest and mistrust are growing in Mexico
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By CORRIENTE SOCIALISTA DE LOS TRABAJADORES (Socialist Workers’ Current) in Mexico
Imperialist pressure on Mexico intensified with Trump’s blackmail and threats, such as the imposition of tariffs and blatant military interference in the treatment of migrants, the extraction of drug traffickers, and attacks on ships off the coast and even on Mexican beaches. Claudia Sheinbaum’s government—despite its rhetoric “in defense of sovereignty”—constantly yields to these pressures and reproduces them on the exploited sectors of Mexican society.
Mexican society has accumulated tremendous economic inequality and social injustice over many decades. Throughout our history, there have been enormous uprisings, revolutions, and constant resistance. The most recent upswell began in 2014: the people of Mexico once again began to confront this injustice. The trigger was undoubtedly the crime of the state against the Ayotzinapa 43. [This regards the 43 students from a rural teachers’ college who disappeared after their buses were stopped by police in the state of Guerrero. The students were on their way to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of the 1968 government massacre of student protesters at Tlatelolco.] The immense wave of indignation and mobilizations produced a radical change in the situation.
These actions were followed by the teachers’ strike against the neoliberal “education reform” in 2016 and, in that context, the massacre of Nochixtlan [in which at least eight people were killed after police opened fire on a group of striking teachers]. A high point in this process was the massive uprising against the “Gasolinazo” (gasoline price hike) in 2017, when hundreds of popular assemblies and local rebellions were organized and hundreds of thousands took to the streets throughout Mexico shouting “Peña out!”
The big oligarchs—whom López Obrador [the former president, known as “AMLO”] referred to as the “power mafia” or the “predatory minority”—were frightened and decided to “take off some rings so as not to lose their fingers.” And so they appealed to López Obrador himself to embody the “hope of Mexico.” They put aside the fact that in 2006 they had stigmatized AMLO as a “danger to Mexico.” And in case they had any doubts, AMLO explained to Mexico’s leading bankers, gathered at the palatial Hotel Prince in Acapulco, that if it wasn’t him, “Who will tie up the tiger?”
And so it was, the “tiger” was not only tamed but hypnotized! Today, with the six-year term over and in the “Second Phase” of the “Fourth Transformation,” the palliative assistance to the sectors most submerged in misery—which were received with relief and blessings at the beginning of the last six-year term—no longer compensate for the unrest of other large sectors of workers and the exploited, who generate enormous wealth with long weekly hours and cannot escape poverty.
Scholarships and other forms of assistance have not solved the lack of prospects for the majority of young people: with informal jobs, job instability, or “junk” contracts that violate the law and all labor rights, without social security or benefits, long working hours with no respect for end times or breaks, no access to their own housing, and difficulties in paying rent due to low wages. There is also the frustration of those who, with great sacrifices for their families, have completed their studies and cannot find work even close to their specialty, but only precarious odd jobs.
The expectations for improvement generated by AMLO’s government are beginning to turn into disappointment, uncertainty, and mistrust. The popular “hope” is turning into anguish and apathy and is beginning to give way to weariness. This disappointment has not yet led to mass action by the exploited, due to the brutal restraint of the government-run yellow unions, and also because the masses distrust the rancid right wing that is now a “rabid opposition.”
Why is this happening? It is because the changes were superficial and cosmetic, not profound. The president changed and the ruling party changed, but the regime did not change, which was and continues to be at the beck and call of the oligarchs. To make matters worse, many hated figures from the PRI [Partido Revolucionario Institucional, in governmental power from 1929 to 2000] and PAN [Partido Acción Nacional, the right-wing party that held power from 2000 to 2012] jumped ship like “grasshoppers” to join the ruling Morena party. Despite the slogan “For the good of all, first the poor,” it was the big tycoons who were the first to double their fortunes.
Nor did the country’s semi-colonial subordination change. The external debt grew to almost half (49.9%) of the Gross Domestic Product. The yoke of NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], signed in 1992, which proved to be an instrument for plundering the country’s wealth and ruining the peasantry, was reinforced with the signing of the USMCA in 2018. On the other hand, the interference of the DEA and Trump himself continues to grow in relation to his supposed “fight against drug trafficking.” The sleazy imperialist magnate is no stranger to questions of collusion of organized crime, and always is ready with an excuse when the complicity of governors, mayors, deputies, and senators is exposed.
Nov. 15 march in Mexico City manipulated by right wingers
Some of the same oligarchs who increased their fortunes during AMLO’s six-year term are now using their powerful media outlets to manipulate the justified popular unrest and the expressions of anger of broad sectors of the middle classes in the countryside and the city.
This sums up the essence of the march organized under the banner of a supposed “Generation Z” [occasioned by the assassination of Carlos Manzo, the mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, who was known for authorizing the use of force against criminal gang members]. They tried to manipulate it and give it a direction as ultra-reactionary as their own capitalist interests. And in reality, they are working against the interests of the majority of the protesters themselves, even if the protesters haven’t realized it yet. It is a replica of what has happened before in other countries across Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador. Faced with the failure of governments that call themselves “progressive” or even “leftist,” here too, the old reactionary political sectors that ruled Mexico for more than 80 years feel that “the time for their revenge” has come.
It is not the purpose of this article to describe the composition of the march, although it does bear noting that the “Generation Z” itself was not visible. Nor will we focus on the reasons for the anger against the owner of Banco Azteca and the Electra commercial network, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, who refuses to pay taxes owed for many years, amounting to almost $3 billion. Salinas Pliego was one of those who supported AMLO in the election campaign, which is why his bank received favors from those in power during the last six-year term. Now, instead of paying his debts to the state, he prefers to spend millions on manipulating the opposition media.
Nor will we dwell too much on the “evidence” presented by Luisa María Alcalde, president of Morena, regarding the contract that the PAN signed with a young man from “Generation Z,” the organizer of the march on Saturday, Nov. 15. Nor do we believe it is productive to delve into the rabbit holes of so many other stunts and provocations. Because they are part of the “dirty war” between the same parties of the rotten regime that serves the capitalist oligarchs and in no way serves “the poor.” We denounce this fight between exploiters in which they use the exploited as pawns. For us, the real struggle is not between the initials “4T or Z.” It is the struggle of the exploited and oppressed against all exploiters and oppressors!
The legitimate struggles of various social sectors
We support with all our modest strength the direct actions of sectors such as the strike and sit-in by CNTE teachers over the lack of response to their demands—supported by the majority of workers in different sectors—for the repeal of the neoliberal ISSTE Law of 2007, for a solidarity-based pension system, and for a larger budget for education, health, and social security.
The blockades by thousands of farmers in several states, harmed by the USMCA and fed up with the parasitism of the cartels that collect their own criminal “taxes” from them, have a major economic and social impact in Mexico. The organizations that make up the coalition called for a new road blockade and joint action with truck drivers. They are fighting against large intermediaries such as “Maseca” and other corporations, demanding a support price for corn, whose price is set on the Chicago Stock Exchange and is subsidized in the U.S.
Meanwhile, outrage is growing among the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the floods in Veracruz and other states due to the neglect of governments at all levels and the uncertainty of Pemex workers in Poza Rica in the face of the paralysis of the production plant as a result of the destruction caused by the floods. In this context of environmental collapse, the struggle of the water technicians of SITIMTA stands out. They are resisting in defense of the human right to water against plans to privatize water resources in the service of transnational corporations, such as soft drink and beer companies, or large landowners, and against the growing contamination of aquifers by Pemex and other extractive corporations.
In this context of growing tensions, the trigger that inflamed the masses of Michoacán was the point-blank murder of Carlos Manzo, the municipal president of Uruapan who was confronting the cartels and also the Michoacán governor from Morena, Alfredo Ramírez Bedoya. This mayor, who rose through the ranks of Morena, of which he was a federal deputy, broke away, ran as an independent candidate, won, and was preparing to run for governor. As if there were not enough reasons for outrage, scandals of collusion with drug traffickers involving some notorious Morena figures, such as Senator Adán Augusto—very close to AMLO—and other high-ranking Navy officers, relatives of the former SEMAR secretary involved in fiscal and hydrocarbon “huachicol” (fuel theft), have come to light.
The government has not resolved any of these demands, but it does comply with the demands of imperialism and the local oligarchs who impose plans to deepen the exploitation and plundering of the country. All these failures and grievances are changing the political situation within the country. We do not intend here to give a definitive opinion on an unfinished and still incipient process. But one thing is clear: the “second phase of the fourth transition” is showing cracks.
We need to achieve political independence for workers
The only way to achieve social justice and national independence and not fall back into false alternatives or be used as unwitting instruments in power struggles between the owners of big money is to build an independent political alternative for workers, one that leads the struggles of all the exploited and aims not only to demand from the bosses’ government a share of the wealth we produce, but also to establish a workers’, peasants’, and popular government.
This struggle cannot and must not be only that of the workers and people of Mexico, but instead must be an international struggle, building mutual solidarity among workers throughout the American continent to recover national sovereignty in the face of Trump’s threats and blackmail. We who are grouped together in the Corriente Socialista de los Trabajadores (Socialist Workers’ Current) in Mexico are committed to this task, and from our newspaper, FORJA Socialista, we call on you to join us in this work.
Photo: Teachers, members of the CNTE in Michoacán, march in Mexico City.