“Hands Off Venezuela!” CPI Joins Uhuru Solidarity Call
The Uhuru Fightback Coalition, the Peoples Democratic Uhuru Movement and the African Peoples Socialist Party convened an online solidarity call on November 13th to express support for the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as new threats and pressures from the United States continue to escalate. Community organizers, anti-imperialist activists, and supporters from across the country joined to reaffirm their commitment to defending Venezuela’s sovereignty.
Caleb Maupin, director of the Center for Political Innovation (CPI), participated in the call and delivered remarks emphasizing the importance of international solidarity in the face of U.S. aggression. Maupin praised the resilience of the Venezuelan people and their ongoing struggle to maintain independence in the face of economic warfare and political destabilization.
Maupin also reiterated his longstanding support for the Uhuru Movement, denouncing the FBI raids and criminal indictment of the Uhuru 3 and expressing support for ongoing appeals.
Participants on the call stressed the need for cooperation among anti-war and anti-imperialist organizations, pledging continued unity in the struggle for global justice and resistance to U.S. interventionism.
TRANSCRIPT:
Mwezi Odom: I want to welcome up Caleb Maupin, founder of the Center for Political Innovation and a longtime supporter. One of the first videos I saw out there in the world after the Uhuru 3 were attacked was a video of Caleb. I didn’t even know who he was at the time, but I saw a courageous individual taking a stand. I just want to express my appreciation for you being on.
Let’s go ahead and bring you up, Caleb Maupin. Hold on—there you are, I see you. All right. Thank you, comrade. I’ll turn it over to you.
Caleb Maupin: On behalf of the Center for Political Innovation, I would like to thank the Uhuru Movement for convening this very important call. I want to say that action, action, action is needed to stand with Venezuela right now.
Recently, on October 18th, when the Democratic Party held their “No Kings” circus rallies, we decided to intervene. Across the country, our members disrupted the No Kings rallies. In Minneapolis, one of our members interrupted Keith Ellison while he was speaking, shouting “Hands off Venezuela!” We brought the message of Hands Off Venezuela to No Kings rallies in multiple states—on the West Coast, the East Coast, and in the heartland of America, in places like Iowa, Minneapolis, and Chicago. It was a great intervention, and we need to keep applying pressure. Venezuela needs our support now more than ever.
I also want to mention that I’ve been to Venezuela myself. One of the most powerful things I saw there was a building called the Center for African Knowledge, dedicated to the Afro-Venezuelan community and the peoples of Venezuela from the African diaspora. It includes museums and a number of cooperative businesses that have set up in the building. It’s a beautiful facility.
It was at the Center for African Knowledge in Caracas that I learned that when Hugo Chávez first took office, Venezuela had only 12 public universities. Today it has 32. Can you imagine the transformation a country undergoes when it expands its university system from 12 to 32—building 20 new public universities? That’s just one example. The Bolivarian Revolution also wiped out illiteracy. I walked through a neighborhood where every single house had been paid for with an interest-free government loan.
I also want to point out that it was once trendy to support Hugo Chávez during the Bush years. At that time, the U.S. and Europe were at odds—remember the era of “freedom fries”—and Chávez was calling Bush “the devil” at the United Nations. A lot of the fashionable leftist academics with their cosmopolitan worldview—Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, and others—said, “Oh yes, we love Venezuela.”
But once Barack Obama became president, once Hugo Chávez passed away, and once Nicolás Maduro continued the Bolivarian Revolution during the 2014 oil price collapse and under devastating sanctions, these same trendy liberals turned on Venezuela. They stabbed Venezuela in the back and lied about it. Jacobin magazine, which claims to be the voice of socialism, published scathing lies—claiming the government denied people the right to vote or access to food cards unless they voted for the government. This was never carried out. It was briefly discussed at a time when the violent opposition was pushing for election boycotts, and even then they never implemented it—though they would have been justified, given the opposition was trying to sabotage the elections and destroy food distribution. But Jacobin lied and defamed them.
Even Rand Paul—the congressman from Kentucky—pointed out that U.S. claims about Venezuela being involved in the drug trade don’t match the U.S. DEA’s own records. We saw opposition to intervention from people like Thomas Massie and others. But AOC, Bernie Sanders—mostly silence. Bernie Sanders finally said something a week ago, but he was silent throughout the buildup.
The fake left—the left loyal to Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee, the left that pushes “stop Trump” hysteria—has betrayed Venezuela. They want to remove Trump not because he is pushing regime-change operations in Venezuela, but because they fear he might make a peace deal or end the war in Ukraine.
Those of us who are sincere—people like Chairman Omali, people in the Uhuru Movement—who are principled anti-imperialists and who believe in economic growth and projects like Bolivarian socialism, must remain sincere. We have to stand up for what is right. We can call out Trump for what he has done—attacking Palestine protesters, bombing Iran—there is plenty to condemn. But our condemnations come from a place of anti-imperialism, from opposing regime change and opposing the global system of imperialism that is deeply tied in with Zionism and the crimes of the Israeli regime.
We salute the Uhuru Movement for their relentlessness and their courage in the face of FBI attacks. And we call on all of the Uhuru Movement’s allies to continue speaking up in solidarity with Venezuela against U.S. war crimes and in solidarity with all countries around the world that have broken out of imperialism. We will never forget what happened to Libya—the great anti-imperialist stronghold led by Muammar Gaddafi. Anti-imperialism must remain the focus of all progressive forces.
Long live the Uhuru Movement. Long live Chairman Omali. We look forward to victories in court against the FBI and to continued heroism from this great movement. Thank you for this opportunity.
