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Sam McGill from the Revolutionary Communist Group and Rock Around the Blockade was interviewed by TeleSUR English on their programme: Venezuela Decides 2025. Sam speaks about the need to fight the media war and and imposition of sanctions against Venezuela, and emphasises the need to fight against this economic warfare on the streets of Britain. Watch the interview here:
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The Revolutionary Communist Group and our solidarity campaign Rock around the Blockade (RATB) wholeheartedly denounce the mass deportation of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador by the imperialist US Trump administration. We share below a statement produced by the Venezuela Solidarity Network, of which RATB is a member. Furthermore we note that Britain is complicit in the economic warfare meted against Venezuela which is the root cause of migration from the Bolivarian Republic. The Bank of England continues in its theft of 31 tonnes of Venezuela's gold and has imposed sanctions on over 50 Venezuelan officials adding to the more than 1,000 unilateral coercive measures, led by the US, that are designed to strangle the economy. Viva Venezuela! End the criminalisation of Venezuelan migrants! End the blockade and return the gold NOW!
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By Sam McGill
4 December 2024
Comrades from the Revolutionary Communist Group and our Cuba solidarity campaign Rock around the Blockade were invited to attend the World Conference of Anti-Fascist Youth and Students in Caracas at the end of November 2024, a recognition of our consistent solidarity over decades with the Bolivarian Revolution. Over two weeks, we had the opportunity to exchange ideas with 500 delegates from 75 countries, as well as hundreds of Venezuelan socialists and activists from across the country. On the fringes of the meeting, we were able to speak to the Palestinian revolutionary, Leila Khaled. On 23 November, the conference was addressed by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, with the words:
‘Study, study, study! Fight, fight, fight! Open paths of struggle in the networks, in the streets, in the media, on the walls, study, fight and, importantly, for all the ages, find a way!‘
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By Reagan Gray 28 September 2024
On 29 August, The Revolutionary Communist Group (RCG), through its campaign Rock Around the Blockade (RATB), held a public webinar on ‘What is really happening in Venezuela.’ When the Venezuelan Presidential elections on 28 July resulted in a victory for incumbent Nicholas Maduro of the Party , violent riots and media attacks ensued. This chaos was organised by the US backed opposition, Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, who serve as imperialist puppets in order to foster instability in Venezuela through violent sanctions, media lies, and government backed coup attempts since the Bolivarian Revolution began in 1999.
RATB and the RCG organised this public meeting to affirm the anti-imperialist perspective on the situation in Venezuela and to amplify the Venezuelan voices on the ground who are being actively suppressed, as they challenge the narrative and interests of the ruling class.
Carolina Graterol, a Venezuelan journalist and filmmaker, joined us to speak about her experience as a participant and electoral observer in the election on 28 July. She shared her extensive knowledge of Venezuela’s electoral process, and explained the rigorous processes that the government follows to ensure democratic integrity of elections. Her first hand accounts of the election process were an invaluable perspective and a testament to the democratic processes that Venezuela has upheld despite unceasing media attacks.
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Earlier this month the World Congress against Fascism, Neofascism and other similar expressions was held in Caracas, Venezuela. Solidarity organisations, social movements and political parties from over 190 countries participated in the two day long conference. Amongst the numerous political outcomes of the congress was the declaration that the weekend of the 28th/29th of September would be an international weekend of solidarity demonstrations, a demand which Rock Around the Blockade supporters answered enthusiastically!
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On 20 September, protesters gathered outside the London offices of the Guardian, to demand an end to its hostile media blitz against Venezuela.
In the build up to, and since the Venezuelan presidential election on 28 July, The Guardian and its sister newspaper The Observer have churned out a steady stream of hostile coverage calling into question the result which saw the re-election of socialist party candidate Nicolas Maduro.
The Guardian's Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips produced over 30 articles on Venezuela’s election in a single month, constantly repeating the lie that the election was rigged, in order to soften up public opinion to accept more sanctions and intervention (see ‘In defence of the Bolivarian revolution’ on our website).
Friends and supporters of the RCG and RATB spoke outside the Guardian exposing its role as a mouthpiece of the British ruling class, all the more dangerous for its supposedly progressive garb. They highlighted the Bolivarian Revolution’s achievements such as free healthcare and education for all Venezuelans, and over four million social housing units constructed since 2011 in spite of deadly US, EU and British sanctions which have devastated the country’s economy. Over $1bn of Venezuela’s sovereign gold reserves have been illegally confiscated by the Bank of England, which refused to release them even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic to allow Venezuela to purchase urgently needed medicines.
We say: hands off Venezuela! Victory to the Venezuelan masses against imperialism! No more British media lies!
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Hands off Venezuela! No right wing coup! No imperialist intervention!
The Revolutionary Communist Group, FRFI and Rock around the Blockade stand against the attempts by the US imperialist-backed opposition in Venezuela to overturn the result of the 28 July election. Imperialist media and right wing opposition forces announced well in advance that they would not accept any outcome except the installation of a pro-imperialist candidate as president. They are provoking violent protests and street blockades in a replay of previous violent coup attempts in 2019, 2017, 2014 and earlier.
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On 4 March, a protest organised by the Revolutionary Communist Group and Rock Around the Blockade took place outside the Bank of England in London. It demanded that the Bank stop withholding Venezuela’s sovereign gold deposits from the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro. Thirty-one tonnes of gold, worth £1.2bn (USD1.4bn) has been embargoed by Britain since 2020. Britain’s Supreme Court refused to release the gold to the Maduro government to fund humanitarian relief, and instead put the gold at the disposal of the unelected Venezuelan opposition under the leadership of the US-back stooge Juan Guaido. Despite the end of Guaido’s sham 'interim presidency' in December 2022, Britain still refuses to recognise the elected government of Venezuela and intends to give the gold to the opposition controlled '2015 National Assembly' whose mandate expired in 2021.
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On 12 October activists from RATB, Papua Militant, Mafapo, Indignados, Fight Racism Fight Imperialism and more attended an event in London organised by P12O. The event was an expression of solidarity with all people of Latin America in the struggle against imperialism. The demonstration was named "Resistance Day" in order to combat myths surrounding "Columbus Day" and to celebrate the efforts of liberatory and anti-imperialist struggles in Latin America and all around the world.
Below is a video of our supporter's speech from the event, accompanied by a poem sent to us from Bartolina Sisa Resistance, a Bolivian solidarity organisation based in London: