Organized Labor Lambastes Trump’s Attack on Venezuela

Unions and international labor federations argue that it’s the same billionaires that want to run Venezuela who keep us working longer hours for less pay, without health care, job security, or stable housing.

By Luis Feliz Leon, Jacobin

Labor federations around the world are condemning the Trump administration’s acts of war in Venezuela.

In a raw display of imperialist aggression, the United States bombed the country, kidnapped its president and his wife, and imprisoned them in New York City on January 4. Special forces and military aircraft killed eighty civilians and military personnel.

“We join the international labor community in condemning President Trump’s unconstitutional actions in Venezuela,” said the main US labor federation, the AFL-CIO, in a social media post.

It linked to a joint statement from the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the Trade Union Confederation of the Americas (TUCA). The World Federation of Trade Unions has also condemned the attacks, as have unions from Greece to South Africa to Nepal to the Czech Republic.

“These acts in no way defend democracy; they are clear acts of aggression as part of a militarised foreign policy agenda motivated by unilateral economic interests,”said ITUC General Secretary Luc Triangle in the statement. “Threats of kidnapping and the misuse of the courts to attack a sovereign government undermine the international rule of law and set a precedent of imperial coercion that jeopardises peace everywhere.”

The indictment against ousted president Nicolás Maduro is on drug charges, though the Department of Justice has removed from its indictment the claim that he led a made-up criminal organization known as the “Cartel de los Soles.”