NM's blog

Trump did not hide that a major reason for the attack and kidnapping of Maduro was aimed at putting the US in control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves , described as “our oil” by Trump. However, there are other factors behind Trump’s move against Venezuela.  The new  National Security Strategy  makes it clear: the Monrow doctrine of the 1820s is back on steroids.  Back then, President Monroe declared that European nations must not interfere or try to control Latin America, as this was now the ‘sphere of influence’ for the United States of America.  Now under Trump, globalisation has given way to ‘Making America Great Again’ by firmly establishing Latin America as the US imperialism’s backyard.  That means no country can be allowed to resist US policy and interests.  ‘Friendly regimes’ must be installed to enable both privileged American use of resources and the ability to deny those to competitors. That means growing Chinese influence and investme...

The classic mindset of the “neoliberalised left.” Inside the United States, the crisis is reduced to a few violations, a few instances of lawbreaking, or a handful of limited reforms—as if making the process “legal” automatically means power itself has been restrained. The same intellectual currents that, at home, strike an anti-corruption moral pose and limit the debate to legal procedures, show up internationally with vague “anti-imperialist” slogans—without any serious analysis of capital, state power, and global hegemony. The truth that should be kept in full view is deliberately removed: capital is not just markets and companies. Capital is organised political power. Hegemony m eans the ability to set the world’s agenda—to decide what counts as “legitimate,” what is “illegal”,  what is “security,” what is “terrorism,” and who has the right to use force and who does not. The logic of rebuilding empire

'Shock and Awe’

This not in defence of Maduro or the Nobel Prise winner

“The current confrontation in Venezuela today is not between left and right.” “We are witnessing the transition from a government with authoritarian tendencies to a dictatorial regime.” “This is not a government ‘backed’ by the military, but, as Maduro himself has said, the government is led by a ‘civilian-military-police alliance’. “Those who continue to support Maduro, including parties and movements of the Sao Paulo Forum or the spokespersons of Podemos in Spain, are causing severe damage to the left in the region and the world. They are damaging anti-capitalist struggles in the broadest sense.” The US embargo is ‘in violation of international law’. This is a useless statement repeated a million times, and it has come back again during the ongoing Israel’s genocidal war. “[A]fter the failure of the current, self-defined “socialist” governments, Venezuelan society tends to associate any reference to socialism or the left with the corruption and authoritarianism of the Maduro governme...

A valuable insight on Cuba since the early 1990s. I find it strange though that someone trained in ‘Marxist historiography’ calls the pre-1989 eastern European countries / the USSR ‘socialist countries’ and defends the ‘Western’ sanctions on Russia.

Companies are scared to sell medicine to Iran

“Speaking to CNN yesterday, John Bolton — a national security adviser under Donald Trump, who also served under George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan — volunteered that he’d helped plan coups in other countries. He was drawing a distinction between what Trump had done on January 6, 2021, encouraging rioters to march on the Capitol, and his own portfolio. ‘As somebody who has helped plan coups d’état, not here, but you know, other places,’ he said, ‘it takes a lot of work and that’s not what [Trump] did. It was just stumbling around from one idea to another.’  The US  has a  long history  of  removing elected  politicians of which  it does  not  approve .” Latin American coups upgraded

Hunger and desperation

  Smarter Empire 

  The Popular Revolutionary Alternative

“This would not explain why two highly trained, US former special forces soldiers climbed into that boat on a quest to "liberate" a country that was not theirs.” Well, they were former American special forces. The American regime has been doing its best to ‘liberate’ other countries. Many American soldiers and many Americans believe in that mission. Despite the crimes and the criminal consequences of training death squads to invasions and toppling of even democratically-elected presidents, the ideological belief is still there. The American regime would be very happy if the plot against Maduro succeeded. One has just to look at a very recent coup, the one in Bolivia. Even the BBC’s tone would be different. Liberals would disagree with the capture or assassination of the president, but once the dust settles down “democratic elections”, “stability” and “liberal democracy” would be the talk of the day.  A ‘bizzare’ plot to capture a president

Dr. Matthew Alford of the University of Bath, author of National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood ,  told  MintPress  that the new Amazon product is a “disgrace of a series,” unfairly demonizing a nation at a time when the United States has its boot on the throat of Venezuelan society. The CIA's Jack Ryan Series

"A tiny bit of advice to Evo Morales' critics on the far left: always remember that he was removed by a police/military operation orchestrated by Washington NOT because of the mistakes but because of all the good things that were done and making Bolivia a country where the majority of citizens won political representation for the first time! Bolivia became sovereign and broke off relations with Israel (together with Venezuela) after one of the numerous massacres in Gaza. This is something that neither Turkey nor Egypt could do. Worth a thought. With mass mobilisations against the regime-change and the sovereign Bolivian parliament refusing to recognise the new President, the US victory might not last too long." —Tariq Ali, 16 November 2019 I hope so.

The biggest threat to the U.S. is not China, Russia or the enemy within (Muslims, socialists, etc); it's another emerging super power with a larger economy, bigger military power and higher productivity, and it's a few miles away. Cuba. U.S. sanctions on Cuba

"A look at the multiple fronts on which U.S. imperialism is operating — in particular the Middle East, Latin America and the growing confrontation with China — shows widely differing scales of strategic importance, but with some common elements. One of the most important and too little appreciated facts is the brutal use of economic sanctions against less powerful countries designated as enemy regimes. While a handful of Democratic poli­ticians have spoken in opposition to U.S. invasion,  hardly any have called attention to the murderous effects of sanctions — which as we know from the example of Iraq are not a substitute for war, but preparation for it." How many wars?

Eleven Theses on Venezuela There should be at least one additional thesis: class configuration, the inablity of carrying out industrialisation and radical changes.

Venezuela "Across town, there is a small supermarket that sells imported products to those who can afford to treat themselves. Most of the clients are foreigners and wealthier Venezuelans . There are even so-called "Boligarchs" - the nickname given to the new oligarchy who have done well under Hugo Chávez's and Nicolás Maduro's "Bolivarian revolution" - who come in to get their fix of foreign produce." A new oligarchy that has done well under Chavez and Maduro. That is what the mainstream media calls "socialism" and they keep repeating it in every article and news item so that you know what you should hate.

Venezuela "While the official line was that the uprising was the work of the Venezuelan masses, everything the Trump administration did reinforced the message that it had been made in Washington." Note that the liberals who wrote the article did not put the words "uprising" and "liberation" in inverted commas., and they don't seem to condemn the attempted coup. After all, Western regimes and some others have supported the interim president. That would enough to make a successful coup a "liberation".  1. An "uprising/revolution", if it exists, should be judged by its class or social groupings character. It should be decided by the balance of forces inside a country. 2. An imperialist state is reactionary by its nature. And the American one nowadays is even more reactionary that 5 years ago. A reactionary force cannot by its nature support a radical progressive change. It would an anomaly if it does. 3. The support of Russia ...