Hoping to strike a blow at their Chinese competition, the U.S. capitalists have trained their sights on the China-leaning Venezuelan bosses. As the latest crisis of capitalism drives the rulers toward open fascism and world war, workers around the globe are faced with a choice: Do we get fooled by nationalism into fighting for one gang of thieves and parasites or another, or do we fight for communism, for a world run by and for the international working class?
Donald Trump, the top U.S. warmonger, has confirmed that he’s authorized covert operations inside Venezuela, in defiance of international law (New York Times, 11/18). The U.S. has deployed its largest and most deadly aircraft carrier to the Caribbean (NYT, 11/17), with artillery, missiles, and attack drones aimed at Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. Trump’s savage “Department of War” has already blown up 22 small fishing boats and murdered all on board. In line with the needs of the billionaires behind him, Trump is shifting the U.S. war machine from the Middle East to Latin America. It marks the biggest U.S. military buildup in Latin America since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and a turning point in the coming global conflict.
Venezuela is the next battlefield in two growing conflicts, one between the U.S. bosses’ two factions and the other between the two top imperialist powers. the U.S. and China. The working class has no dog in this fight. Whoever ends up on top will kill millions of workers to consolidate power and keep their profits flowing. The only option for the working class is to turn the guns around and fight for an egalitarian world without racism, sexism, money, or bosses: for communism.
Venezuela, playground for imperialist killers
The big power competition in Latin America between China and the U.S. is heating up. As the imperialists seek to outmaneuver each other for raw materials, labor, and markets, the capitalist bosses of smaller countries are selling their people off to the highest bidder and skimming big rewards for themselves in return.
In Mexico, for example, President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government is distancing the country from China by proposing tariffs of up to 50 percent on Chinese cars and auto parts, steel, textiles, and pharmaceuticals (Americas Quarterly, 10/14).
By contrast, Brazil’s capitalist bosses have refused to capitulate to U.S. demands and are risking huge tariffs by jailing a Trump favorite, the former Brazilian president and anti-immigrant racist Jair Bolsonaro. Meanwhile, Brazilolsonaro’s President Lula da Silva is selling off the country to China. China has bought up $7 billion in Brazilian assets in the first half of 2025 alone (Ion Analytics, 8/4).
Venezuela may be the largest prize of all, as it boasts the world’s largest proven oil reserves. The U.S. bosses have watched China become the largest importer of Venezuelan oil and Russia a major Venezuelan trading partner, including billions of dollars in arms sales over the past two decades (CNN 11/13).
U.S. bosses fight over where to wage war
The two U.S. bosses’ factions have opposing interests and clashing strategies for preserving U.S. imperialism. The Trump Small Fascist, Fortress America faction, a coalition of domestically oriented industry, smaller U.S. oil companies, and tech billionaires, is upending the historic strategy of the main wing Big Fascists, the finance capital wing of the U.S. ruling class. Under Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine,” Latin America is now the main focus of U.S. imperialism (NYT, 11/17).
Fronted by Bush, Obama, and Biden, the Big Fascists attempted to wrestle back control of Venezuela from the Chavez-Maduro gang. Under the veil of “promoting democracy,’ they’ve funded failed coup attempts and backed Maduro’s opposition—notably the pro-U.S. María Corina Machado, who stands for impoverishing workers with “free-market” privatization. The main wing’s Venezuela strategy enabled them to keep massive troop installations in the Middle East and Asia. But the Small Fascists are opting to pivot to the Caribbean and solidify a U.S. sphere of influence in Latin America.
Historically, the Big Fascists were the main beneficiaries of the old liberal world order that ran the capitalist globe under U.S. dominance. Over the seventy years that followed World War II, the U.S. fought major wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Each of these wars involved hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops and killed millions of workers. The Big Fascists’ global ambitions forced them to rely on proxies to project their power and put down rebellions in Latin America, with CIA-led coups, death squads, and vicious military dictatorships.
Now Trump is reversing that strategy by ceding military control in the oil-rich Middle East to Israel, Saudi Arabia and Turkey—and to give China free rein in Asia.
Imperialism means workers suffer
As the crisis of capitalism worsens, China and the U.S. have no choice but to move toward fullblown fascism, which means even more misery for workers. In the U.S., the standard of living is already suffering. Even a basic quality of life is now out of reach for 60 percent of workers (CBS, 5/16). At the same time, workers are being assaulted by an invasion of Trump’s ICE and Border Patrol (NYT, 7/12), a federal paramilitary used to terrorize undocumented immigrant and citizen workers alike while silencing dissent (The Intercept, 11/23).
The working class in Venezuela is under attack as well. In the late 1990’s, the “Bolivarian Revolution” led by Hugo Chavez gave lip service to workers’ power as it cut corrupt deals with China and a new national bourgeoisie. As a result, Venezuela plunged into an economic and political crisis. Under Chavez and then his handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, the price of oil plummeted, igniting a humanitarian crisis and mass emigration. Shortages of food and other necessities persist to this day (AP, 9/27). More than 80 percent of workers in Venezuela live in dire poverty, without reliable access to secure housing, medicine, or food (AP, 8/27). The extreme suffering has led roughly eight million Venezuelans—about 20 percent of the population--to flee the country (Americas Quarterly,7/7). Since 2007, China has spent over $60 billion on loans and investments in Venezuela. Nearly all of it is funneled into oil industry infrastructure (CSIS 4/3), as the Chinese bosses care little about the people living above the reserves.
When workers run the world, we will put a stop to all of this theft and gross inequality. Production will be guided by the needs of people, not profits. The priority will be housing, food, healthcare, and education for workers and their families. Borders will be smashed. Workers will no longer need to travel thousands of miles for a chance at a stable life. Natural resources will be used for the common good, in balance with the need to limit global warming. Imperialist wars will be a thing of the past. That is the future that awaits us--if we reach out and take it.
Turn bosses’ war into communist revolution
There is no good side in the fight between the bosses. The Trumpers and the main wing are both preparing for inter-imperialist war, with Venezuela one of many potential battlegrounds. But while the rulers’ war is inevitable, the question is what the working class will fight for—and whether they’ll turn the guns around for communist revolution.
This is a time of great danger for the working class. As war spreads around the globe, the bosses will need more and more soldiers to fight for their rotting system. That is their key strategic weakness: They need to arm workers. It’s also a great opportunity for our class. Soldiers turning their guns on the capitalists have changed the course of history. In World War I, Russian soldiers smashed the Russian ruling class and led the fight for workers’ power. The international working class may soon have another such opportunity. Fight for communism! Join Progressive Labor Party!
