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.
An RCG speaker marked the 10th anniversary of the death of former Venezuelan president and socialist leader Hugo Chavez (28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) with a statement calling for solidarity with the Bolivarian revolution:
“Hugo Chavez’s leadership and revolutionary consciousness inspired millions of poor and working class people to build popular participatory democracy, promoting the construction of communal councils and communes as a method of self-government in their communities.
“But what the imperialist hawks got wrong is that the Bolivarian Revolution was never about one man; its a revolution of the people, of the poor and working class masses organising in their interests, against imperialism and the poverty, hunger and destruction it necessitates. There’s a reason hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans went onto the streets around the Presidential palace to defend their revolution from the Guiado/US coup attempt in 2019.
“The grassroots organisation of people themselves in the communes alongside political support from the socialist PSUV party continues.”
The demonstration was supported by organisations including Bolivia Solidarity Campaign, Campaign to free Julian Assange, Global Women’s Strike, Papual Militant International and Plataforma 12 du Octobre.
Britain has no right to dictate to the people of Venezuela their government or political system. It has no right to sanction and starve other countries by withholding their sovereign wealth in the Bank of England. It is an act of imperialist arrogance and piracy. We stand with the Venezuelan people and their struggle against imperialism.
