Excerpts from a speech at a panel on “Human Rights in a Perilous Time.” Sept. 12, 2025 in Toronto
Donald J. Trump says that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. Why? Because Trump, the modern-day Hermann Goebbels, claims that he has stopped at least five wars. He neglects to mention that he started or fueled several of the wars now raging. To what wars am I referring?
I refer to the genocide in Gaza, the demolition of homes in the West Bank, the bombardment of Iran, the assassination of Iranian military and political officials, repeated attacks on Yemen, the Zionist invasion of Lebanon and Syria, and of course, the NATO conflict with Russia over Ukraine. And currently, Trump is sending U.S. war ships across the Caribbean Sea to the coastal waters of Venezuela. Already, U.S. forces destroyed one small boat carrying eleven passengers. The White House claimed that the boat was involved in drug smuggling. Washington provided no evidence to support the allegation, nor did it attempt to arrest and charge the passengers in the small boat -- a vessel that had no capacity to reach the shores of America.
According to 19th century Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, “War is politics by other means.” The political aims of Washington and its allies, including Ottawa, are rooted in economic goals. Seizure and control of Venezuela’s rich oil wealth are central objectives. What do we call the system by which dominant economies, backed by military power, profit by the exploitation of resources owned by others? Yes indeed, it is known as imperialism. It involves the export of Capital equipment, followed by the transfer of wealth from the South to the North. It is a highly unequal exchange.
Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian revolution came to power in 1999. His party, the PSUV, changed the old economic arrangement by nationalizing the country’s oil industry. That move upset America and its junior partners in crime. Most of all, it set a bad example on a global scale, so far as the imperialists were concerned. Canadian Capital has plenty of oil and gas in its own backyard. But rebellious republics in the global south threaten Canadian mining and banking interests worldwide. So, Ottawa joined Washington’s gambit to strangle the economy of Venezuela and to remake its government. Such efforts have a ripple effect. They curtail human rights at home and abroad. Attacks on immigrant workers’ rights, the assault on free speech and on freedom of assembly are now quite evident. Mark Carney has reduced the ranks of foreign students, restricted the flow of migrant workers, outlawed pro-Palestinian campaigners like Samidoun, and threatens to create ‘bubble zones’ where protest is banned near schools, childcare centers and religious institutions, following the bad example of intolerant local city officials. Deportation of political critics and asylum claimants is now common, not just in the USA. Such actions imperil human rights and threaten lives. Intimidation tactics are spreading. This is integral to the agenda of former big banker Carney, his government, and the ruling business class. It is a feature of late capitalism.
Remember the Lima Group. It was another so-called coalition of the willing, designed to overthrow the elected government of Venezuela. Do you remember the pretender-president, Juan Guaido, Trump’s man in Caracas? Ottawa’s policy was to isolate and starve Venezuela if it resisted the imperial dictate.
What was the NDP position? Most of its MPs became enthusiastic backers of Deputy PM Chrystia Freeland. Freeland co-chaired the Lima Group. She never denounced the legacy of her grandfather who was the editor of a Nazi newspaper in Krakow, Poland under German occupation in the 1930s. A big enthusiast of the Lima Group was NDP foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere, MP for Laurier-Sainte-Marie. Laverdiere publicly supported Juan Guaido and promoted sanctions against Venezuela. How many children died as a result? Did the NDP mass membership approve that policy, or even debate it at a convention? Although leader Jagmeet Singh was embarrassed by Laverdiere’s brazenly pro-imperialist pronouncements, he did not refute them. Party officials did their best to keep the issue off the debate floor.
Lima is the capital of Peru. When Pedro Castillo, the president of Peru, quit the Lima Group in 2021, he said membership in it was the worst thing his country had ever done. The entire Group dissolved thereafter. Will it be reconstituted? Not likely. But if it should ever reappear, what should it be called? Perhaps call it the Buenos Aires Group, in recognition of President Javier Milei, whose symbol is the chainsaw.
I had the privilege of being invited by the government of Venezuela to observe the second inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro. I was in Caracas from January 9-13 in 2019. I attended a number of events. Traveling around the capital I saw an outstanding achievement of the Bolivarian revolution – beautiful, tall, brand new apartment buildings. The state constructed housing for millions, including many poor mud cliff-side dwellers. That was one way oil revenues were put to good use. Back in Toronto I led a deputation to a committee of Toronto City Council to report on the exciting social housing gains in the South American republic. Sadly, the city councilors, including NDP-linked Gord Perks and Paula Fletcher, walked around the room and engaged in loud conversations. They made it clear that they were not interested in listening.
Venezuela made impressive gains, despite the hostility of Canadian and American capitalists, and their loyal politicians. One important arena of social progress is known as the Communal Councils. These are self-managed decision-making bodies that empower workers to formulate project proposals to government and engage in mutual aid and local planning. The Communal Councils represent an expansion of democracy.
Unfortunately, they occur mainly in public enterprises, which encompass less than 1/3 of the economy. 2/3 of the Venezuela economy is still in private hands. As a Marxist I believe that a revolution that does not go all the way cannot survive. In Canada, our primary task is not to lecture from afar; it is to get the imperial boot off the neck of the people of Venezuela. Our slogan is: Imperialist Hands Off Venezuela!
But more than slogans are needed. What is to be done? It is time to protest U.S. aggression…. To protest the act of piracy and murder on the high seas, to demand that the embargo be lifted, to insist that aid be allowed to flow into Venezuela, that countries be free to trade with Caracas without punishment, that the U.S. naval and air forces be withdrawn immediately from the region.
But this is not enough. In addition to protest in the streets against the policy of the capitalist pirates, we need to foster political action inside the mass working class organizations of Canada, including unions and the NDP.
For far too long anti-war and anti-imperialist activists have been begging for crumbs from the banquet table of the ruling rich. Isn’t it time that we had an anti-imperialist voice in the leadership of the only mass, labour-based political party in North America? That opportunity is now. If you want an Eco-socialist, an anti-war internationalist to be a voice for revolutionary change, please join the Yves Engler for NDP Leader campaign today! His program includes demands such as: Abolish billionaires. Declare a national housing emergency. Shut Down the Tar Sands. Land Back. End Canadian Complicity with the Genocide in Gaza. Get Canada Out of NATO. Imperialist Hands Off Venezuela. The future of Venezuela is for the Venezuelan people to decide.