Revolutionary Communist Group

23 January 2010: Government supporters demonstrate in Caracas.

On Sunday 24 January, the Venezuelan government shut down Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) for persistent violation of the law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television and of Cadena Nacional, a law pre-dating the Chavez government and requiring TV channels to broadcast important presidential speeches.

RCTV has repeatedly refused to broadcast speeches included under Cadena Nacional and has called for a violent overthrow of the government. RCTV claims to be an international channel and therefore exempt from national laws. On the contrary, 94% of its writers, actors and reporters are Venezuelan. Under the law, only channels that broadcast foreign programmes for 70% of the time or more are classed as international.

Read more: Venezuela: confronting reaction

As the magnitude of the disaster in Haiti becomes apparent – perhaps 200,000 dead, the whole of the capital Port-au-Prince devastated as a consequence of the 12 January earthquake, so anti-imperialists have to hold those responsible for this calamity to account. No-one can prevent earthquakes, but states can create conditions where the scale of destruction that follows is limited, and where there is an infrastructure which can support effective relief operations. It is obvious that neither existed in Haiti so that the consequences of the earthquake were all the more horrific. But the primary responsibility for this lies not with the desperately impoverished Haitian state, but with those who caused this impoverishment: imperialism in general, and US imperialism in particular. Haiti is the epitome of a dependent state, its development deliberately obstructed by the US to keep it and its people in subjection.

Read more: Haiti: troops out! Cancel the debt!

Berminie Carine Lili, known to her friends as Lili, faces deportation with her two year old son Keiran Nana on Monday 25th January 2010. They were detained by six immigration police who demanded entry to their home in Hendon, Sunderland, in the early hours of Tuesday 12^th January.

Lili comes from Cameroon. Since the 1980s the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have imposed on Cameroon privatisation of railways, agriculture, forests, communications, electricity and water, all sold off to multinational companies, leading to massive cuts in wages and deteriorating working conditions. In 2002 the entire country was made into an export processing zone, meaning multinational companies can ignore labour laws, are exempt from paying tax for ten years, receive cut-price electricity and other services, and can take 100% of profits back to the imperialist countries where the multinationals are based. The building of a massive oil pipeline through Cameroon by Chevron and ExxonMobil to plunder the oil of neighbouring Chad, begun in 2000, has forced whole communities off their land. Public services have been slashed, as Cameroon is forced to spend more servicing its international debts than on health and education combined. Under the control of multinationals agriculture has been diverted to exports, leading to rising food prices within the country, forcing millions into food insecurity. When people have fought back the state has imprisoned, shot and disappeared activists, with a police and army trained by France and receiving military aid from the US.*

On Monday 11 January 2010 the London Guantánamo Campaign held a demonstration outside the US Embassy in London to mark 8 years of the Guantánamo Bay torture camp. A vigil by protesters in orange jumpsuits and black hoods was followed by an hour of speeches demanding the closure of the camp and justice for all detainees.

Nicki Jameson spoke at the demonstration on behalf of Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! She pointed out that the US presence at Guantánamo Bay is an illegal occupation of Cuban territory dating back to the 1903 Cuban-American Treaty, which was signed under threat of military action.

Despite Barack Obama’s pledge to close the camp by 22 January 2010, this deadline will not be met. Just under 200 prisoners are still held there. Of these around 50 have been cleared but will not be released until the US can find countries to accept them. There may be sufficient evidence to try around 25 in the US, but much of this evidence was obtained using torture.

Read more: Close Guantánamo Torture Camp!

For half a century US imperialism has gone to staggering lengths to destroy the Cuban Revolution and damage the example it sets for the oppressed people of the world. This aim is embedded in the US Constitution itself. The US blockade (1961), invasion (1961), the threat of nuclear war (1962) and attempts to isolate Cuba on the international stage, have failed to destroy the Revolution. The Obama administration is stepping up efforts to create an internal opposition among the Cuban people, ‘investing’ $55 million in 2009 alone in this endeavour. These attempts are failing miserably. Imperialist powers and their allies continue to underestimate the revolutionary strength of the Cuban people, demonstrated in December 2009 when just one neighbourhood in Havana took to the streets in response to a group of imperialist-paid mercenaries known as the Women in White.

Read more: Cubans Mobilise Against Imperialist Mercenaries

ALBA brings a political, economic and social alliance to defend the sovereignty, self-determination, identity and unity between Latin America and the Caribbean people, practicing the principles of cooperation, solidarity, mutual assistance, social justice and complementary economic planning for sustained integration and development. There are already over 100 ALBA projects spanning health provision, telecommunication, food and fuel distribution, scientific projects and initiatives for environmental protection. The Alliance includes Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Dominica, Ecuador, St Vincent and Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda and, until the coup in June 2009, Honduras. The recent election of Jose Pepe Mujica confirms the likelihood that Uruguay will join soon.

Read more: ALBA: A fight for justice and for the survival of the species