By Max Lane

The coup attempt by the United States, assisted by the EU and supported by Australia, against the legitimate government of Venezuela, headed by the elected President, Maduro, is ongoing.

This colonialist coup threatens the social gains made by the Bolivarian process since the election of the late President Hugo Chavez, already partially eroded as a result of an economic war waged by the US and its allies against Venezuela. It threatens also to bring to power class forces inimical to democracy.

BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE, the way this coup has unfolded, being initiated entirely from outside Venezuela, has the potential to set a deep counter-revolutionary precedent for the world. There has not been a coup by a section of the Venezuelan capitalist class, egged on by the US, which is then supported and sustained by US imperialism. The coup is initiated from outside and is taking the form of the imperial powers unilaterally making the Venezuelan government an “outlaw” government. This intensified isolation, embargo, sanctions of and even theft from the Venezuelan government is intended, they hope, to split the Venezuelan armed forces and state apparatus.

If this coup succeeds, it will set the precedent that:

all elections of heads of government in non imperialist countries will be subject to a veto by a “vote” of the imperial countries.

It will also give a more perfect actuality to an imperial uni-polar order, where the US ruling class’s state sits at the centre of that single pole.

This conflict is not only of great import for the peoples of the world who wish to see the Venezuelan people have the democratic space to continue, correct and perfect their revolution.

It is also of great import for all countries, whatever their current state of class rule, who wish to protect an international order that, however imperfectly, recognizes the right of national sovereignty and non-interference. This should be of urgent concern to all states of the Global South, except those who have already surrendered.

It will, of course, be of great concern to all the peoples’ of the Global South and needs to be the focus of solidarity of all the peoples living in the imperialist countries.