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??"We congratulate the Venezuelan people for the high participation in the election of the National Constituent Assembly"

Second Joint Statement

Thursday 17 August 2017

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A group of individuals and organisation in June signed a first Joint Decelaration [1] to condemn imperialist and media aggression against Venezuela, to reject the coup policy from the rightwing in the MUD and affirm the election of a national constituent assembly was the best way to ensure the participation of the workers’ and popular movements in the crisis. This time they have come together to congratulate the Venezuelan people for their massive civic participation on Sunday 30 July. 5 August 2017

??Now what we need is a Change of Course… to the left!

The high electoral participation of more than 8 million voters, over 41% of the electoral register, gives a clear legitimacy to the continuity of the Bolivarian Process initiated by Hugo Chávez, while at the same time constitute a clear repudiation of the attempts of the extreme right to overthrow by any means, even to produce a coup d’état by appealing to violence and economic sabotage.

?These 8 million votes are a slap in the face to the threats and aggressions of US imperialism and its European allies and Latin American puppets, entrenched in the OAS, led by the miserable Mr. Almagro. Those millions of people who, despite all the terrorist threats of the extreme right, went to vote, gave much more political legitimacy to the government of Maduro than the abject lackeys of Donald Trump in the continent, starting with Enrique Peña Nieto, following with Santos, Varela or Kuczynski.

?The great citizen participation also constitutes a lie to the spokesmen of the so-called "critical chavismo" that called for the abstention and the blank or void vote. If the Venezuelan people had followed them, the Bolivarian process, the social conquests and the political strength of the working class would have weakened; today we would not be celebrating a popular triumph, but a defeat that would have emboldened the pro coup and criminal rightwing.

?However, foreign aggression has not stopped. There they are, high spokesmen of the White House, declaring that they study all sorts of possibilities to overthrow the government of Maduro. The pro coup and violent Venezuelan rightwing has not stopped. They, through their portal Dollar Today, since Monday, July 31 have led the exchange of the parallel dollar - which had been in something more than Bs, 8,000 per dollar - to a figure close to Bs 20,000 per dollar. Five days after the NCA’s election, the prices for food, telecommunication services and other products had risen by 200%. That is, not having achieved their objectives with a coup, now they seek to do it with an economic coup.

?For these reasons, backroom negotiations, maintenance of the unjust rules of capitalism, concessions of any kind, or the renunciation of socialist principles cannot be allowed. The electoral result shows at the outset a new relationship of forces that should rule out any negotiations that demoralize the Chavista people who showed up on J30. Any agreement has to be transparent, but above all that does not prevent the Change of Course (Golpe de Timón) to the left. This must be done without delay, without further postponement, for the deepening and radicalization of the process. The way is the mobilization of the Chavismo bases. It has been once again demonstrated that, when workers and peoples mobilize, the right pulls back and imperialist aggressions fail. It is proven that the salvation of the Bolivarian Process, and of any revolutionary process, is in the hands of the people when it is appealed to its mobilization, when it is called to participation, when it is given true democratic decision-making power, when it goes out into the streets to defend their conquests.?

The signatories of this Second Declaration urge the Venezuelan government, presided by Nicolás Maduro, to listen to the voice of the people who, gathered on the night of July 30 in Caracas’ Plaza Bolívar to celebrate the election results, shouted the famous expression of Commander Hugo Chávez when he referred to a turn to the left and to revolutionary measures: ¡Golpe de Timón! (Change of Course)

?Yes, Venezuela needs a Change of Course to the left. The only possible salvation of the Bolivarian Process and its social and democratic achievements is that the peoples and workers’ mobilizations continue, so that the government takes drastic measures to disarm the coup plotters and the economic sabotage.

Beginning with the nationalization of the banking and the foreign trade; a radical change in the currency policy that allows corruption and sabotage; a real workers’ (non-bureaucratic) control of industry; the punishment and expropriation of the corrupt businessmen of the boliburguesía (businesspeople passing as Chavistas) and the opposition; the non payment of the external debt, and the cancellation of the handing over of the concessions for the indiscriminate extraction of gold in the Orinoco Mining Arc. To achieve this, it is also necessary to promote the democratic self-organization of the popular masses and the working people.

?With the election last Sunday there is a new opportunity for the Constituent Assembly to make the Change of Course that in 58 months the government of Maduro has not done.?

Those of us who signed this Second Declaration call upon the workers and youth of the United States, the European Union, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Panama, Peru, Brazil and Argentina to demand that their governments respect the democratic decision of the people of Venezuela and its National Constituent Assembly.

?None of these governments has moral authority, political legitimacy, or support from their peoples to interfere in the sovereign affairs of the Venezuelan people, nor to apply sanctions to their government. These governments must get their dirty hands off the Bolivarian democracy.

?Long live the people of Venezuela and its Constituent Assembly!

?Stop foreign aggression and internal coup violence!

?We demand respect for the democratic decision of the Venezuelan people!

?August 2017

First Signatures:

Guillermo Almeyra, escritor y militante socialista.

LUCHAS (Liga de Unidad Chavista Socialista): Stalin Pérez, Nieves Tamaroni, Jesús Vargas, Christian Pereira, Osmari Canizales, Angel Narvaez e Ismael Hernández.

Polo Democrático de Panamá: Olmedo Beluche, Félix Villarreal, Salomón Samudio Briseida, Barrantes Euclides Buitrago y Abdiel Rodríguez.

Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (PRT) de México: Edgard Sánchez, Luis Rangel, Josefina Chávez, José Martínez Cruz, Andrés Lund y Diego Luz.

Ricardo Napurí, diputado constituyente y senador peruano.

Mario Hernández, periodista y escritor argentino.

Carlos Ghioldi, secretario general de la CTA-T de Rosario, Argentina y referente de La Toma, empresa recuperada por sus trabajadores.

Claudio Katz (Economista EDI, UBA). Argentina.

Eduardo Lucita, integrante de EDI (Economistas de Izquierda) Argentina.

Nora Ciapponi. Militante socialista, colabora con FPDS-Corriente Nacional. Argentina.

Aldo Casas. Luchador socialista, colaborador de FPD-CN, consejo editorial de Herramienta.

Martin Mosquera, Democracia Socialista. Argentina

James D. Cockcroft, escritor y militante socialista

Berna Menezes, Membro da Direcao Nacional do PSOL-BR

Mário Azeredo- Membro da Executiva Estadual do PSOL-RS

Neiva Lazarrotto-Membro da Direcao Nacional da Intersindical - Central da Classe Trabalhadora

Rejane Aretz- Membro da Setorial de Mulheres do PSOL-NR

Rosa Marques-Dirección Nacional de COMUNA-PSOL-Sao Paulo

Valnz Bittencourt, advogada da intersindical

Luisa Muniz, e Fernanda Reis, Coordenacao da Juventude do Movimento Contestacao

Adriano Ricold. Dirigente do Fortalecer o PSOL Viamao/RE-BR BR

Modesto Emilio Guerrero, Periodista, Escritor venezolano y militante socialista en Argentina

Sergio Moura-Dirección Nacional de COMUNA-PSOL, Río de Janeiro Brasil
Alberto Wiñazky, integrante del Consejo de Redacción de la revista Herramienta, Argentina.

Ricardo Cajigas, integrante del Secretariado Ejecutivo del PIT-CNT, Uruguay. 
Federico Fuentes, editor revista Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal, Australia

Coordinadora Socialista Revolucionaria (CSR) de México: Blanca Radillo Murguía Héctor Armando Valadez George José Luis Hernández Ayala Carlos Ferra Martínez Violeta Cangas

Bruna Menezes - Ex âncora da Telesur e atual assessora da bancada nacional do Psol. Valnez Bittencourt- Advogada da Intersindical. Luisa Muniz e Fernanda Reis - Coordenação da Juventude do Movimento Contestação. Adriano Ricold- Dirigente do Fortalecer o PSOL de Viamão/RS-BR.

Source Aporrea.

Footnotes

[1See here for the statement in Castilian.