Emergency protest in Seattle demands release of President Maduro

Seattle, WA – Approximately 120 protesters rallied at Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle on January 3 to condemn the U.S. military’s illegal bombings of Venezuela and the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro.

The rally program included speeches from Seattle Against War (SAW), the International League of People’s Struggles (ILPS) Seattle/Tacoma, Veterans for Peace (VFP) Daniel Ellsberg chapter, 350 Seattle, Capybara Colectiva, BAYAN Washington, bil-Yad, the National Lawyers’ Guild, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Rae Lee from Seattle Against War opened the program condemning the bombings and kidnapping of Maduro as criminal acts. They went on to describe the similarities between the U.S. war on Iraq and the attacks on Palestinian people, both motivated by oil. Lee described their recent visit to Venezuela, where they visited communities governed by locally elected councils and exercising autonomy in local governance, a far cry from the U.S. media description of a dictatorship. Lee then led the crowd in chants calling for “No U.S. war on Venezuela!” and to “Free President Maduro!”

A member of bil-Yad, a local Palestinian solidarity organization told the crowd, “Imperialist powers demand that the oppressed hand over their land and resources, and that the oppressed should just accept whatever crumbs are left over after the oil and resources are taken, after the environment is destroyed, and after the people are reduced to landless and impoverished masses.”

“It’s not about drugs, it’s about the oil! U.S. off Venezuelan soil!” chanted Mary Paterson from 350 Seattle, who condemned the attacks as a clear imperialist power play for U.S. interests in Venezuelan oil. She highlighted the need for environmental-focused organizations to oppose U.S. imperialist interests and stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, Palestine and the Philippines.

Representing the National Lawyers Guild, Marti Schmidt stated, “U.S. violations affect the entire international legal system, undermining respect for the U.S., causing fear and chaos, and spawning disinclination to rely on law.”

A Venezuelan immigrant member of Comunidad Sin Fronteras and Capybara Colectiva said, “The people who are best suited to control the future of Venezuela are the Venezuelan people themselves!” She went on to condemn the longstanding U.S. sanctions against Venezuela that has caused thousands of Venezuelan immigrants to migrate to Washington state where they’ve been forced at times to live in horrific and inhumane conditions made worse by the cuts to social security.

“This is the most unpopular war in U.S. history; over 70% of Americans do not want this,” said Izzy McCabe, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, “But we live in a dying empire, ruled by decaying pedophiles who march step over step towards their own graves, and as they realize their reign is coming to an end they flail, they kick, they scream in a desperate attempt to take the whole world with them.”

Describing having met community leaders in communes on her recent trip to Venezuela, McCabe said, “they have created real people power, participatory democracy, social programs, communes, neighborhood assemblies. In Venezuela the people rule, and for that the United States has declared them an existential threat.”

McCabe continued “When we fight we are not just fighting against a single war, we are fighting for the environment, we are fighting for freedom for immigrants, we are fighting for the national liberation of Black and Chicano Americans, we are fighting for indigenous sovereignty. And in this fight, it is important that we unite around action. In the Freedom Road Socialist Organization our strategy is to build the broadest possible united front against our common enemy.”

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