This was the second protest in London since the USA’s illegal action during the night of January 2: around 50 people gathered at the US embassy the following lunchtime to protest, and they were subject to a heavy response by the police. There have also been subsequent actions in at least Glasgow, Cardiff, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol, and Brighton.

Back at Downing Street, speakers included former National Education Union (NEU) leader Kevin Courtney in his capacity as secretary of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, current NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede, Lindsay German, convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, and MPs Richard Burgon and Jeremy Corbyn.

Loud cheers greeted Hackney independent socialist councilor Claudia Turbet-Delof (@madeinbolivia), who did not spare her criticism of Starmer and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. The fact that no senior government spokesperson has broken with the mealy-mouthed and compliant approach of the Prime Minister is a key part of what motivated the crowd. Starmer’s statement that “international law is the framework, is the anchor or the benchmark against which we judge the actions of all other governments. And it is, of course, for the US to justify the action that it has taken” is entirely unacceptable.

Jeremy Corbyn, perhaps as the most prominent speaker present, also managed to get on the media round, speaking to Newsnight, Radio 4’s The World Tonight, and LBC. Corbyn has a long term interest in Latin American politics and a supporter of both Maduro and his predecessor and leader of the Bolivarian revolution, Hugo Chavez. However, his focus here was instead to direct criticism at Trump and Starmer, and at the implications for world politics.

Anti*Capitalist Resistance (A*CR) and the Fourth International (FI) have many criticisms of Maduro’s regime, especially its lack of democracy and capitulation to the Venezuelan capitalists, as well as the problematic relationship with Guyana, but it is the job of the Venezuelan working class to overthrow his regime and create a genuine socialist society.

Trump’s Dunroe Doctrine is not only a threat to the whole of Latin America, which he increasingly treats as his backyard, but to the globe. Greenland is under increasing threat – undoubtedly for its mineral wealth – and Netanyahu has continued and maybe increased the license to continue the genocide across Palestine.

While Russia and China condemned Trumps breach of international law at the UN Security Council on 5 January, with Russia speaking of “international banditry” and “neo-colonialism and imperialism” and China of the “unilateral, illegal and bullying acts of the US”, there is another sense in which Trump’s approach to “spheres of influence” can be used to justify their actions in Ukraine and to Taiwan.

A*CR opposes colonialism and national oppression in all forms. US out of Venezuela, end Israeli colonialism and genocide of the Palestinian people, Russia out of Ukraine, China hands off Taiwan – no to spheres of influence and “great power” games that cost human lives.

We fight for a world free from militarism and imperialism, and for genuine working-class democracy and ecosocialism based on international solidarity.

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