Like you, I woke up on Saturday 3 January to videos on my phone of bombs reigning over Venezuela. When I saw Trump’s statement declaring they had ‘captured’ Maduro, I almost thought it was fake. But this is our new reality.
It is unfortunately not that unusual for a Latin American leader to be toppled by a US President. And then to see that lackey – our human rights lawyer Prime Minister – refuse to say anything at all!
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It was safe to say by day three of the new year, 2026 was not going to be peaceful, calm or uneventful. In fact, we need to grapple with the reality that shocking, dreadful things are going to continue to come.
But that is not the only process in society.
Day 5
By day five of 2026, we organised demonstrations across the UK in solidarity with Venezuela. I was proud to start the year with over 100 comrades in the freezing cold in London, upholding the banner of our campaign ‘Hands Off Venezuela’
I was able to speak to the crowd outside Downing Street, and I thought it was most important to highlight the British government’s history of supporting regime change in Venezuela. It is quite easy to condemn Trump; but it is vital that we expose our own ruling class.
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I said that at every single opportunity, the British government and the British ruling class have supported that. In 2002, when the CIA helped orchestrate a coup to try and remove Chavez from power, a Labour minister at that time said it would be like the fall of Mussolini!
The Bank of England kept and maintained Venezuelan up to $2 billion worth of Venezuelan gold. And Keir Starmer is a liar when he says he needs to ‘wait to establish the facts’. We know Keir Starmer is loyal to one thing and one thing only, and that is US imperialism!
Khaled Malachi and I expanded on this in a special podcast episode for ‘A World on Fire’.
Day 7
On day seven, we held a meeting in central London at UCL. Jorge Martín, the secretary of Hands Off Venezuela, helped to explain the real meaning of Donald Trump’s imperialist aims; the legacy of the Bolivarian revolution; and how US imperialism has the potential to trigger mass reserves of anti-imperialist sentiment across Latin America.
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While I was on the tube home, I saw on my phone a video of Renee Good, an innocent legal observer, being shot by ICE only a few streets away from where George Floyd was murdered in broad daylight.
If the video wasn’t jarring enough, it was followed up with JD Vance, and all the worst elements of the right wing on social media mocking, justifying, and defending it. But the backlash and protests were immediate.
At the same time, mass protests were under way in Iran. And at the same time again, the hunger strikers for Palestine Action in prison reached a critical stage where death is imminent.
It felt difficult to keep up with all that was going on. But on this same day, I saw that we had someone new join the Party who shared this message which resonated with me:
“I have been feeling overwhelmed with the current state of the world. The future seems very bleak and all I can see in the news is death. I want to learn and organise for a better future.”
It’s very grounding to receive these messages. Whether you’ve been a communist for thirteen days or thirteen years, the events unfolding are overwhelming. But the only way through it is to understand, and then act. If people are reaching out to the RCP to do that, then we are doing our job!
Day 13
It’s day thirteen of the new year. I hope you’ve had a chance to catch your breath. In this first fortnight of 2026, the world has been reminded: imperialism is not history – it is now.
That is not going to stop us though. I saw a quote from Leon Trotsky and I thought I would share it with you. If you agree, you are a comrade of mine. See you in the streets.
“It is necessary to destroy imperialism in order to give mankind an opportunity to live.”
