Pedro Rosas | Popular Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Unity (UPRA, Venezuela)
In the struggle waged by peoples against various forms of exploitation and oppression, the struggle against imperialism and fascism stands today at the forefront. External military aggression and the fascist threat currently represent the MAIN DANGER for Venezuela—especially for workers, peasants, and community members—as the enemies of the people, in their desperation over the crisis and great debacle they are experiencing, resort to the manipulation of information, open violence, terrorism, and genocide, regardless of norms or values, ushering in a new era of obscurantism for all humanity.
Just as we face this main danger at our country’s doorstep—with threatening ships in the Caribbean Sea and bases in neighboring territories, and with fascist enemies acting with terrorist and paramilitary plans within our borders—we also have a people who resist and fight against imperialist aggression, who are preparing in all areas for the defense of national sovereignty.
But this situation does not exist only in Venezuela; on a global level, imperialism is a threat to all peoples, which is why we can describe it as the COMMON ENEMY of the proletariat and of all humanity, of the workers of both imperialist and dependent countries. Therefore, preparing ourselves to face and defeat such a cruel enemy is a task of the utmost importance, particularly in Venezuela, a country under siege by the imperialist bloc of the United States and the European Union. That is why we, the people and our institutions, are working to consolidate militant internationalism in all fields of struggle and to coordinate various initiatives to promote GLOBAL ANTI-FASCIST AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST COORDINATION, beyond ideological differences. This is why we are present—solidary and committed—to this event and to every other where we can contribute to the idea of international popular unity.
Anti-Imperialism and Anti-Fascism
Anti-imperialism and anti-fascism are two concepts that express the response of peoples—especially studied and applied by revolutionaries—to two phenomena characteristic of capitalism in its highest phase. They directly confront imperialism and fascism, not only denouncing these negative expressions of bourgeois oppression but also representing an analysis of their origin, development, and organizational forms, while promoting a class policy specifically aimed at defeating these phenomena of the 20th and 21st centuries.
To delve into the fundamental elements of anti-imperialism and anti-fascism, we must make as objective an assessment as possible of what imperialism and fascism are—the former as a development of capitalism in its highest phase, controlled by large monopolies, and the latter as a product of imperialism, which, in times of serious crisis, resorts to direct violence to maintain itself, while during times of prosperity, imperialism resorts to social-democratic demagogy. Therefore, we must conclude that fascism is a product of imperialism in crisis; it is the most reactionary and violent dictatorship of capital.
It is important to understand that capitalism, like other modes of production known throughout human history, has undergone and continues to undergo changes throughout its existence. These changes are determined by intrinsic material relations that evolve from their emergence to their consolidation and decline, reaching a process of decomposition that heralds their replacement by another mode of production. And although the ruling classes strive to prevent their disappearance, their crises and the revolutionary actions of the oppressed classes accelerate their demise and the birth of new social relations at both national and international levels. This does not occur in hours or days; it is a historical process that we have been experiencing for decades—though we may not always realize it—and which will surely continue for decades to come, marking structural changes in the dominant mode of production, which is taking on water, and through many of its cracks, new forms of labor organization and distribution of products are penetrating, generating major confrontations at the global level.
The Development of Capitalism and Its Contradictions
To address these changes in contemporary capitalism, we can summarize them as the transition from pre-monopoly or free-competition capitalism to monopoly capitalism or imperialism, which was already clearly evident at the beginning of the 20th century. Lenin, with his extraordinary ability to apply the dialectical materialist method, recognized this phenomenon, studied it, analyzed it, and reviewed the work of other economists, who saw only the form but not the content of what was happening. He identified the central elements of the new phase of capitalism and characterized it as IMPERIALISM. As both a practical revolutionary leader and a theorist, he defined the appropriate strategy and tactics to confront and destroy capitalism—wresting a large territory from it after the October Revolution of 1917—which began its weakening and indicated a path for building socialism, thus initiating the first stage of the general crisis of capitalism.
From that time onward, the understanding of capitalism’s development and decomposition became clearer, aided and disseminated by various works, especially Lenin’s Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, which clearly explains the fundamental features and control mechanisms of this form of capitalism.
IMPERIALISM, understood from the scientific perspective of Marxism-Leninism, is a category of analysis superior to that of EMPIRE, as it is located at a specific stage in the development of the capitalist mode of production and addresses elements such as the emergence of the financial oligarchy, the fusion of banking and industrial capital, the rise of monopolies, the struggle between powers for world division, and global imperialist competition for markets. Under these premises, it is possible to define two groups of countries—imperialist and dependent—as well as the fundamental contradictions existing in the imperialist phase of capitalism.
Imperialist countries acquire this status as a result of the development of their productive forces, the maintenance of proletarian exploitation by their bourgeoisie, the expansion of subjugation over dependent countries to a nearly global level, and confrontation with other imperialist powers. This leads to three fundamental contradictions characteristic of the higher phase of capitalism: the inter-imperialist contradiction, the contradiction between imperialist and dependent countries, and the capital-labor contradiction.
The development of these contradictions leads to periods of crisis, depression, recovery, and boom in capitalism, which in its current phase have become global phenomena, not merely national ones. These affect the capitalist-imperialist system everywhere, although, due to uneven development, the effects differ between countries and production areas—some are able to strengthen themselves by exploiting the crisis, while others are weakened.
During periods of economic boom, better living conditions allow workers and the general population to enjoy relative stability and well-being, reducing social conflict and generating a democratic illusion that attempts to hide the mechanisms of exploitation. Social democracy exploits this illusion to subdue revolutionary forces through deception, handouts, and selective, low-intensity repression.
When the economic crisis returns and spreads globally, peaceful methods lose effectiveness, the bourgeois democratic illusion crumbles, and the bourgeoisie resorts to the elimination of rights. The proletariat feels deceived and dispossessed, suffering hardships that lead to mobilization, generating confrontations that gradually escalate in ideological, organizational, and practical terms. This causes the leadership of large monopolies to resort to violating their own laws, to repression, and to FASCISM—the extreme dictatorship of finance capital—in an attempt to curb the struggles. Before reaching the full expression of fascism, which manifests as new laws and regulations implementing direct repression and blatant dispossession, the bourgeoisie progressively creates the conditions to legitimize the violent dictatorship of financial capital, trying to justify it by labeling opposing forces as terrorists. This is the process of FASCISTIZATION that the world is experiencing today—visible everywhere, but initially and most blatantly in Palestine, by the fascist-Zionist state of Israel, and in the United States itself, with its violation of its own democracy to impose the dictatorship of the fascist right under Trump’s leadership.
The process of fascistization is a conjunctural moment that capitalism is acquiring and expanding worldwide, to which anti-imperialism and anti-fascism are the urgent and necessary responses to stop and defeat such a macabre bourgeois monstrosity.
Venezuela and the Call for Global Coordination
The people of Venezuela, who are resisting and fighting against imperialist aggression, have been affected by these phenomena for years and are involved as a territory in dispute in the struggle for a new division of the world among powers. They also face the struggle for national and social liberation, as well as the contradictions between capital and labor.
The imperialist bloc led by the United States is becoming more aggressive as it perceives the decomposition of its model of exploitation and tries to halt it—resorting to unilateral actions in the economic, political, social, and military spheres, both within and beyond its borders. The response of its opponents is also escalating, reaching regional wars that may surely grow into a third world war, as the only alternative for the imperialists to try to resolve their contradictions.
Faced with this reality of confrontation and imperialist wars, the popular movement has before it the possibility of revolutions. Crises are times of wars and revolutions that we must take advantage of to truly transform society, control the power of monopolies, and confront the violent capabilities of states. The most consistent fighters—the advanced classes, leaders and intellectuals, revolutionary activists—have before them a great opportunity to capitalize on the weariness caused by oppression and the desire for change among the exploited and oppressed majorities, to expose bourgeois demagogy by presenting a genuine program of transformation toward popular democracy as an immediate step toward overcoming bourgeois democracy.
In countries under attack and threat, Popular Revolutionary Unity represents the alternative for the accumulation of forces toward structural change and true national and social liberation. While bourgeois sectors limit themselves to national defense and unity under native bourgeois leadership—without transforming relations of production or property forms—the revolutionary sectors propose popular unity that addresses both national liberation (from imperialist subjugation) and social liberation (from the oppression of the parasitic bourgeoisie). This proposal assumes the defense of the nation against external aggressors, advancing true sovereignty under the leadership of a united and armed people, controlling the means of production and distribution to satisfy the needs of the majority—not the exploiters—both in war and in peace.
From the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, at a time when imperialist aggression is advancing violently throughout the world—expressed in military scenarios as well as in the diplomacy of arrogance displayed by the United States and Israel at the 80th UN Assembly—we call upon various international revolutionary, anti-fascist, and anti-imperialist initiatives to promote mechanisms for global coordination to create a single front of struggle, enabling us to face the complex challenges of the current moment through the strength of united international action. We have a clearly defined common enemy and a clearly defined main danger. We have important initiatives for organization and struggle emerging from different regions of the world. We have experience and the capacity for mobilization—but this important potential for action remains scattered, draining our energy. Let us build bridges for joint work and move forward together toward victory, closing ranks against imperialism and defeating fascism, as happened in the 20th century. To do this, we must understand our differences and prioritize the requirements for success against the enemies of humanity.
By joining forces, we can take on the role of an organized vanguard which, from different regions and initiatives, through global actions—starting with GLOBAL ANTI-FASCIST AND ANTI-IMPERIALIST COORDINATION—can carry out joint actions, such as a large-scale mobilization of all forces on the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine, 29 November, stepping forward and presenting an option for the most consistent combatants in the struggle to defeat the fascist monster. With initiatives on every continent and presence on agreed dates, with common symbols and coordinated slogans, we will be able to demonstrate the immense strength of the organized proletariat.
The Popular Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Unity (UPRA) from Venezuela is at your service to collaborate in all initiatives in the spirit of global anti-fascist and anti-imperialist coordination, calling on all democratic and revolutionary forces to establish this coordination and to take the first joint global action on 29 November 2025.
With reason and strength, we will prevail!