[Edited Message Follows] On Tue, Oct 29, 2024 at 07:52 PM, Chris Slee wrote:
> > I do not share Fred's assumption that the election results were falsified. > The proportion voting for Maduro according to the CNE is similar to that > reported by opinion polling company Hinterlaces (55.6 percent in an > opinion survey in June, compared to 52 percent reported by the CNE in the > election on July 28): > > https://x.com/Hinterlaces/status/1801723046144917694 > > > The large size of pro-Maduro rallies also tends to support the view that > Maduro won the election: > > https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/venezuela-candidates-hold-final-campaign-rallies-ahead-of-presidential-vote/ > > > This pro-govt polling company also gave Gonzalez 22% compared to the 43% he purportedly got according to the CNE, so it hardly had its finger on the pulse of the Venezuelan people. And I could say the millions that have left Venezuela in the last few years tend to support the view that Maduro lost the elections. But elections arent won with rallies or migration figures. They are won with votes. And generally if one side wants to hide the votes, it is assumed they are doing so because they lost - in fact i know of no case in history where the winning side has refused to publish the votes that prove their victory. That is why it is incumbent on them to publish the results, otherwise the only fair assumption is fraud. > > > > For those in the United States and its allies such as Australia, our main > focus should be on opposition the blockade. This includes pointing out > that the blockade was intended to blackmail the Venezuelan people into > voting for the opposition. They were threatened that if Maduro won the > blockade would continue, and promised that if the opposition won the > blockade would end. > > The only way the left has any chance of building a campaign to end the blockade is by standing for democracy and with the Venezuelan people. No one is going to take a campaign serious if it claims that Maduro won an election in which he refuses to publish the results based on a single poll or photos of some rallies. That is why it must demand the results be published. In fact this is even more the case if you believe Maduro won. Clearly, if that is what happened, then there would be no better boost to the campaign to end the sanctions that the publication of the results to debunk the opposition's and US claims of fraud. Maduro's failure to do so only strengthens imperialism's propaganda campaign. So to does an ambivalent stance that says the results are not a "priority", which indicates at least some uncertaintly as to whether Maduro won. The reality is that the best way to build a campaign against the blockade requires pointing out both how the US government has sought to undemocratically used them to seek to blackmail the Venezuelan people and how the Maduro government has also sought to undemocratically used them as an excuse with which to blackmail the Venezuelan people. While continuing to call for the sanctions to be lifted — regardless of what happens in Venezuela — we have to express our concrete support for the remaining democratic rights of Venezuelan workers and the left, which the Maduro government is seeking to strip away. That is the only way that the left can strengthen the actual forces required to defeat imperialism — in Venezuela and at home. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#33230): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/33230 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/109123065/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
