Readers of Marxist.com will be aware of the fact that a few weeks ago President Chavez of Venezuela dedicated 20 minutes of his “Alo Presidente” TV programme to our web site and ourHands off Venezuela campaign. Last Sunday evening we were once again on this programme, but this time there were five comrades of the international Marxist tendency on the show. This shows the growing role of the Marxist tendency in the process of the Venezuelan revolution and the international solidarity movement Hands off Venezuela.

An appeal of the Hands Off Venezuela Campaign against the increasing interference of US imperialism in Venezuela in the run up to the decision of the National Electoral Council on the signatrues collected by the opposition to call a presidential recall referendum. Please circulate and sign this statement.

This article was first published in the British daily, the Morning Star (March 26, 2004) in its Features section: True Labour - The voice of the majority, under the title Hands off Venezuela. We are publishing it to make it available to a wider international readership. It is important to highlight that the article is written by John McDonnell, chairman of the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs. (March 30, 2004)

On Tuesday, March 23, supporters of the Hands off Venezuela (HOV) campaign visited Venezuelan embassies around the world. They expressed their solidarity with the Bolivarian revolutionary process and also their concern at US imperialism’s interference in Venezuelan internal affairs. They condemned US manoeuvres to back the right-wing “opposition” in its attempts to remove the democratically elected President and government of the country.