SOME THINGS DON'T CHANGE

Golriz Ghahraman: Nothing to say on Venezuela.

While Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is calling for a different kind of politics, the politics of Ghahraman and the Green Party remain the same as far as Venezuela is concerned.

ALTHOUGH GREEN  MP Golriz Ghahraman has called for her fellow parliamentary politicians to do things differently some things apparently won't change - like Ghahraman's continued failure to denounce U.S attempts to topple the democratically elected Venezuelan presidency of Nicholas Maduro.

The Green Party spokesperson on foreign affairs has highlighted the sixteenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. She has even retweeted the comment of U.S. congressman Bernie Sanders that the United States needs 'a foreign policy that focuses on diplomacy not war'.

However Ghahraman has failed to make the obvious links between the US invasion of Iraq and the very real threat of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela - unlike Jill Stein, the U.S. Green Party's presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016. She has tweeted:

"Think a disaster like the Iraq War could never happen again? Wrong. We're on the warpath RIGHT NOW in #Venezuela with many of THE SAME PEOPLE who lied us into Iraq (John Bolton, Elliott Abrams) bombarding us with MORE LIES to pave the way for ANOTHER US-led regime change for OIL.'

While the U.S.-led campaign against the democratically elected presidency of Nicholas Maduro continues and with U.S sanctions causing further distress for the Venezuelan people, Ghahraman and the Green Party continue to say nothing.

Nicholas Maduro addressing a rally in Caracas.

A important motivation for U.S. imperialism to force regime change in Venezuela is to put an end to the anti-imperialist role Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution has played in Latin America. Since the ascendance of President Hugo Chávez to power in 1999, the Bolivarian government of Venezuela has played a critical role in promoting self-determination, democracy and mass-empowerment in Latin America.

But its an indication of how far right the Green Party has travelled that even this has failed to move Ghahraman and the Green Party to action. They seemingly remain intent on following the lead of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Labour-led government which has declined to recognise either the democratically elected presidency of Nicholas Maduro or the self-proclaimed presidency of the U.S. backed Juan Guaido, although Ardern has said " it is absolutely clear that people are suffering under the current regime." Which only underlines Ardern's lack of appreciation for the real social gains that the Venezuelan people have made since the Bolivarian Revolution.

So while Golriz Ghahraman loftily  calls for a different kind of politics, it seems that some things aren't about to change - like the Green's docile subservience to the policy demands of the Labour-led government.