Labor organizations oppose U.S. war against Venezuela

Below are three statements that take a position calling for an end to U.S. military aggression against Venezuela. The first, issued Dec. 18, 2025, is from the United Electrical Workers union (UE). The second, issued Dec. 8, 2025, is from the San Francisco Labor Council (SFLC). The third, issued Dec. 4, 2025, is from the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) which represents faculty and staff at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the CUNY Research Foundation.

No more blood for oil: UE condemns military attacks on Venezuela

Statement of the UE officers

Pittsburgh

Our government’s escalating attacks on Venezuela are unconstitutional, immoral, and a massive waste of resources. The idea that Venezuela represents a military threat to the U.S. is patently absurd; the use of the U.S. military to carry out lethal attacks on fishing boats and seize oil tankers amounts to simple murder and piracy. We demand that our government immediately cease these attacks and that Congress exercise its power to reign in this overreach by the executive branch.

In the resolution “For Jobs, Peace and a Pro-Worker Foreign Policy,” delegates to our most recent convention declared; “Foreign and military policies should defend the interests of working people, not the wealthy. UE has long believed that the labor movement should promote its own foreign policy based on diplomacy and labor solidarity.” 

This commitment to diplomatic rather than military solutions led delegates to demand that the U.S. government “cease using U.S. military and intelligence agencies in interventions against nations which pose no threat to the American people” and, specifically, that the U.S. “cease all harassment of and economic sanctions on Venezuela.”

The administration has been attempting to justify its attacks with claims that the vessels it is attacking are smuggling drugs into the U.S. and that this is being funded by the Venezuelan government –  claims for which it has not produced a shred of evidence. Even if these claims are true, the appropriate action would be to interdict the vessels, seize the drugs and pursue criminal charges against the smugglers, not to carry out extrajudicial killings. Even if our country were in a legitimate armed conflict with Venezuela, the intentional killing of survivors, such as happened during a second strike on Sept. 2, would still constitute a war crime.

We agree with Congressperson Joaquin Castro (D-TX) that the blockade of Venezuela ordered by President Trump this week is “unquestionably an act of war. A war that the Congress never authorized and the American people do not want.”

As recent comments by White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles make clear, these attacks are not about drugs, but are instead an attempt to bring about regime change and gain control over Venezuela’s oil. Although President Trump campaigned, in part, on keeping the U.S. from getting entangled in the internal politics of other countries, the course his administration is pursuing risks getting our military bogged down in a military conflict that few Americans want.

The administration’s actions are putting our service members in harm’s way and making demands on them to carry out illegal orders. Several senior military leaders have resigned in protest, and Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), who served as a Navy fighter pilot, has spoken out, reminding service members that they have the right to refuse illegal orders. In a disturbing use of the military to pursue a partisan political agenda, the Pentagon has opened and escalated an investigation of Senator Kelly.

Unfortunately, the use of extrajudicial killings as a tool of U.S. foreign policy is a bipartisan affair. During his eight years in office, President Obama ordered over 500 drone strikes, killing almost 4,000 people, including over 300 civilians, normalizing the use of military power to engage in targeted killings in foreign countries. Congress must reassert its authority over the power to make war, not as a partisan measure, but because no president of either party can be trusted with this power.

As working people in the U.S. face an increasing affordability crisis, our government’s resources should be directed to meeting the needs of working people, not wasted on illegitimate and immoral military adventures. We demand that Congress pass H.Con.Res.64, a bipartisan bill which would invoke the War Powers Resolution to put a stop to this unconstitutional military aggression. War with Venezuela would be a disaster for the working people of both countries, and we as a labor movement must do our part to prevent it.

Scott Slawson
President

Andrew Dinkelaker
Secretary-Treasurer

Kimberly Lawson
Director of Organization

Resolution declaring the San Francisco Labor Council a “Peace Labor Council” 

Whereas, we are facing the prospect of more chaos in the world, including threatened U.S. military action against Venezuela and its people,

Therefore Be It Resolved the San Francisco Labor Council declares itself a “Peace Labor Council.”

Adopted unanimously by the San Francisco Labor Council on Dec.8, 2025.

Oppose military aggression against Venezuela

Whereas, U.S. political and military aggression toward Venezuela and the wider Caribbean is escalating — including the deployment of more than 10,000 U.S. military personnel, ongoing naval operations, and actions that have resulted in the killing of over 80 people on boats off the Venezuelan coast — based on unproven claims of drug smuggling from the U.S. mainland and creating conditions many observers describe as a march toward a new war in the Americas;

Whereas, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has formally condemned the military strikes conducted by the U.S. administration against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, and has called for a full and independent investigation into these acts which represent a clear violation of international human rights law and the principles of the United Nations Charter;

Whereas, the demonization of Venezuela and other Latin American countries in mainstream U.S. media inflames xenophobic and racist narratives long used to justify intervention in the hemisphere, and such narratives directly impact CUNY’s students and workers, many of whom are immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean;

Whereas, since the 19th century the Monroe Doctrine has served as a justification for repeated U.S. political, military and economic interventions across Latin America and the Caribbean, undermining governments, social movements and trade unions committed to working-class struggles, resulting in repression, military coups, sanctions and widespread killings of civilians, workers and their organizations;

Whereas, U.S. militarization in the Caribbean — carried out even as federal aid is slashed, benefits are cut, Affordable Care Act premiums are set to rise and public resources are clawed back from New York City — diverts desperately needed funds from education, health care, housing, infrastructure and other social needs at a time when CUNY remains chronically underfunded;

Whereas, Venezuelan workers, students and communities — like workers everywhere — deserve peace and the right to determine their own political, economic and social future free from foreign intervention;

Whereas, the PSC, in solidarity with international workers harmed by U.S. wars and military occupations, has consistently declared its resolute support for antiwar campaigns, has successfully organized events like the 2019 “Should an Antiwar Union Oppose Sanctions?” and has brought antiwar resolutions forward for adoption by [New York State United Teachers] and the [American Federation of Teachers] in the past;

Be it resolved that the PSC opposes any U.S. military intervention, coercive action or aggression against Venezuela and any regional expansion of the conflict.

Be it further resolved that the PSC will bring this resolution forward for consideration by our state affiliate NYSUT and our national affiliate the AFT in order to help build a broad labor movement that opposes U.S. intervention in Venezuela and supports sovereignty, peace and international law in the Americas.

Resolution submitted by the PSC International Committee, Dec. 4, 2025.